LOL- I am usually the most cynical person ever, but what I mean is I do not like the idea that someone could be so deliberately horrendously irresponsible to animals.

Apologies - it was bedtime for me here in Aus.

Yes, Gwen, the lady is definitely listed here, but I'm loath to put a link because it shows her address / phone number, and I'm not sure if that's such a good idea..

It's probably a sign of our times but people say "she's only 17" but that is old enough to be married and a parent; it's old enough to join our Armed Forces - but not old enough to know what is right and wrong as regards animal welfare? My Dad was working at 14 and was in the RAF preparing to go to Burma at 17 - she is plenty old enough to know what she did was not the decent thing to do.

I have a 17 year old daughter, she moved to her own flat just before her 17th birthday, it's hardly being a kid any more.

She now seems to have left the  "I am only a child of 17 stance" as in the coherent, punctuated and with correct spelling statement  (suggesting it was NOT written by the same person as the Tweets were) it is acknowledged that the mother was the breeder.  IT is certainly in the mum's name that the litter appears on the KC litter page, and I presume was listed on CD, although I can't find it now so perhaps admin have  deleted the listing.

The e-petiton seems to be growing very slowly indeed, can't we drum up some more support for what would be a sensible change in legislation and to the benefit of all animals.

I do have a couple of extra concerns, what happened backstage -  did the other kids go away empty handed, or were other pups given out?  Nothing to base this on, but would seem extraordinarily mean to bring  the kids into that situation with the promise of a puppy and send them away empty handed,  and what idiot vet would advise that an under 7 week old puppy could appear in that situation and be rehomed at that age too.

I think it is a problem in the way a lot of teenagers use social networking sites as a windbreak against being able to say what they want without perception of the consequences.

A classic example are the teenagers that have been arrested and convicted for insighting riots.

They also use them to big themselves and can you imagine the kudos she would have got from her friends !

It is quite clear the mother wrote the apology as she will have found out and would have been embarrassed by her behaviour I would imagine !

Some 17 years old can be very mature but some can be the opposite and still possess very child like behaviours and understanding of responsiblity and taking ownership of their actions . This can be seen here by I think her mother coming in a bailing her out of a very tight corner she got herself in as any mother would probably do :-)

>IT is certainly in the mum's name that the litter appears on the KC litter page, and I presume was listed on CD, although I can't find it now so perhaps admin have  deleted the listing.

The breeder only had a basic listing on Champdogs, which has now been removed, and the litter was not advertised here.

Thanks Mark it is always nice to know that Champdogs really does follow through with their ethical breeding. Well done. Pity not all sites are as good.

The e-petiton seems to be growing very slowly indeed, can't we drum up some more support for what would be a sensible change in legislation and to the benefit of all animals.

I've signed it Gwen.

Glad to hear that Mark. :)

I've signed the petition as well and posted it on my FB wall.

Thanks Mark, good to know, however it does cast a bit of a strange light on the family claim not to be breeders, and this was an accidental mating one off - why then list yourself on a breeders website?

It gets worse - apparently 3 pups were "sourced" by the TV company, a Bulldog puppy and another breed (not yet know) were also waiting behind the scenes.  So 3 pups put through the trauma and chaos of a TV studio.

I left home and fully supported myself at the age of 16 but it is only now that I can look back and understand how little I knew and understood at that age. :)
I am not excusing what she has said just that I think there were far more knowing people involved in this so would not like the attention disproportionately directed at her because, thanks to twitter etc, she is more accessable.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2137928/ITV-allowing-Keith-Lemon-comedian-Leigh-Francis-away-puppy-prize-primetime-show.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

I found it distasteful some abused this child online and posted twitter and Facebook accounts of the 17 year old and her family along with names, address and telephone number and that the family have received abuse online and offline. If someone is getting abused, harassed and constantly questioned I can understand why someone could snap and retaliate back. Stating an opinion is one thing, attacking and inciting others to join in is another, Doing such things does not help and can be seen as inciting/encouraging contact/hatred.

I do not agree with what happened on the program and I do hope That no other tv program does this again, yet it seems the homes had been inspected and educated on dog care before hand this is an responsible thing to do something many breeders do not do.

As for Peter Andre purchasing a pup this I believe this was done in his own home. the breeder could see the pup was going to a good home. I have also read that some are accusing Peter not having time for this pup. Anyone that watches his show knows he has all his brothers, other family members,  house keeper and child minders living in his house so the pup and his other dog have company and someone looking after the dogs 24-7. Most dogs are blessed to have just 1 person day time as these days most people have to work through no choice just to pay bills and have no choice to leave dogs in a house by themselves. I personally think people attacking Peter over this could seriously damage certain campaigns that are stating they are attempting to protect.

I do question how young these pups are yet some breeds do leave the mother early as the breeder believes it's better. I will add I do not know much about the pug breed or what the breeders believe on this subject.

I do feel people are over stepping the line and many can not hold head high on this subject, all involved should seriously look at themselves and learn from this.

