Puppy buyers hoping to get a healthier, homegrown dog by purchasing the animal from a local breeder might not be getting the puppy they want.
But they would have a hard time knowing it. No state or county law requires sellers to reveal where puppies come from. And some sellers take advantage of that.
Two Palm Beach County residents, both of whom sold puppies out of their homes, ranked among the top 10 buyers of out-of-state puppies in an 11-month period analyzed by The Palm Beach Post.
Ken Johnson, who lives in the gated Isola Bella development west of Florida’s Turnpike at Hypoluxo Road, and Kim Hayes, who lives in Smith Farms at the turnpike and Lantana Road, imported more than 200 puppies between them from Missouri and other states. They were not themselves breeders, but that would not have been apparent to customers.
In fact, in at least one case, a buyer said Hayes led her to believe the dog was born and bred in her home. “[Hayes] told me she was breeding them,” said Parkland resident Kellie Freeborn, who complained to the state that she had bought a tick-laden, sick puppy from Hayes in May. Freeborn said Hayes showed her a dog she said was the puppy’s mother and that “the dad was at her friend’s house up the street.”
Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control officials say Hayes is not a breeder.
Hayes denied Freeborn’s allegations in a response to the state. “I have never had a complaint from anyone that has purchased a puppy from me,” she wrote in August. Hayes did not respond to phone calls or a letter from The Post.
Johnson, who says he has left the puppy business, gave up 30 Shih Tzu dogs in 2007 after animal control found them inside cages within a plywood box in his garage. Animal control officials said the box was sealed, allowing no light to reach the animals, a claim Johnson denies.
The dogs all had dirty, matted fur, and many had skin and eye conditions. The food inside the cage was moldy and the grated floor was covered with food and dirt, animal control officials said.
Despite their condition, Johnson said he had planned to sell the dogs.
“Their health was good,” Johnson said. “Their hair gets long. They were knotty. If you looked at them, they needed grooming.”
Just like pet stores, Hayes and Johnson are puppy dealers, animal control officials said. They both have commercial licenses identical to the ones given to pet stores that allow them to bring in puppies. Animal control officers say there are no signs of breeding operations at their homes.
100-plus dogs per truck
Officers say they can’t force puppy purveyors to tell buyers where they get their dogs. But that could change when Palm Beach County commissioners early next year discuss a law that would require the disclosure.
“Puppies cast a spell over us,” said county Animal Care and Control Director Dianne Sauve, who is working on the proposed new law. “We see these little faces. The last thing a consumer is doing is looking at paperwork.”
The Post’s investigation tracked dogs brought to Palm Beach and St. Lucie counties through Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services records filed between June 2009 and April.
Johnson had 81 dogs sent to his 2,890-square-foot home, and Hayes had 122 pint-size purebreds and designer mixes brought to her home.
Johnson said he never sold directly to pet stores. Instead, he relied on newspaper advertisements, former customers and trips to pet superstores, where he would dangle a single puppy to entice potential customers.
The majority of puppies shipped to Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast are trucked in and make multiple stops at stores and dealers, Johnson said. Nearly half come from Missouri.
Johnson compared the puppy pipeline to the “shuttle bus like they have at the airport.” He received several shipments on the shuttles but said he stopped using them because he was concerned about the conditions on board.
“They could have 100-and-something dogs in that vehicle,” Johnson said. “All it takes is one dog to be sick and a lot of the times, if it is a case of parvo, the rest are going to get infected.”
In more recent years, Johnson said, he started driving to Arkansas and other states to pick up dogs directly. Many of those, he said, were purchased for other local dealers in Palm Beach and Broward counties.
State records show that Johnson received the vast majority of the dogs he imported over the 11-month period from Arkansas resident Tim Dollar.
Johnson describes Dollar, who did not return calls or a letter seeking comment, as a “backyard breeder.” He does not have a listed U.S. Department of Agriculture permit to distribute or breed dogs, meaning his premises are not inspected.
Johnson said he stopped selling to individuals about two years ago and quit the pet trade altogether late last year.
