Precious Puppies Sell sick puppies Plantation Florida

I shall Introduce myself. I am Ginger (((REDACTED NAME))), in Davie, Florida. I will start off. Again I am very sorry for what happened to you and your puppy. It is horrid that the joy of adding a puppy to your family has turned into a horrendous nightmare,adding further stress from huge vet bills. I pray your puppy fared well.

The main problem in the puppy industry is zero communication impacted by absolutely no educational research..

There is no education on how to safely present puppies to the public..

The humane society of the united states does spend millions of dollars and hours to educate the public on reasons why they should not buy a puppy from a pet store.. Their web site www.stoppuppymills.com tries to define puppy mills. yet the kennels they label are under strict rules set by the united states humane society themselves, through AWA.

In the 1950's when the USDA helped starving farmers find new ways to keep their farms. breeding dogs was introduced, due to the rising demand of pure bred puppies. These farmers with limited knowledge, and funds kept dogs in deplorable conditions.

The United states Humane society rightfully stepped in. Through heavy donations, lobbying, and public awareness. They helped form the Animal welfare act which defines to the USDA how these breeding dogs should be housed,fed,watered, veted, and records to be kept.

USDA kennels today are so critically scrutinized. I personally find them the safest place to buy a puppy.

So why did your puppy get sick, or the thousands of others sold through puppy stores across the United States.

Well that is where the problem arises. The Humane society has done such a good job attacking the breeders they completely ignore the middle men.

The Public wants tiny young cute puppies. Value on an older puppy is considered drastically reduced. Many stores will even encourage this thought process by drastically reducing the price of an older pup.

Even though for most families an older pup is a better choice. a busy family taking on an 8 week old pup has a few months of misery before the pup is mentally capable to understand the rules. this can cause severe personality clashes especially with the more hyper breeds.

This said.
So the Stores to supply the public with what it wants has to turn puppies fast, which in many cases is detrimental to their health.

Most stores get Puppies from Brokers, Brokers buy from USDA breeders, but also by from hobby breeders which may not be licence through their state.
A broker is an easy way to obtain different breeds of puppies. Contacting individual breeders can be a hassle, I do this myself.

The Brokers are not monsters. They must fill the orders the stores require for their customers. When I did deal with brokers I can say they are very nice people, I do not think they are in the business of selling sick and diseased puppies. That said, problems arise because of the urgency of age, and even size.

Brokers keep pups for only a few days. mixing hundreds of pups from many different sources. colds and cross contamination can arise. They are then flown or put on trucks which are inspected.

14 days is the basic period for all viral illness to show.

When I did deal with brokers I discovered the safest way to ensure the public receive a healthy puppy was to keep the puppy for 2 weeks, if it was a small puppy otherwise labeled teacup. I keep them until over 12 weeks of age.

average age for a broker to send a puppy is a few days over 8 weeks to 12 weeks old.

If the stores were to do it the right way how I do it. The pups would not be ready for the new owner until they are between 10 and 14 weeks old.

Ok I can tell you by experience trying to sell pups that old, for any kind of profit is extremely hard, to impossible, depending on the breed. because in a few short weeks a 14 week old pup is 4 months old, by then a coated pup blows its coat and becomes ugly for a while.

If the store keeps them on grates, or in small cages the stress alone can cause permanent mental and physical damage, which can later be deemed congenital, bouncing back to the breeder. If the pup was on a long regiment of antibiotics this can cause bone deformities, internal organ damage. Again later deemed congenital defect from a rancid puppy mill breeder.

The Stores depend on Veterinarians. Veterinarians are pressured to get these pups out the door as fast as possible. So what do they do? Antibiotics

The problem here is putting pups on antibiotics for upper respitories, which in many cases might only be a reaction to the nasal bortitella vaccine. The antibiotics given on a diseases that can be self eliminating lowers the pups natural immune system. also effecting it natural gut flora. In a facility that does this on a regular basis. Germs mutate and antibiotic resistant strains arise attacking every healthy puppy in its wake.