Educating people why something like this is wrong is right thing to do but to act like rabid humans outing, attacking someone putting private info online  in my opinion is bang out of order. Online on occasions remind me of the barbaric roman times in the colosseums...

> Online on occasions remind me of the barbaric roman times in the colosseums...

HEAR!  HEAR!

Out of curiosity, I just asked my 17 year old daughter (who had not heard of this and I told her nothing initially) what she would do if she had a litter of pups now and was asked by a TV company to sell one to be given as a prize to a kid in a game show. She was horrified and instantly said NO WAY; it would be like giving the puppy to a total stranger in the street.

> Out of curiosity, I just asked my 17 year old daughter (who had not heard of this and I told her nothing initially) what she would do if she had a litter of pups now and was asked by a TV company to sell one to be given as a prize to a kid in a game show. She was horrified and instantly said NO WAY; it would be like giving the puppy to a total stranger in the street.

Goldmali No doubt She feels this way as you have educated your daughter as I have with my children but it would not surprise me that many other 17year olds do not think the same way.
Granted many good breeders around yet they are many others that have kennel club registered dogs that do not care as long as they are paid, this is why I keep in hope of people educating each other and hopefully some will listen.

Even my eight year old has said how wrong it is !

Goldmali No doubt She feels this way as you have educated your daughter as I have with my children but it would not surprise me that many other 17year olds do not think the same way

It has already been stated that the Mother was the breeder, so she should have had more sense. Goldmali may have educated her children correctly but so should that girl have been educated if she has been brought up around dogs as she obviously has.

I found it distasteful some abused this child online and posted twitter and Facebook accounts of the 17 year old and her family along with names, address and telephone number

Whilst I don't agree with anyone being harrassed the "child" in question outed herself and family by bragging on Twitter that she had bred the puppy.  The whole debacle escalated into a rathe nasty argument, but the "child"  incited several friends to retaliate to several  who had contacted her.  She subsequently submitted an insincere apology on the facebook page set up to complain about the programme, this apology had very obviously been written by a third party in an attempt to deflect blame.  Ultimately the greatest blame is with the TV company but the breeders have to take some part of it for agreeing to sell a puppy in these circumstances.  This they have not done.

> I do not agree with what happened on the program and I do hope That no other tv program does this again

And yet this ridiculous programme has opened a potential flood gate for other programmes and indeed functions  and fundraisers of all sorts to think this is not only a good idea but acceptable.

> I do question how young these pups are yet some breeds do leave the mother early as the breeder believes it's better. I will add I do not know much about the pug breed or what the breeders believe on this subject.

I do know something about pugs, I have owned and bred them for 13 years, and I can assure you that 8 weeks old is the absolute minimum age a pug puppy should go it it's new home.  And no puppy, regardless of breed, should be subject to the heat, noise and stress of backstage at a game show.  No puppy should be taken out and about, meeting other pups too, before it's vaccinations.

People have felt very strongly over this matter, and perhaps expressed themselves in a heated manner, because they see that this one thoughtless act has the potential to undo so much work on educating the public about best practice in acquiring a dog.

Edited to add I have no idea why part of this post has shown up faded!

Well said Gwen.

Mr Lemon is appearing on the Chris Moyles Show this morning so I have asked if they can ask him about the situation. Apparently on twitter he has been getting alot of grief as well and was threatening to quit as he couldn't see what the problem was .

I know Tima the sports reporter is a great dog lover and is it Dave or Dom that got a puppy recently so hope they will question him .

Please everyone who feels strongly about this, sign the e-petition and complain to ofcom.  The complaint will only be succesful if we have hundreds more acting, not just talking.  Puppies are not prizes!

Despite all the statement s being issued and especially the one from the KC there are a growing number of people on the yahoo site complaining and blaming the KC for all of this. Very unfair because the Kc didn't know about this until after the show aired.

I agree unfair (and I don't often stick up for the KC) but in fact they did know and advised the producers not to go ahead with it, so they got the message right, but the TV company ignored it.

Unfortunalely the term breeder coupled with Pug is immediately bringing up all the "knowledge" gleaned from PDE, and if a breeder of a pug has done something suspect they simply must be a Kennel Club Breeder (whatever that is)!

There is quite a lot of support on various Media comments pages, apparently including some Vets who have replied to The Guardian section and stated that they woudl never condone or become involved with the process of giving a puppy as a prize.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17936137

This just gets better and better... at least two of the children involved in this 'competition' were child actors/involved in the TV industry.... !

thats funny because when i watched it on i player thinggymejig i thought the children seemed a little too confident to be true !!

Archie's Mum says it only took 2 days from him contacting the TV company to being on set filming - he wrote in asking to sing, nothing to do with dogs, but as they had a choir he was put in the competition (think she calls it as sort of competition).  No mention of having bought a puppy in the course of the day.  So if the other 2 pups existed the process from finding a kid, finding what breed he liked, sourcing a puppy and getting breeder and child's home vet checked  - under 48 hours!  Am begining to think there was only the pug pup, which in welfare terms is better, but makes pretty much everything the company has said a bit suspect.