“It just became too much of a headache,” he said. “It just doesn’t pay anymore.”
During an inspection this month, animal control found seven Yorkie-Chihuahua mix puppies at Johnson’s home. Johnson said the dogs belonged to a friend.
County records show that Johnson was fetching as much as $600 in 2008 for purebred Shih Tzu puppies – a bargain rate compared with the $1,000-plus price at area pet stores.
That year, animal control fined Johnson $232 for failing to have a commercial pet-dealing permit and a health certificate for a dog he had sold. The citations were issued after one of Johnson’s customers told animal investigators that the Shih Tzu puppy she purchased had died.
At the time, Johnson told animal control investigators he had sold more than 50 puppies in a year, according to the citation.
The Post’s investigation showed that Hayes received 50 of her puppies from Cheryl Moudy, a breeder in Seneca, Mo. Moudy’s USDA inspection reports show several violations, including sharp wires in metal cages, feed bowls contaminated with caked food dust and some stacked cages that had feces leaking down from top to bottom.
Records show that Hayes also received two dogs from Missouri breeder Brandi Cheney, who is singled out by the Missouri Humane Society for criticism. Among Cheney’s listed USDA violations: no bedding in outdoor shelters for 73 dogs, despite temperatures lower than 35 during the day and near zero at night.
An infestation of up to 30 ticks
Like Hayes, Cheney did not return phone calls or a letter seeking comment. Reached by phone, Moudy declined to comment.
Hayes sells her puppies, which include Yorkies and hybrids such as Maltese-poodle mixes, through newspaper ads and over the Internet for as much as $450.
Hayes also has imported dogs under the name Sophisticated Pups, which is not incorporated with the state.
In May, Hayes sold Freeborn a 3-month-old Yorkie, named Lexi, for $395.
Shortly after bringing Lexi home, Freeborn said she discovered a tick on the dog’s skin. Then another. And another.
Freeborn’s vet, VCA Hillsboro Animal Hospital, said in a letter that the dog had a “severe” tick infestation, adding that 20 to 30 ticks were removed from her ears, toes and around her body.
Lexi later was diagnosed with kennel cough, anemia and an underbite, which may require medical intervention, Freeborn said. Freeborn said she spent more than $1,000 to rid Lexi and her home of the ticks and to treat her other ailments.
“It doesn’t make sense to have a lemon law [to protect puppy buyers] if you can’t do anything about it,” Freeborn said. “I have sacrificed thousands of dollars that I didn’t have for this dog.”
Hayes told the state the dog had received a clean health certificate and was playful and tick-free at the time of the sale.
State law excludes ticks as a reason a puppy would be “unfit for sale.”
Despite the exclusion, Hayes told state investigators that she tried to pay Freeborn $58.49 for Lexi’s initial vet visit.
“I am not the irresponsible, mean person that Ms. Freeborn makes me out to be,” Hayes wrote. “I am, however, concerned for this puppy and the environment it is being raised in.”
Tips for buying a healthy puppy:
Consider adoption. Animal shelters have dozens of dogs, many of them purebreds, waiting for new homes.
Find a responsible breeder; visit the premises. Never buy a puppy without seeing where it has been housed with its parents.
Don’t be swayed by a website or advertisement. Just because an ad promises ‘home-raised’ doesn’t mean it’s true.
You can’t ‘rescue’ a puppy from a pet store. Buying a puppy to ‘save’ it from its enclosure only opens up space for the next puppy.
Source: Humane Society of the United States
What to know about the puppy lemon law:
Stores are allowed to ask buyers to waive the right to return puppies for congenital or hereditary disorders.
If a waiver is signed, the buyer has 48 business hours to have a veterinarian examine the puppy.
If a vet finds the dog unfit, the buyer has the right to return it for a full refund or to exchange it for a pet of equal value.
Source: Florida Statutes
What a proposed county law would do:
Require pet stores to disclose on placards attached to cages where puppies were born.
Force home sellers to list the dogs’ origins.
Stop pet stores from getting customers to waive their rights under Florida’s puppy lemon law.
Source: Palm Beach County
