'Puppy Farm'

[Changename11]

Im not sure if anybody can help with this but here goes...

We bought a puppy last year from a local farm (we would have rescued but unfortunately with children being 6 and 8 they were deemed too young for most potential dogs out there, plus we have a cat which also posed a problem when looking into rehoming). There were 2 litters available, 2 left from a younger litter (about 11 weeks) and 1 left from the litter ours was from (17 weeks old). Not unusual for farms so didn't think much of it.

They were all advertised on the same advert, stating their different ages, but pictures showed only one set of parents (1 dad, 1 mum). Didn't think it too odd as they said they were from separate litters.

When we went to pick puppy up we saw dad but not mum, there were no females around, just the puppy and other 2 from younger litter. Owner said the mum was around somewhere but with it being a working farm they could be anywhere, which isn't unlikely I guess with acres of land.

My concern now is that they have advertised at least 4 litters in the space of 12 months using the same 2 dogs in pictures stating they are mum and dad and another advertisment is on there currently. (I will not include link because it is outing and I don't want to be potentially recognized).
Now correct me if I am wrong but this is physically impossible for a female to have 4 litters in the space of a year? Advertising the same 2 dogs as mother and father is false advertising? And Im questioning where the other female dog is in all of this, why not include her photos when advertising the litters?

Is this potentially a 'puppy farm' situation and they are using photos of the same mum and dad to cover up how the real mother looks? If so would it be worth reporting, and to who??

Thanks to anybody who can help and sorry if i have jumped the gun a bit, but it just seems a little suspicious and wanted some advise before going guns blazing.

I’m really glad you’re going to make a stink. Also please spread the word and advertise as much as you can. People just don’t understand that “cheap” puppies on farms are not ethically bred.

puppy farms (or puppy mills as they are known where I live) are despicable and one of my #1 hates.

For anyone reading and looking for a puppy, you should, if at all possible, go to a shelter and save a life. If you need a specific breed, then find a registered ethical breeder through whatever the British equivalent of the AKC (American Kennel Club) is. Anything in between those two is likely someone using and abusing dogs for their own financial gain.

My own sister engages in backyard breeding and it drives me fecking nuts! She doesn’t see the harm, and in the meantime healthy dogs in shelters are euthanized so she can make more mutts (she provides the male, so not making money from the pups). But it’s still wrong.

Stop being a twat. It has happened now. Better to support the op in doing something proactive than be a pious teat. Surely your agenda is to help dogs rather than to appear superior on the internet?

I don’t have an agenda.

I really admire the people who spend their time and energy trying to educate and inform about puppy farms. I’m not one of them. I don’t have the patience required to spend hour after hour trying to persuade people to follow the most basic advice knowing that they’ll just ignore it.

Sorry this has happened to you OP.

However, quite apart from any other warning signs, it's basic knowledge that you never buy a puppy whose mother can't be seen with the pup. Glaring red flag before you get to any of the other stuff.

Please report them.

She's not being a twat - two seconds of Googling would have told OP that this set-up was dodgy.

Yes, it's "done now" but it's incredibly frustrating and upsetting that people are still buying from obvious puppy farms. It's not about appearing superior, it's about basic animal welfare

Quite. Bloody years of high profile publicity around the issue and people still buy from them because they want what they want. The truth is that loads of people don't see a problem with puppy farming / backyard breeding until it goes wrong for them. Puppies are commodities to be bought when you want one - and that is why rescues are full to the brim of unwanted animals. It doesn't matter that the OP's puppy is (so far) fit and healthy, or that it will be well looked after. Every single possible sign of puppy farming was already obvious when the OP went and bought a puppy, and they were all ignored. Putting it right now doesn't change the many puppies that have already been through that mill.

@Neriah @margotrose yes the information is out there but if you didn't know to look in the first place then you wouldn't know what to look for. Like I said, we learn by learning. We are not born with the knowledge. Good grief, I'd hate to hear your views on the millions of people who get caught out in financial scans. You just really attack and throw scorn on them.
People get fooled. They get tricked. They get sucked in. They get deceived. That doesn't make them the baddies.

@brokenhearted2 all you need to do is Google "how to buy a puppy" and will tell you all the red flags you need to look out for. It really is puppy ownership 101.

But who would think to Google that? Unless someone knew there was an issue. I don't Google 'how to buy a ....anything'. How to buy a car? How to buy a boat? How to buy a sack of potatoes? Who does that?

Well, I did.

I'd never owned a dog before and wanted to get it right, so I did hours and hours of research before committing. I did the same when I bought my first car.

I wouldn't do the same with "a sack of potatoes" because it's not remotely comparable to buying a living, breathing creature

Well I don't know - maybe someone who has never bought a puppy before / doesn't know what they are doing, and is, ermm - thinking about buying a living creature??? This is not a handbag. How is buying a puppy without any real aforethought any different from all the idiots who bought a pandemic puppy because they were going to work from home forever, and besides which, they really don't need much walking/ feeding / training do they? I would have thought that the fact that there are plenty of sites that explain what to think about when buying a car, boat etc, along with the reviews, would suggest that actually the answer is "an awful lot of people think about what they are buying before they commit". It may come as a surprise but a puppy is not, in fact, a sack of potatoes.

Buying a dog is not the same as buying a sack of potatoes. (And most people do research the car they are thinking about buying).

Even the most cursory glance at google would alert you to the signs to look out for with puppy farms which suggests either the OP did no research whatsoever I to puppy ownership, including any research into the breed she was purchasing or she did know the signs but chose to ignore them.

Puppy farms are becoming more sophisticated in ways in which they will dupe people into believing they are not puppy farms however based on the glaring red flags in the original post, there were more than enough warning signs with this particular seller.

Seems like a puppy mill situation. Try to worn people about it so no one buys from them.

There's a reason animal rescues won't re home animals with young children 🙄 Shame on you

Yet so many people blindly buy a puppy like they're buying a sack of spuds. Heartbreakingly ignorant and shameful

And the moral of this thread as always is RESCUE
It's not like there's a shortage of animals to adopt 🙄
Most greeders don't give a flying fart where their pups are going