a friend of mine has just bought a BTERRIER from a pet shop and its only 5weeks old the women in the shop has told her its ok to take them from their mother this young ! i have told her it way to young to have been taken from its mother is there anything i can do about this ?

Without sounding horrid to your friend, Why has she bought a puppy from a pet shop in the first place? Where there is demand there will always be supply, so if people wouldnt buy from these people in the first place then pet shops wouldn't be selling puppies at this age, they also often come with major health problems and have often been bought in from puppy farmers. There are PLENTY of excellent breeders out there that genuinly have there breeds best interest at heart and do everything they can to breed out certain health problems and never let puppies go to there new homes until they feel they are independant enough to leave and this is often more than 8 weeks old. I think 5 weeks is wayyyy to soon. Sorry to rant but buying from pet shops really annoys me and this needs stopping once and for all.

it really annoyed me aswell ive said to get him to the vets asap for the reason u have said about health problems ect i just wanted to know if i could do anything about it rspca maybe? or just go in to the pet shop and blow my top with the stupid woman my pups wernt even weaned by 5 weeks let alone being sold !!

Trouble is that the breeding and sale of dogs act requires puppies bred commercially to not be sold before 8 weeks old, except to licensed pet shops.

So you couldn't get it direct from the puppy farmer, but you can get it younger through a Pet shop, crazy.

so am i right in thinking they are allowed to sell them this young brainless?

As far as i can work out yes, it seems to be absolutely the opposite of what should be the case.

Think the only place or people who can sell a puppy so young is a pet shop or one of those terrible pet warehouses.

It is courting disaster removing a pup from the nest so young it will not have learned how to responded to other dogs nor will it have been properly weaned.

> So you couldn't get it direct from the puppy farmer, but you can get it younger through a Pet shop, crazy. <IMG class=qButton title="Quote selected text" alt="Quote selected text" src="/images/mi_quote.gif">

That just sucks.  its a good loophole for puppy farmers.

Whereas the Breeding and sales of dogs (welfare) act 1999 does not say anything about the age of puppies when sold in petshops, a quick Google came up with different local councils requirements. Seems it can vary from council to council and some pet shop licenses DO require than no puppy is sold aged less than 8 weeks of age. See example in link below. So may be worth trying to find out the council requirements for the shop in question.
http://www.sevenoaks.gov.uk/documents/pet_shop_licence_conditions_feb__2010_final_version_conditions_to_be_issued.pdf

and anyone can have a pet shop license its not just where you buy budgie seed. there is a 'breeder' not far from me lives in a 2 bed semi, breeds mainly crosses, and also has a pet shop license. it allows you to buy in stock

Aaaaaaaw that is so sad :-( did that not raise a flag on ur friend to wonder why so young? She may end up with all sorts of problems- puppies learn so much from their litter mates as well as their mother at this age. One being how to play and discipline from the litter/mom...

Personally I think she should return the pup and go else where- petshop puppies/kittens just make me mad/upset- feel so sorry for them...

I'm not sure what the legal stance is but I'd be making as big a stink as I possibly could ... to safeguard future dogs and people. My ports of call would be the local council, trading standards, RSPCS, local press and any other places you could think of.

As other people have said, it's down to the people buying at this age from this sort of establishment. That said, the pup has already been bought ... border terrier bought at 5 weeks from a pet shop, I would like to hope or your friend's sake that there are not problems lying ahead. Sadly I doubt that very much. What you can do though is to draw other people's attention to the fact this is wrong. Good luck.

This maybe of intrest to you __

http://content.www.rspca.org.uk/cmsprd/Satellite?blobcol=urldata&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobkey=id&blobnocache=false&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwhere=1232992407321&ssbinary=true

ButI would definatly contact the RSPCA for advice and trading standards, giving the name of the petshop and location! I think that both the pet shop and original breeder can be prosocuted for selling a pup so young! Also the pup should have stayed at the pet shop for 2 weeks beore it should have been sold, to make sure it was healthy and not having a disease!

I hate pet shops there as bad as puppy farms for buying fromthem

^^
and buyers are as bad as these sources themselves. they would never be trading if there wasnt such a huge demand for these puppies, at 5wks a buyer should be walking away!

if i remember rightly in eire pups can be sold at any age (thats if the pups have been shipped from there thinking of the original breeder). whatever has happened im sure its easily fiddled.

> I hate pet shops there as bad as puppy farms for buying from them

They are what enable puppy farms to function, fewer people would buy from a puppy farm direct.

Sadly the anonymity of the INTERNET helps puppy farmers just as much with them offering to deliver or meet buyers half way (all so as not to tip off buyers that they are puppy farmers).

It's all a complete mess, as the Bateson Report clarified.
Until all the recommended procedures that this learned, interested and dare I say it, humane and understanding person recommended in his report, nothing will be changed. I may be alone in agreeing with him, but having read that report from start to finish and I saw a balanced viewpoint and a way to move forward. He was particularly against puppy farms. And very much for accountability of breeders (of any kind). He has been a breeder of animals himself - he is not a naive government Quango style advisor by any means.

I agree - peopel who buy from petshops are jsut as bad as the farmers and pet shops,

Petshops IMO have no regard for the welfare of animals, and couldnt give a monkeys whtherb they live or die! Theres a pet shop 20 min from me that sells pups and kittens, and they are litterally confined to a cage thats 3 foot long and 1 foot wide from the day they arrive to the day they leave they are litterally tasfered between 2 cages. the amount doesnt matter and their size doesnt matter!they once had 9 kittens (from separate litters) all mixed up and there was clearly a serious issue with fleas there ages ranged from 6 weeks to 13 weeks!

I got no prblem with dogs being kept in crates for their own safety but not them reasons!

This is why no-one should ever buy from petshops! your friend does have 14 days from purchase to return the pup! Which on one hand is a good idea! on the other she has now bought her so maybe she shoul just see if thers any leagal action she can take