Lancaster Puppies Website lancasterpuppies.com, LancasterPuppies Website Beware Private Amish Puppy Milles Internet

Wow that is a great review... that we can that Lancaster Puppies wrote about themselves(#9), good job 

So sorry for your experience, it truly takes an emotional toll on unsuspecting buyers who fall in love with these poor mistreated puppies. My daughter and I purchased 2 puppies days before thanksgiving this year,  my report was posted last night. The puppies both had parvo and despite all our efforts with vets and the animal hospital they died within a week. Info the "breeder" gave was false. I'm beginning to believe they are Amish as well. Do you have any contact info for these people? Name, address, phone number, website? If so, please let me know. I could really use the help and hopefully save at least a few people from going through this and help those poor puppies. 

 I just received two Norwegian Elkhounds from Lancaster puppies.

They are loving puppies, well adjusted to people.  Henry was so helpful I just cant say enough.

We had just put down our elkhound and our hearts and our house was so empty.  I would reccommend Lancaster puppies very highly, and also United airlines pet safe program for transporting them.

They arrived here in North Dakota (long flight with transfer)  happy and a great hit with all the airline employees.

Friendly Healthy puppies.

Our home is once again complete.

We bought a female Shiba Inu puppy off www.LancasterPuppies.com a little over a year ago.  She is an awesome dog and we have nothing but good things to say about www.LancasterPuppies.com.  Henry from Mifflintown, Pa. was attentive, our puppy was very well taken care of, very well socialized and super friendly.  Henry had all her vaccination paperwork, dewormer paperwork, and her vet checkup paperwork.  Sasha adapted perfectly to our family and is a dear member of our family.  

I have had issues with this site before, and to have an empolyee on this site call one of their costumers cold and full of harted is out of line. She bought a dog who needed a home alot of love, and money for its surgrey. So I call her a hero. You just out of line and rude, trying to protect yourself, to make yourself look like a better person when infact your helping pass these dogs off as healthly freidnly dogs, which obv some are not. I live in PA and have no problems from the Amish I enjoy buying fresh fruits and veggies from their gardens and etc.

But when it comes to their puppies and the conditions they are kept in is horrible. I see their "family pet" a mother dog whose nipples touch the floor cause they are breed until they are dead. Over summer they live in hot barns, who knows what really goes on with this. If you choose to buy from here becareful and remember your supporting this. And to that empolyee your also supporting this, but that doesn't bother you. Your pockets are full. Next time look at some rescues, the money your spending on a dog from here you can spend less or the same adopeting one thats actually update with shots spayed or nuetered who really needs a home.

Your not neither the costumer or breeder so how can you defend the breeder? You don't know as much as the costumer does. For all you know they could have been neglected and abused. I am not saying they were, but you don't have a clue how they were raised, how much they were played with, how much they were fed or given water. Where they sleept, or if they have to sit in the weather. But you do know who the breeder is, the type of the dogs and how much profit you will be making. I have had nothing but problems dealing with this site. Rude people. I refuse to continue looking on their site for a pup. I'm happy for anyone who has had success with this, and adopted a puppy from this environment, I'm sure you've given them a better life. I just wont support this.

That is very true. It is every buyer's responsibility to thoroughly investigate each breeder before they adopt a puppy from them, but on the same hand, you just said that you carefully screen each dog breeder that you allow to advertise with you. So, every person who is browsing through your site has the promise of this screening which gives them a sense of security.  I know for a fact that you do not carefully screen your breeders. When a company promises to carefully screen every advertiser that works with them, buyers trust that.

Do you ask to see the health reports from the breeder's vets of every puppy that you advertise? Do you ask for references from your breeders? No, you do not. You are an advertising venue and you aren't responsible for every breeder that advertises with you, but you DO have a hand in selling many of  their puppies as you take the photos and advertise them. For that you are responsible! Most puppy advertising sites online do not actually sell the puppies for breeders. They don't visit their homes and see how the puppies are raised etc. You are the exception and you know it. Now, what will you do about it to be sure that your breeders are reputable and selling healthy puppies?

What people are constantly forgetting, we are an advertising company, we do not sell any dogs.  If you would take the time to look on www.LancasterPuppies.com we state on our homepage

"LancasterPuppies.com is an Internet Classified site- we do not raise or sell puppies. Remember that you are buying directly from the breeder/seller and not from LancasterPuppies.com."

