A Warning To Puppy BuyersThinking about adding to your family? A new little lab or maybe a chihuahua puppy. Before you make a decision that could affect your family for years to come, check out what the News 4 WOAI Trouble Shooters found when we took our hidden cameras and went shopping for a puppy.
It is hard to resist taking one of cute puppy home. They are so cute and so lovable.
But looks can be deceiving. The perfect puppy could be hiding something very serious.
Richard Athie describes the first time he saw his 'best friend', Honey. "I saw my dog and I immediately fell in love with her."
Honey, a golden retriever pup, has severe hip dysplasia, a genetic disorder that will eventually leave her crippled.
"They told me the surgery is going to be between $4000 and $5000," says Richard about Honey's visit to a vet.
Richard bought Honey at Petland in Sonterra for $1,000. He even paid for a guarantee insuring the dog's health, but he says it's not much of a guarantee.
"They won't help fix my dog," claims Richard.
Petland is technically complying with its guarantee. The store contract specifically states that genetic disorders are not covered.
Richard is not the only one who is upset with Petland in Sonterra.
"My daughter and I were running Christmas errands and we said 'let's go in and look at the babies."
Holley Pridmore bought one of those expensive 'babies'. A darling toy poodle, named "Riley", that would be a Christmas gift for the family. Little did she know, the puppy was sick, infected with parvo, a potentially deadly virus.
"It crushed me," says Holley. "We had fallen in love with him."
Petland's contract is clear. It reads that if you buy a sick pet you can return it, for a different pet. But by that time, most have fallen in love with their new family member and just want help making the animal healthy.
"I assumed like all the other consumers that go in there that, at the very least, the puppy that I'm paying all this money for has been screened for one of the major killers," says Holley.
Petland's contract states each puppy is checked out by a vet before being sold, but Holley still spent nearly $1,000 dollars to save Riley's life.
Dr. Andy Anderson is the chief surgeon at South Texas Veterinary Specialists. He says, "I would not go to a retail outlet."
Dr. Anderson adds his office sees a lot of sick puppies coming from pet stores.
"Generally, those, in my opinion, are not the best places to buy pets. They often have more disease and they may have very questionable genetics and have orthopedic problems or infectious disease problems," says Dr. Anderson.
So when you want to add a new family member, where do you go? The Trouble Shooters tried a different route.
We checked out ads in the classifieds. We answered a couple of them and what we found concerned us.
At one location, where small dogs were being sold, the owner asked us, "You're not connected to the Humane Society, are you?"
The puppies looked okay but it was what else the owner said that got our attention.
"There's no such thing as cruelty to your own dogs. You can't be cruel to somebody else's dog, but you could eat yours for breakfast if you want to," he said.
At a second location, the Trouble Shooters entered a house filled with puppies, row after row of cages. And in the garage, there were even more dogs. The smell was overwhelming but the dogs looked clean.
We had Dr. Anderson take a look at what we caught on tape.
"As a dog lover, I have a hard time believing they could be getting enough attention and care to address their basic health needs," he says. "I believe these people are doing what they believe to be appropriate to take care of them. I'm not that comfortable having my new family member come from this environment."
So where do the puppies at Petland come from? We talked to a manager there who says Petland does get puppies from private breeders that she says are licensed by the USDA.
Petland refused to do an on camera interview but did send us a statement saying that in the cases of our viewer's dogs, honey and Riley, their owners were offered "another puppy in exchange or a refund in the form of store credit."
Something Richard refused and so did Holley.
Holley's poodle, Riley, did make a full recovery and Holley now volunteers at an animal shelter. She says she now would rather adopt than buy another dog.
Meantime, Richard is still trying to gather the money to pay for Honey's surgery.
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