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  • Geebo 8:00 am on April 29, 2021 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , parvo, Puppy Mills, , ,   

    Family loses thousands after buying ill puppy 

    Family loses thousands after buying ill puppy

    By Greg Collier

    Typically, when we talk about puppy scams, we’re talking about the kind where the puppy doesn’t actually exist. In this scam, con artists put up fake websites and ads advertising popular puppy breeds at cut rate prices. Once a victim makes a payment for the puppy, the scammers will then start asking for more money for things like insurance and specialized travel crates. Finding out that you’re not getting a puppy after paying thousands of dollars is heartbreaking in itself, but there’s an even more heartbreaking scam that involves puppies.

    Unfortunately, this other scam involves actual puppies. There are backyard breeders and puppy mills that will happily take your money by selling you a terminally ill puppy. This happened recently to a family in Arizona who bought a Heeler-Lab puppy for $250. From we understand, this breed of puppy can go for upwards of $1,000. The family picked up the dog from the seller at a local McDonald’s. After they got the puppy home they discovered that the puppy had ticks and fleas. After taking the puppy to a vet, it was discovered that the puppy had the deadly parvovirus, better known as just parvo. The family took out a loan so they could pay for the $3,000 treatment. Sadly, the puppy’s condition worsened in the coming days. Further treatment would have cost $25,000. The family had to make the difficult decision to have the puppy put down.

    As with a number of online scams, anyone can put up a website or Craigslist ad and call themselves a breeder. However, if the puppy is being sold for well below market value, that could be a red flag that something’s not on the up and up. If you can’t go physically see the puppy before purchasing that may also be an indicator that something could be wrong with the puppy. If the seller asks you to meet at a location like a fast food parking lot, that could be another indication of a bad breeder.

    As always, we recommend going to your local animal shelter to adopt a pet. You’d be surprised what breeds you might find at the shelter. Also, not every shelter dog has been abused or has trust issues. A great deal of them have just been surrendered by their owners for various reasons. Many shelters have waiting lists for certain breeds in addition to being able to adopt the puppy for no or low cost. Maybe even consider adopting an adult dog instead as they need homes too.

     

  • Geebo 9:00 am on December 20, 2019 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Puppy Mills, ,   

    Puppy mill dyes dog to disguise breed 

    Puppy mill dyes dog to disguise breed

    This seems to be the season where scammers will go to extreme lengths to fleece you. Just recently, we posted about a rental scammer who went to great lengths to disguise his identity. Apparently, these extreme scams aren’t just limited to real estate. Several families in Southern California are suing an alleged puppy mill for selling terminally ill puppies. However, it’s not just the fact that the backyard breeders were selling sick animals but it was also the way in which they tried to disguise the breed of the dog that left at least one family feeling heartbroken.

    One family involved in the lawsuit have an 11-year-old son who wanted a Goldendoodle puppy. He worked hard helping out at his father’s business to earn the money to buy the puppy. He found the perfect puppy through an online ad. Sadly, a few days after the family got the puppy home, the puppy started getting sick. When they took the puppy to the vet it was diagnosed with the deadly parvovirus. The puppy had to be put down. It turned out that the puppy wasn’t even a Goldendoodle. When the family washed the puppy, red dye washed off of the puppy. They were even told the puppy was a female and it turned out to be male.

    This story should serve as an example of how many online ads for puppies are scams and how little these so-called breeders care about the animals they’re selling. As always, we recommend adopting a puppy or even an older dog from your local shelter. If there’s a specific breed you’re looking for, only deal with licensed breeders. Look into what needs and behavioral patterns the dogs have and research the breeder as well to make sure they are ethically raising their animals. If a living creature such as a puppy is being sold at a discounted rate, there’s usually a reason why the animal is being sold for so cheap and it’s never good.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on September 10, 2019 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Puppy Mills,   