Also,  we have a whole page of guidelines for purchasing a puppy.  We specifically state

"We encourage you to contact the people advertising with us and go visit them, so you can find out for yourself how the puppy was raised."

We do our best to screen the breeders that are allowed to breed on our website, but any purchase, be it a car, house, meal at McDonald's, or a puppy, always includes some level of risk.  As I've said before, we do our best to screen the breeders who advertise with us, but we as an advertising company, cannot be responsible for all the puppies on our site, that is YOUR responsibility, as a buyer.

I know this thread is a few months old, but I simply cannot sit still on this one.

I think Macy's situation is very sad indeed and that Lancaster Puppies naturally would do their best to defend their 'honor' in this situation. The truth is the truth though and it's only right that we share that if it can help others in making their own decision.

I think that there are good breeders advertising through them, but I think that they are few and far between. I personally know many of the Amish that advertise through them and this is how it works.  They (Lancater Puppies)  have hired photographers who go out to the Amish and Mennonite homes to take pictures of their puppies for $38 per puppy (litter of 10... pretty good pay for an hour!) and then they (the staff) add the puppies to their website. They write the ads themselves.

Can you imagine writing a detailed ad about a puppy that you only spent a few minutes with? When they arrive at the homes of the Amish, they (Amish/Mennenonite) do indeed go get their puppies out of their barns while the photographer sets up the trunk of his car with props where he takes photos of each puppy. (On occassion they take photos in a flower bed, but if you look over the photos, they are mostly outside pictures.) Amish children do play with the puppies. Matter of fact, recently a five year old played with an 11 ounce puppy and dropped it on it's head and it died within minutes. I have seen the puppies be mishandled and horribly taunted by these Amish children. (They learn by example.)

In recent months, I contacted Lancaster Puppies about a breeder that I knew was selling sick puppies on their website. They informed me that it would be looked into. I know the Amish breeder and know that they did not contact them to inquire about the sick puppies. Nothing was done about it and as I type this there are puppies listed with Lancaster Puppies right now, from the same breeder, that have luxating patellas. There is no mention of it in the ads whatsoever. This same breeder recently bred a male to her female that is the female's grandfather and father. They also recently had a puppy die from renal failure with an enlarged heart. The family is devastated! There is a tremendous amount of inline breeding which causes many genetic issues.

I think for Lancaster Puppies to get on here and say that people are acting out of hatred for the Amish is a cop out. I think some of the Amish and most of the Mennonite are lovely people, but they are from a simpler background and unfortunately exhibit alot of ignorance in the world of breeding dogs. However, Lancaster Puppies is not ignorant, they go to these homes, they see the large scale kennels (often hidden now because of the dog laws in PA) and they do their best to make the puppies look 'saleable'. They know first hand what these breeders are doing, but as they've told me 'this is how we make our living'. They enable bad breeding to pay their own bills.

This is a side not, but when Lancaster Puppies first started out, they only allowed puppies on their site that they photographed and added personally. Due to PA dog laws, they had to open their site to the public. They charge $25 per ad online (which is a very high price), but charge the Amish/Mennonite $38 per ad promising to advertise it to many other venues as well. (I would assume some of the higher price is to cover their fuel and for taking the photos).

For my 'report' here, I used one particular Amish family, but I know many from the Dauphin County area that advertise with them with similar situations. These breeders are not just in Lancaster. The photographers travel out of Lancaster county to many homes.

I think if you find a wonderful new puppy through Lancaster Puppies then you are a fortunate puppy buyer, but I think when you do your searching you should use caution. Look up things to look for in a reputable breeder online and print it out as a take along check list. It could save you alot of heartache.

We adopted our cockapoo Bella in may '11 and never regretted it. Today she is 1 on March 11th 2012. She has changed my daughters life in many positive ways, Bella gave her much responsiblity and compassion. She has trained Bella all by herself and she knows 42 tricks! We strongly reccomend people to adopt from this site because of our posotive first time, life changing expirence and we are so greatful to have come across LancasterPuppies.com!

