Was shocked to see a full page spread on Page 3 of the Manchester Evening News today.  A well know store that sells dogs in Manchester saying how many United Team members, managers etc. had bought pups from them.

I am shocked that these people do not realise where these pups might be coming from and that they may be aiding puppy farms.  I wonder what health tests have been done on any of the relatives of these pups?

I see in the dog press this week HARRODS defending the sale of pups...they give every prospective owner a 15 min interview ....!!!! Though in thier defence they will not sell on impulse and ask new owners to bring the family in first!
Aileen

Ooh sure they could tell in 15 minutes that the people are suitable!

> xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> people are suitable

if they can afford Harrods prices they must be 'nice' people and therefore totally suitable !
rolls eyes!

What an appalling article.After all the hard work educating people about the horrific puppy farming industry-are these footballers totally ignorant or are they lacking in any kind of conscience? I can't believe the editor of the paper allowed such an article to be published either :-(

Well boycotting the team and the paper would be a good idea along with letters as to why.

It really doesn't surprise me unfortunately :-(

We've had a few people come to our club for training with pups & dogs from there.  They don't last long :-(.

> We've had a few people come to our club for training with pups & dogs from there.  They don't last long :-(.

Any idea why?
Are they the kind of people who simply don't want to train.... can't be arsed? or is there another reason? Pup passed on maybe? or worse?

Yes, I posted about this on Facebook.  I felt sick to the stomach reading it on the train home.  What an irresponsible thing to publish.  Just before Christmas too.

This is the second time the paper has run an article like that, the last time being when Ricky Hatton bought a pup on the way home after coming out of rehab.  Quite how they have the ear of the MEN reporters I don't know... but phrases such as "he was happy with it so came back for another" are pure advertising.

this is on another thread here :-
http://www.champdogsforum.co.uk/board/topic/134208.html
Lea xx

Another Man U dog story

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2069009/Anderson-pet-dogs-produce-puppies.html

> Another Man U dog story
>
> [url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2069009/Anderson-pet-dogs-produce-puppies.html" rel=nofollow]http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2069009/Anderson-pet-dogs-produce-puppies.html[/url]

Totally speechless! He didn't realise they were male and female??

Who the hell sold that man 2 Bernese??

> Yes, I posted about this on Facebook. 

That's where I saw it, and decided to post here.

Ditto Suejaw & a) have they had any health tests done, b) they might be brother & sister........

It is a very worrying story, I assume it is basically true. It has been brought to the attention of the BMDCGB and the rescue who will take it on board and do whatever is possible. There are a lot of points to worry over not least the care and welfare of Mum and the pups but also the neivety of someone who had no idea what sex his dogs are. Or that one is mating the other !! I wonder just how much time these poor dogs are alone without any supervision. Are they from the same litter? How old are they ? one must assume it is her first season or they have been very lucky uptill now. Who bred and sold him 2 pups? If indeed they are brother and sister a fact the papers did not cover so we are only assuming this. We can only hope that common sense wins out and he askes for help from rescue and does not just hand the pups to anyone. It goes without saying that the PF will have their ears pricked up at this. We are lucky in our breed that not many are produced each year and the majority of breeders do care and use endorsements and registered health tested stock but there are BYB and PF who will take advantage of the breed, something you can see yourself with a glance through the breed record suppliament each quarter.  Imformation that is in the public domain would highlight the possible culprits if you care to look under the surface...A couple of free bitches would be lighting up the £££ signs in thier eyes.
Aileen

> the neivety of someone who had no idea what sex his dogs are.

This is the bit i'm very confused about, you'd know what you are buying and to further this point, a willy can't be missed on any dog..

>Any idea why?

Several reasons I think, we've had some with temperament issues, so get passed on or pts.

One guy came with a spitz breed, fluffy teddy bear type of pup, it was his young family's first dog, apparently he didn't know that dogs needed to be taught to wee outside, thought they 'just knew' :-(, he had no idea what owning a dog meant. 

I think that if people buy pups on the spur of the moment, as in going to a shop and buying one over the counter, they're not going to put in the time to think about how it will fit into their lives and train it.

When someone comes in and tells you where they got their dogs from, I find that I have to bite on my tongue very, very hard.  I have to remember that not everyone knows what we know and just try to do what I can to keep them coming and encourage them to give the dogs the best chance,