    Majority of puppy listings are fake 

    Majority of puppy listings are fake

    We’ve discussed the puppy scam in great detail many times before. For those of you who may not be familiar with it, it’s when scammers advertise puppies for sale online but the puppy doesn’t exist. Instead, the scammers get you to pay for the puppy up front before disappearing with your money. They usually have you wire the money to them so they can’t be traced. So just how common is this scam? The Better Business Bureau estimates that 80% of online sponsored ads about pets could be bogus.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qDUVMyFvGA%5D

    That’s not even taking into account the number of backyard breeders or puppy mills who are selling sick pets to unsuspecting customers. Often people will breed popular breeds of dogs just to cash in on their popularity. Too many times these unlicensed breeders will have little regard for the animals’ health. There have been many instances where a dog was sold online only for the new owners get the puppy home and discover that the new addition to their family had the deadly parvovirus.

    As always, if a deal seems too good to be true, especially for a living creature, then it probably is. If you are going to purchase a pet, we always recommend avoiding online and the pet store as they tend to be avenues for frauds and puppy mills. Instead, we recommend either dealing with a licensed breeder or your local animal shelter. Even then, consumers should still do their research into these facilities to make sure the animals are being treated ethically.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on May 8, 2019 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , Puppy Mills,   

    Sick puppies still being sold online 

    Sick puppies still being sold online

    As we have stated in the past, Geebo does not accept any listing that’s selling or giving away pets. One of the reasons we do this is to try to prevent puppy mills and illegal backyard breeders from continuing their abusive practices. Sadly, some of our competitors do not share our stance and allow these practices to flourish. In turn, consumers are still using these platforms to purchase purebred dogs only to find out that the puppies are sick or dying.

    In Albuquerque, a family bought a miniature schnauzer off of craigslist for a steal. After they took the puppy home it turned out that the puppy’s health records had been faked and the puppy died from the deadly parvovirus. In Lehigh Acres, Florida a couple bought a husky puppy from someone claiming to be a professional breeder on craigslist. When the couple took the puppy to the vet it was reportedly sold at too early of an age and was infested with hookworm. That puppy shortly died soon after as well.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB8vi5otfWc%5D

    This has become an all too common occurrence. When purchasing a living creature as a pet you shouldn’t look for bargains to be had as that usually means there’s a reason why the animal is being sold for so cheap. The same caveat applies to puppies as it does with most things being sold online; if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. If there’s a specific breed of puppy that you have your heart set on, do your research. Look into what needs and behavioral patterns the dogs have and research the breeder as well to make sure they are ethically raising their animals. We also always recommend adopting a puppy or even an adult dog from your local shelter. Adopting a new member of your family is not something that should be done rashly. Carefully think it out before adding an addition like this to your home.

     

  • Geebo 9:05 am on March 13, 2019 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , Puppy Mills, , Quad Cities   

    Pet flipping seen at shelters 

    Pet flipping seen at shelters and NY to crackdown on pet stores

    Previously, we’ve discussed many times why Geebo does not accept ads for pets. Not only does it discourage pet scams but mainly the policy in place is to discourage puppy mills from proliferating and causing further abuses against the animals they produce with little regard for the animals’ health and safety. As an alternative option, we almost always recommend adopting a pet from your local shelter and we still do. However, now at least one shelter and possibly more are encountering some of the same problems we do.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teUq9PtVKJo%5D

    For example, there is an animal shelter in the Quad Cities area of Iowa and Illinois that’s been noticing a disturbing trend. They say that they’ve been finding some of the animals they thought they had found homes for turning up on Facebook and Craigslist as being either back up for adoption or up for sale. In some cases, the animals are being flipped like you would flip a house. In that case, the shelter is banning those people from adopting any more animals from the shelter.

    In other cases, people just don’t feel that the animal they adopted is a good fit and try to find a different home for it online. In turn that animal could be taken in by someone who doesn’t have the animal’s best interest at heart and could potentially be an abuser. The shelter states that they would rather see people who aren’t happy with their pet adoption to bring the animal back to the shelter as they are better equipped to find the animal a more suitable home.