I would like to say that my experience was awesome with LancasterPuppies.com, I have had my puppy for two years now and she is an amazing siberian husky. I have lived near lancaster county amish all my life and they usually are genuinely great people. Just because these dogs were kept in the barn doe not mean that they were not socialized. In the breeder that i bought they had only two litters of puppies both a different breed. Now if you want to consider this a "puppy mill" then i don't know what to tell you. It was very very clean. I was impressed, My pup came with all the shots they should have had when only a few weeks old, I picked her up the day she was ready as i was excited. They had no problem showing me the parents of the puppy i bought and the facilities she was kept in. It was outside however very clean and nice, i also bought in the fall season. As far as seeming skittish when you took her home, it was a new surrounding many animals as well as people have anxiety over a new place. I have looked on the internet and this is normal behavior for a puppy in a new home, as far as separation anxiety, the only thing that puppy has known until you took her away form it was being with her siblings all day and night and the human interaction, these are all basic things that many puppies go thru when getting a new home. Im sorry but none of the things that you have posted seem justified for such a harsh report.

As an employee of Lancaster Puppies I understand you need to keep the integrity of your website in tact by standing behind your breeders. But that does not mean that all of your breeders are doing right by these animals and that blindly defending them is the answer. Puppy mill puppies HAVE been purchased from Lancaster Puppies in the past by customers. It makes a SMART consumer weary. We were avoiding buying dogs from amish or mennonite in this area ONLY because of statistics. NOT because of hatrid. Lancaster County is the mecca of puppy mills on the East Coast.

As far as Macy goes, her vet did let us know that she was VERY behind on her vaccinations, which we are catching up on...vaccinations that her breeder should have gotten done while she was in there care (we took Macy to the vet 4 days after we got her as it was thanksgiving weekend). She is currently scheduled to receive these (she is small so they are not doing them all at once). She also has kennel cough. She will be receiving the surgery for her hernia when she is spay. Good news though is that her joints are fine, which if not, can be a sign of overcrowding, which seems she was not.

I am not trying to bash these people, just let people know of our experience.

When I got to the house I was off put by the cries of the puppies and the fact that they were out in a barn. I was hoping to go to a home that had the puppies indoors with them, with human interaction, you know...a thing called socialization. Socializing puppies with humans (especially when selling them as pets) is a big deal. Macy is EXTREMELY hand shy and has EXTREME seperation anxiety. Something unsocialized puppies have. I own a four year old chihuahua who was socialized well as a baby and did not have these kinds of issues, especially to this extreme. I know chihuahuas well. Many of my family members also have chihuahuas. NONE of them had these kind of socialization issues.

Maybe there children did take care of them and "socialize" them. It just doesnt seem that way with Macy. Excuse me for sounding cross, but I certainly hope the puppy should know ALL of the people taking care of her. Not just the children. I certainly would not want to pay money for a puppy that was under the care of children. I would hope the breeder, the professional, you know...the one getting paid, was also taking care of them.

I'd hate to accuse anyone of animal abuse or neglect when in fact they arent. All I'm saying is that if you are looking for a puppy that is raised in the home WITH the family, then this might not be the best place to look for a puppy. It made us extremely uncomfortable having the dogs outdoors like that. Not because we are "full of hatrid" but because our idea of with a family is living under the same roof.

IF you are to purchase a chihuahua from lancaster puppies, be weary of purchasing from a mother named "Frisky" as once a dog is bred with this kind of hernia they are not supposed to continue breeding.

The person who purchased Macy is not being fair and is very biased. First, she has not so much as emailed LancasterPuppies.com about her experience.  Second, she assumes that Amish or Mennonite = animal abuser.  She also assumes that because barn does not have electric, it has no heat. There are many heat systems, such as wood, coal or propane that do not require electricity.  Also the breeders in question only have 3 females - certainly not a "puppy mill". They are indeed family pets.  Notice she even admits everything was "clean and orderly".

And maybe the puppy did not "know" the man. His children probably took care of her. Also, anyone who has gotten a puppy knows the puppies need to be loved and cared for in their new homes, because they are separated from their litter mates. Of course they crave attention. 

Macey's new owner appears to be illogical and full of hate. There are many happy people who have found their new companions on LancasterPuppies.com. Just check out our testimonial page.