When the consumer goes to this puppy store and goes from pup to pup petting all the cute fluffy puppies, they unknowingly infect more.

Even worse if they are on a puppy store petting mission. Going from store to store. holding their favorite diseased puppy up against their clothing they can effect more.
Puppies that have been on antibiotics and did not have enough time to recover from their compromised immune system have a high chance of catching this new strain.

Is the puppy store owner a monster?

I will let the reader answer that question because the scenarios can go on to infinity.

This is the problem with pet stores in America. The culprit is rarely the USDA breeder. The diseases that arise usually come from the hobby breeders, who are not skilled in proper vaccinations and worming's, and kennel management. Their pups getting mixed with the rest.

Supply and demand does not allow proper processing of the puppies, and the veterinarians do not do the proper studies to end this problem. Pet Store owners are not educated.
Most are just regular people thinking selling puppies would be fun. Once the business gets big. Without proper knowledge a fun thing can turn into a complete nightmare, that can involve the puppies, the consumers, the staff, and always back to the poor USDA breeder. If the stores buy from local unlicensed breeders a new can of worms can be open.

I personally have been approached by some disgusting people trying to sell me obvious sick, and deformed dogs, and pups. A pet store owner without experience in diseases, and conformation. Will unknowingly pass on a bad pup to the consumer.

When you buy from a pet store you are buying their experience in picking the proper happy healthy puppy for you and your family. That is what you pay for.

My personal experience in crossing the threshold of just groomer, to groomer puppy store owner was a wild roller coaster ride, and a huge leap of faith. I have nearly 30 years experience dealing with dogs, yet it did not prepare me at all for what I encountered.

I refuse to except defeat especially when a puppy and the new family is involved. I went from a large broker , to local breeders, to small brokers, to USDA breeders.

all but the last gave me a full education in kennel cough. But I can proudly say I never passed on disease one to any customer under Superstar Puppies.


Determined to find a way to never pass on a sick pup to any buyer. I formed the 2 week rule.

So I searched for a better way. I called Brown university. the non profit research department that deals with small animal studies.

A Vet called me back. I stated I wanted to find a better way then my 2 week of holding back puppies to ensure puppies do not go to their new owners with Kennel cough, or any other problems..

The Answer was so shocking it turned my stomach. The vet told me.. That I should not worry about kennel cough that it was a common cold . He said I should not hold puppies nor treat them. I should just send them out as soon as I get them, and that the new owner can worry about illness and let their new vet deal with it. He also stated
keeping puppies for 2 weeks was not a good idea. I asked about cocidia he said again let the new owner deal with it. I was floored.

I also know kennel cough is the least of the problem. other illnesses are there too and can slip through. all show from 3 to 12 days.

I said is there a study? what about theraflu? he again said his recommendation was just to inform the client kennel cough is a normal process with puppy store pups..

Now I knew where the stores got their BS lines. I started to feel sorry for them.

Most consumers are unaware of what veterinarian inspection their puppy received. I noticed you were frightened that Precious Puppies vet was unethical, because they passed your pups health.

A inspection for health of a pup consist of a fecal, the vet looks in the eyes and ears, checks the heart and lungs, the skeletal, knees. for any obvious defects or illness at that moment.
They do not pull blood nor do they X-ray them

on your health certificate it will state the date your pup was examined. pneumonia would be obvious, but can only be determined by an X-ray.

I personally observe pups for a few days before I take them to the vet.. I have had the vet pull extra's like urine test, blood test and X-rays.

a store without experienced workers will not notice these things.. most hire kids who would not know illness from a hole in the wall. some get visits weekly by vets.. some hire vet techs.

coccidia can pop up anytime.
all pups have it. stress brings out an over abundance. Giardia is very contagous, and pups together gross as it sounds do eat each others poopie. an ill pup will almost always pop coccidia. giardia means your pup was around another pup from a dirty place. and if it gets into a store ick it is hard to get rid of. other worms mean the store bought from unlicnced breeders, or any breeder off the street. tapes mean your pup had fleas or ate the poopie of a pup that had fleas.