     

  • Geebo 9:01 am on September 18, 2018 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , Puppy Mills   

    Even breeders can be puppy mills 

    Even breeders can be puppy mills

    In the past when I’ve posted about purchasing a new puppy for your family I’ve always recommended going to a licensed breeder if you’re looking for a particular breed of dog. Unfortunately, not every licensed breeder is on the up and up. Just because a breeder may be a legitimate business doesn’t mean their breeding their dogs in the most ethical way possible as one family in Tennessee found out.

    An elderly couple from Clinton, Tennessee, put a deposit down on a Yorkshire Terrier puppy they planned to purchase from a breeder that had advertised on Facebook. However, they wouldn’t be able to bring the puppy home until it was old enough to be separated from its mother. Sadly, after the couple put their deposit down the puppy became sick and died. The breeder allegedly told the couple that they would refund their deposit and find them a replacement puppy. According to this article from WTAE, neither has happened. The breeder was said to have had financial hardships and might not be breeding anymore yet advertisements for puppies have supposedly not ceased.

    As has been mentioned before, Geebo does not accept ads for pets as puppies advertised online tend to come from puppy mills where breeders put profit ahead of a puppy’s well-being. In the past, I’ve recommended going to a licensed breeder but even a licensed breeder can be a puppy mill which is actually not a crime. However, thanks to WTAE article we have more tools to find a legitimate breeder as you can use the American Kennel Club’s Breeder Referral Search to try to find a trusted breeder. Once again though, I strongly advise anyone looking to add a four-legged friend to their family to try to adopt a pet from their local shelter. Not only do shelters provide much-needed medical requirements for most pets looking for adoption but some even have services where you can be notified if they receive a certain breed of dog that you may be looking for.

     

  • Geebo 8:54 am on September 7, 2018 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , Puppy Mills   

    States looking to ban pet leasing 

    States looking to ban pet leasing

    I’ve posted about pet leasing before. It’s a predatory lending tactic used by some unscrupulous pet stores. It’s almost like leasing a car as in you don’t actually own your pet but more like you’re renting it and you have the option to buy at the end of the lease. In many cases, the pet stores getting people to sign up for these leases are not divulging the full details of the lease and new pet owners are often surprised by all the additional fees the lease entails. Many critics of pet leasing say that it unfairly targets low-income families and that many of the pets leased come from puppy mills. There have even been instances where pets have been repossessed and then euthanized.

    The states of Nevada and California already ban pet leasing and now legislators in both Pennsylvania and New York are looking to ban the practice as well. Sadly, the practice of pet leasing is considered legal by the Federal Trade Commission, however, the leases need to comply with the Consumer Leasing Act. If lease companies and pet stores are being cagey about the details of the payments then they are in violation of the law.

    As stated previously, Geebo does not accept pet ads since many of the animals advertised on classifieds can be sick and abused animals from puppy mills or disreputable backyard breeders. As always, as animal lovers, we recommend that if you’re looking to have a furry addition to your family that you either go to a licensed breeder or even better, adopting from your local shelter. We also encourage adopting older dogs from shelters as often, they have a harder time being adopted. Either way, if you adopt a pet in these manners you won’t have to worry about your pet being taken away for failure to make a payment.

     

  • Geebo 9:14 am on August 28, 2018 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , Puppy Mills,   

    Another craigslist puppy ring results in sick animals 

    Another craigslist puppy ring results in sick animals

    Authorities in Prince William County, Virginia, have arrested three people on animal cruelty charges for allegedly selling very sick puppies on craigslist. Many of the puppies sold had parvovirus, or parvo as it’s more commonly known, and at least one had died after being sold. After receiving numerous complaints, animal control officers investigated the grounds where the puppies were being kept and calling it a puppy mill would be generous. According to reports, the living conditions for the puppies were deplorable, to say the least. Sadly, this is not an uncommon occurrence on craigslist.

