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It is not easy nowadays to buy a healthy, happy puppy that did not come from a mass-breeding facilty known as a puppymill. Those who are in the dogtrading business use a variety of tricks to fool the buyer into thinking she/ he is dealing with a responsible, ethical breeder. Here are a few tips to avoid the pittfalls.

• Pedigrees

  Dogs with pedigrees are more expensive than dogs without pedigrees. The reason why dogs with reliable pedigrees are expensive is that the ethical breeders of these dogs spend a considerable amount of time and money on pedigree research, health and temperament testing of the parents, registration fees for a reliable registration and veterinary care for both the dam and the puppies. Puppies from parents that have won championships in conformation shows may cost a lot more than puppies from parents without such titles.

  Unethical breeders and brokers take advantage of this and of the fact that the average puppybuyer in the USA has very little knowledge of FCI-pedigrees. They advertise “championship bloodlines”, usually from some East-European country (e.g. Czech Republic, Hungaria, Poland, Russia). To me, a West-European, this sounds fishy to begin with. In West-Europe great efforts have been made in the last five years to stop the mass-breeding of dogs. Laws have been made by the governments of these West-European countries that make life very difficult (albeit not impossible) for commercial breeders. The kennelclubs of these countries have strict registration procedures that prevent fraud to a great extent. All this has been done not only to protect the dogs but also the puppybuyer. But in East Europe the situation is very different.

  Illegal trafficking of puppies from East-European countries has been going on for years, not just to the United States, but also to West-European countries such as Belgium and France. Pups are transported by the hundreds in filthy conditions from the Czech Republic, Slovania, Hungaria and Russia. Many of them are too young to be legally tranported, many are very ill, many die during transport. The French Animal Rights organisation Öne Voice has documented proof that puppies are brought to Belgium and are then given (false) registrationpapers and tatoo's. Because these puppies are now registered in the European Union, they can be legally tranported to any country in the world. For those who read French more detailed information about what is being done to dismantle illegal trade rings please visit OneVoice (link Animeux familiers at the bottom of the page)

  Advice: if a breeder advertises puppies from championship bloodlines insist on seeing the pedigrees from the parents before you buy the puppy. Be very wary of (East) European pedigrees and if in any doubt, check with the kennelclub where the parents were registered. All you need is the registration number on the parents' pedigrees, the official name of the parents and the name of the breeder. You can find the addresses of the various European kennelclubs on the website of the FCI

  Puppies born in the USA can NOT have a FCI-pedigree!

• Commercial breeders are not going to tell you that they have a barn packed with emaciated bitches and dangerously ill puppies or that they buy “batches” of puppies from such places. They'll tell you what you want to hear: that the puppies live in the home and that they adhere to a Code of Ethics. There is only one way to find out if this is true and that is to visit the breeder and ask if you can see the parent(s) of the puppies. If the breeder claims to adhere to a Code of Ethics of some breedclub, don't take their word for it but check with the breedclub. See the website of the US Humane Societyfor more tips.

• Rescue organisations

  Puppybuyers should also be aware that commercial breeders and brokers sometimes pose as “rescue organisations”. Or advertise a “rescue” while in fact it is an older dog they want to get rid of. It is always a good thing to adopt from a true, genuine rescue organisation, but how can you tell if you are dealing with a real rescue organisation or another commercial breeders' trick? True rescue organisations screen the potential adoptive families carefully and require the dog to be spayed/neutered. If a rescue organisation does not ask you questions, you may be dealing with a commercial breeder.

• Much more difficult to detect are those rescue organisations that are too shortsighted to see that what they are doing is not rescue, but in fact boosting commercial trade. Let me give an example. Recently a rescue organisation in the USA bought three dogs at an auction. The cashier of this auction has been a wholesale broker for many years and has in the past bought dogs from “Zwinger von Ammereuth”, a large German puppymill, that was described in the German “Stern” magazine as a “puppy-supermarket”. Ammereuth was closed down in 2001 after many complaints.

  The reasoning this USA rescue organisation has used to justify buying dogs at an auction from a known broker was that they would save the dogs a life in a puppymill where they would be turned into puppy-producing machines. Sounds good and noble, doesn't it? But the reality is that they caused many more dogs to suffer as the example below explains.

  The broker bought (say) 2 dogs for (say) $1200 including shipping somewhere in East Europe and auctions the dogs in the USA. Along comes the rescue organisation and buys the two dogs for (say) $3600, take home the dogs and have them spayed/neutered. No more puppies from these dogs. BUT the broker made a profit of $2400 and can now buy 4 dogs in East Europe. These dogs could go into mass breeding facilities, producing now many more puppies than the two dogs that where rescued. Plus the broker has made even more profit and can get more dogs. And so the suffering continues......

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