I have been reading your postings with great interest and hope that someone can advise me on the following. My mother-in-law purchased a beautiful golden Labrador pup about 6 months ago from an advertisement in a local newspaper. She paid a lot of money and unfortunately did absolutely no research into the breeder or his history. Apart from the fact that she was asked to pay cash for the dog and sign a contract absolving the breeder from all responsibility for the animal after its departure from his premises, the pup was removed from its mother at 4 weeks of age and kept with the rest of the litter until 8 weeks when it was collected by my mother-in-law. This seemed heartless in the very least to me although I confess I know nothing about dog breeding. I feel now it is perhaps symptomatic of the "puppy mill" mentality I have been reading about. Despite the care and attention it received from my mother-in-law including the required vet visits and vaccinations, the pup developed a problem with its behaviour. It began to attack people in a frenzied manner with no provocation and once gave my mother-in-law a bite from which she is still recovering. Naturally she was very distressed and as she had grown to adore the puppy, did everything she could to help it. After costly visits to the vet and a trainer, the pup seemed to be slowly improving until it was about 4 months old. Then one morning, my mother-in-law found it dead in its bed with no apparent injury. A subsequent post-mortem found nothing wrong. In normal circumstances I would put this down to a costly and unfortunate experience but we have since discovered from the vet that this particular breeder had a history of producing dogs with behaviour problems (hindsight is a great thing). We also discovered that the breeder had recently been fined for operating kennels illegally. I am sure that caring breeders do not treat dogs in this manner or relinquish responsibility as soon as the dog is found a home. Please correct me if I am wrong. For my mother-in-law the grief and distress of losing the dog outweighed the financial cost which was considerable. My question therefore is three-fold.
It is too late to advise her of the necessity of researching such decisions but I want to know if we have any recourse to help her recover any of the money she spent. Given the breeders alleged past crimes, do we have any legal grounds even though she signed a contract with this breeder?
Secondly and perhaps more importantly can people like this be stopped from such careless breeding? There will no doubt continue to be caring but ignorant people who buy from this breeder and may experience the distress my mother-in-law has – not to mention how much suffering the dogs must be experiencing if the vet’s testimony is accurate. Who could we inform if he is still operating illegally?
Thirdly, should my mother-in-law decide that owning a Labrador is still her wish, how do I ascertain if a breeder is decent? Is there registration required and if so how do you find this out? – sorry as a non-dog person I am ignorant in this field.
Any comments will be appreciated – I do hope someone can give some helpful advice – sorry the posting is so long.

Hi
Just wanted to say how sorry I am that things turned out like this for your MIL, I don't have any leagal expertise so can't help on that front. Please give my best wishes to her and if she decides that she still wants a pup there are people on here who are knowledgeable about the breed and should be able to help
Anne

Hi Guest :)
What a terrible Sad story :( :( Poor puppy.
Legally I have no idea where you stand. How disgusting that a breeder makes someone sign a contract like that
Absolutley no reputable, honest breeder worth their salt would ever do that

Unfortunatley, these puppy farms will always exist as long as people buy them (and that is no slur against your mum). When I was first looking for my pup, I rang all these kind of kennels, looking for a boxer. Luckily I stumbled across Champdogs and realise very quickly what I was doing. I learnt from here and now have a beautiful Boxer girl, from a very decent breeder who will always be on hand.

A good place to start in your search is the Labrador info on Champdogs. It will give you breed guides, clubs, useful links and the owners/breeders registered with Champdogs. Talk to as many people as you can. Ther are many experienced Labrador owners/breeders who can give you excellent advice.

Good on you for learning from that unfortunate experience and wanting to put it right.
I wish you luck and hope you find the pup right for you.
Ali :)

I'm so sorry to hear of this sad story, how absolutely awful and also how frustrating :(

I offer my sympathy, but can't help with the legal side.

However, regarding breeders and puppies, my recommendation is to do a lot of research and visit dog shows, talk to people (even if a pet Lab is wanted). This way you get knowledge of the breed in general, and hopefully of the breed in your area too.

A good breeder will have their time and experience to give you, and will want to stay in touch for the animal's life if possible - even just swopping cards at Xmas.

I have breeders near me for my chosen breed, and they have always been most anxous to stayin touch and have offered help and advice when needed.

Also, and for me personally this is the real test for me, a good breeder will want to ask YOU a lot of questions. As a puppy purchaser I welcome this because it makes me feel safe in their concern for their pups.

It goes without saying too, that it is so important to look into the health aspects, hips, eyes, etc of the Labrador and last but not least, listen to that good old gut feeling :)

HOpe your mother in law has better luck in the future and I do hope the "breeder" will "get theirs" in some way :)

Lindsay

From a legal point of view, the "breeder" may have made your MIL sign a contract but that does not mean it would stand up in a court of law (depending on what country you are from) In the UK, goods sold must be of "satisfactory quality" & "fit for the purpose" they were bought under the Sale of Goods legislation (this certainly applies to puppies) & no contract can release a seller from having to comply with these basic principles. Contact your local Trading Standards office if you are in the UK -they will be able to advise you on your MIL's legal rights & what action she could take. It could well be they have a file on this breeder if complaints have been made previously!

Poor puppy- my sympathies to everyone .
I think this goes to show that people should always visit and speak to a lot of breeders when going to buy a pup . We got the names of several breeders before buying our pup and even from just making enquiries over the phone I think you can get a "feel" for the type of breeder . Some you can tell are merely in the game to make money but the breeder we eventually chose was lovely . She spoke for hours about her dogs , would answer any questions at any time and you could just tell that she LOVED her dogs from the way she spoke about them and the way she interacted with them when we visited .We feel we can seek advice from her now that pup is home with us and she wont mind a bit helping us out.
Sadly there will always be people who see breeding as pound signs and are not bothered about WHAT they are breeding .
Lel

So sorry to hear of the fate of this poor puppy, this stinks of puppy farm rearing, the people she bought the pup from were probably what we call "dealers" buying in pups from puppy farms and selling them on for horrendous prices, please visit this site, www.mediacave.co.uk/wag they will be very interested to hear of this and please sign the petition it does not matter if you are not in the U.K. anywhere in the world will do.