    If you’re familiar with Geebo, you know that we haven’t accepted ads for pets in quite some time in order to help prevent animal cruelty on a scale such as this. However, did you know that pet sales are listed as prohibited on craigslist? According to craigslist’s own terms of service, pet sales are prohibited but re-homing with a small adoption fee is ok. You couldn’t tell by going to craigslist and doing a search for puppies. Since craigslist rarely does any kind of moderation on their platform, these types of puppy sales continue, mostly unabated.

    Buying a puppy should never be a heat of the moment decision and while buying a puppy off of craigslist may satisfy an urge of instant satisfaction, in the long run, it could also lead to heartbreak for you and your family. Don’t cheap out when it comes to adding a new member to your family. Always do your research first and only do business with legitimate and licensed breeders. Real breeders will never want to meet you in a parking lot or some other sketchy locale. Please also consider adopting from your local shelter. Too many shelters have to turn away animals because there’s not enough room in their kennels. Also, re-homing costs through shelters are usually very reasonable and in most cases, the animals have been well taken care of medically and emotionally by the shelter. Wouldn’t you rather be a hero in your dog’s eyes?

     

  • Geebo 9:43 am on July 31, 2018 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , Puppy Mills   

    Pet leasing is another reason to avoid the pet store 

    Pet leasing is another reason to avoid the pet store

    It should come as no surprise that we are animal lovers here at Geebo. In the past, CEO Greg Collier has discussed why Geebo does not accept ads for pets. In too many instances, online ads for pets can be an outright scam or they can be from abusive puppy mills. We also often recommend not going to a pet store as many of their pets can also come from these mills. Now, there’s a predatory lending practice being used by some pet stores that should give you another reason to avoid them when it comes to purchasing pets.

    CBS News reports that pet leasing is a new practice used by some pet stores that get consumers to pay way more for a pet than it may be worth. In the example shown in the CBS article, one woman ended up paying $5,000 for two dogs through a lease that she could have bought for $1500. The fact that some pet stores and leasing companies are engaging in this practice really shows how little they care for the animals in question. If they are charging such exorbitant leasing rates that means they’re expecting to repossess a number of these animals. What happens to the animal then? Are they trying to flip the animals like one would a house? What happens if the animal ages out of adoption as many people would rather adopt a puppy than a grown dog?

    As usual, we always recommend going to a licensed breeder if you have your heart set on a certain breed. However, we very much encourage going to your local pet shelter to adopt a pet as the fees are much more reasonable and affordable. You may also want to consider adopting a full-grown pet as sometimes it’s harder for them to find a home. If you choose to pursue a new pet through either of these avenues you won’t have to worry about someone coming to your home looking to take your family’s new member back.

     

  • Geebo 9:01 am on June 22, 2018 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , Puppy Mills,   

    Sick dogs continue to be sold on craigslist 

    Sick dogs continue to be sold on craigslist

    When someone is in the market for a new puppy, they often look for one with their heart and not necessarily their heads. Scammers of all shapes and sizes love to take advantage of the emotional response people tend to have after seeing a puppy for the first time. Not surprisingly, craigslist is often the venue scammers use to pass off as many puppies as they can.

    A couple in Rancho San Diego, California, found this out recently when they adopted a miniature dachshund off of craigslist. The couple even admits they ignored some red flags once they saw the puppy. Those red flags were that the puppy was being sold at a too good to be true price and that the seller wanted to meet at a parking lot and not where the dogs were allegedly being bred. Days after adopting the puppy the dachshund became sick and a vet diagnosed the puppy with distemper. Sadly, this is an all too common occurrence on the unmoderated craigslist.

    While purchasing a dog off of craigslist may give you that instant satisfaction of getting a puppy that day, in the long run, it’s worth taking your time to research the seller. You could be buying a dog from either a puppy mill or backyard breeder who is more intent on just making money than ethically breeding these dogs. Often these dogs have parvovirus which is contagious and can affect other pets in your household. For these reasons, Geebo does not accept ads for pets as we do not want to contribute to what is essentially animal cruelty. As always, we recommend only adopting pets from shelters or licensed breeders.

     

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