In all honestly a stores vet is usually a well known vet and they are just as capable of caring for the pup if not more. Because! The store gets a discount, why? because a vet gives the discount to drum up business. puppy store pups are a huge % of vet clients. because of the discount more care can be given to your pup. The vet is not going to let your pup die to get some bad name like very few do. by Florida law a store is obligated to reimburse a client vet cost. BUT!! not to exceed the initial cost of the pup. So if you paid 1,200 for the pup and your vet bill is 4,000 by law the store is not responsible for the remaining cost.. many people do not know this.
If 2,800 dollars is something you feel you can throw away that is fine, but it does not mean your pup got better care.

Now you can ask for records and treatment of your pup and ask your personal vet to look over them.

The wizard of claws cases with the Dr bellows is not a normal scenario.
Pet store vets are mostly like your own.

How to solve all these horrid problems to ensure people and pups don't live through all these horrid heart breaks?

This I pondered. I too was a finger pointer. 5 years ago I had an add in the yellow pages will help you find quality pups. I had no pups. I had no intention of getting any either. BUT! I would spend up to an hour trying to educate the poor soul who called me. and 30% of the time the person would agree. I would tell them how to find a " reputable breeder" then that same person would call me back 5 minutes later asking for the same breed of pup they phoned me about forgetting I was the one they just talked too in the pet store ads. I got more calls off that tiny ad then I did for my larger prettier grooming ad.

when Wizard of claws started getting bad. I was grooming a lot of the surviving puppies. I was shocked at the prices my clients were paying for puppies. I use to show. For the price my clients were paying for the dogs. I would expect them to win the Westminster, and the Crufts. Then when they were paying that for mixed breeds. I could not shut up about that for months

my favorite client turned close friend bought 2 Maltese from WOC. She is on the class action. She was even interviewed for the NBC week long prisoners of greed. She convinced me I could do it better.

So the leap of faith has taught me a lot. I feel the problem will not be solved by closing down stores. writing threatening letters. suing them.

It has to be solved by demanding a better way, which stems from research and education to teaching these stores and brokers a better way of processing puppies before they enter their new homes.

I do not think changing the legal age to sell a pup will change that either. I remember when it was changed from 6 weeks to 8 weeks, we are still having problems.

WOC and precious puppies have deep pockets. smaller stores are more careful. One larger one I wont name has a very inventive way of avoiding law suits and disgruntle customers by playing the liberal card, and making the client feel they were privileged to by a puppy from them.

I feel if there was a better way which can only come from the veterinarian community. these stores and chain stores, and brokers would gladly follow those rules. for who can sleep at night. I mean no way I could, if I had some poor pup dying in a hospital and hearing about a crying child or even adult I could not handle it.
I don't even think the most hardened store owner can either.

The ways of pet store husbandry has not changed over the years much, nor been asked to. The humane society is a prefect environment to have these studies. they deal with more disease then any pet store does.

I even called the humane society in Washington over it. I told them they did their job improving the USDA breeders which they still denied. I said lets end kennel cough, . lets help make the puppies bought in puppy stores happier and healthier.. They had no interest.. Come on this is about the puppy.

I also do not think the public doing sympathy buys, and keeping pups they had for a few days out of sympathy do anything to improve conditons.

If the public see's ill pups. pups in tiny crowded cages with grates or cold hard surfaces why buy from there?

IF they are not making sales they will change or close down..

Now I know Precious puppies keeps the pups nicer. I too use shredded paper. I feel this is the best for them. It also produces a pup that is so easy to house break they will go straight to paper.

I would continue to talk to the owner of that store. make a complaint about the rude guy. show them the vet report. and get the money back you deserve. and dont feel stupid for paying 1200. I remeber when labradoodles were selling for 4500. So you got a bargan. dont listen to the purest nazis who think mix breeds should not be worht sqaut. I have a customer who paid 3000 for a shih tzu poodle mix. I think it is cool mutts finally have value.