My heart is in my boots :(

Just look at this: http://dogs4us.com/puppysales.asp

I feel physically sick. A 6 months guarantee (great! So after 6 months, if the new owners who bought it on a Christmas whim don't want it anymore it goes to the pound), puppies coming in every week and just look at the list of breeds!

I was about to list the ones that you wouldn't place with a first time owner without close supervision by someone experienced in the breed but there are too many :(

I recently heard from someone who bought a puppy from these people - there's even a facebook group of fans.

Most of us here can read that and know straight away that it's not right but please if you were ever considering a puppy from this dreadful place, DON'T.

And you're providing a link to this place for the kind of people we KNOW read this forum? :loopy:

I can see all the rehoming templates filled in now :mad:

Well it's easy enough to google, and to be fair, I'm pretty sure anyone looking at buying one from there would've found it before my post.

Sorry, on other forums I've used you're not supposed to post a comment without some sort of link to what it is you're on about.

And the link will remain (unless removed, although I don't think it breaks any rules), because that is what I'm talking about. I'd rather people saw it accompanied by my post than found it via the damned facebook group that claims how damn good their 'approved breeder' scheme is :mad:

The person I referred to who had been there recently, was told their pup was registered. What they were not told was that the pup was 'registered' with the DLRC which means sod all, and after £50 worth of vet bills to sort the pup out before it could have it's vaccinations, the vet informed them that it was either a cross breed or older than they told them it was.

So yes, I'm providing a link, just like I'd provide a link to anything else I started a topic on :loopy:

I'm horrified. Thirty-six-odd different breeds? my God!! can you say "puppy farm?"

I dread to think what condition the pups and the brood-bitches are going to be in.

I have a feeling they come from lots of different places.
The lady I mentioned before was given the name of the 'person' who bred her puppy but no way of contacting them.

These are almost certainly puppy farmed dogs - and the puppies are the lucky ones
the mummies left behind most certainly aren't
but with all these things - the public just selfishly think about themselves, and close their eyes to the horrors.

In addition to that about the 6 months things - many of the local pounds up there will destroy after the 8th day - and probably before if the animal was handed in - and therefore doesn't need to stay for the 7 day period.

Not a bad life for a puppy eh?
Farmed
super life
pound
dead
All in 6 months - and the family will just have recovered from doing their dumping - in time for next christmas's order
this time - they will buy a different colour and a different breed - and this dog will do as its told - won't it?
oh yes - will remember to buy a sparkly collar and a new coat - that will make a difference for it - and it had better be grateful too.

Sorry, I wasn't denying they were farmed... I was just saying Dogs 4 Us are the dealers, the puppies come from several different puppy farms all over.

It makes me sick :mad:
I have some overdue work to finish tonight and then I'm getting on their case and the radio stations that have aired their ad... and several other places too :mad:

well played Lotti
we have to make them know - that some people are aware of what goes on behind the scenes. Even if the general public don't
Pity we can't afford to take out 'counter' adds -

Get onto the Sheffield Star too - I am disgusted at the advert they have allowed in there - must 'v cost a fortune -

Well done Lottie in bringing it to peoples attention. If people don't buy from them it will stop them trading hopefully. Wrt strix comment I had alredy seen the add before you put the link on and was appalled by the idea. I think by bringing it to peoples attention and letting them know its not acceptable it may stop people going to buy a puppy on impulse

There's a long thread on here already about this place, people have been getting in touch asking difficult (if your not responsible) questions as well as protesting outside the Leeds store.

They also run Radio adverts which people on here have been trying to get banned as well as large colour adverts in the Ad-Mag. - Just to give an indication of the type of owners they are marketing to.

Thats right Beansfor you there is a thread already and people are protesting, at the fact that the dogs are all puppy farmed. There is one in Manchester and one in Bramley, Leeds. There was a bit of confusion as people thought it was Bramley Rotherham.

The thing that I find the worse on the site is that everything on there is tailored to what the owner wants what the owner needs - typical sales patter e.g.

"For your peace of mind each puppy is covered by a 6 month guarantee"- What a guarantee that it won't die?!?!:loopy:

"We advise customers wanting a particular breed of dog to ring us before visiting our kennels, to check on availability." -Wouldn't want new owners to be dissapointed now would we?

"Introducing a new puppy into a family is a happy and exciting time. To help ensure that the dog meets your expectations as a pup and also as a mature pet, there are some important considerations to deal with." - Once again the owners expectations!! An exciting time?? It's not exciting for the puppy it's blooming terrifying!:rant:

"The first consideration is the size of dog that you prefer. Would you like a small, medium or large breed." - Like picking a car. I'm suprised they don't ask how many spots you would like on your dalmation.

"You may find it useful to read up about the nature and traits of the different breeds of dog. "- May find it useful?!?!?!

OK now the important considerations- size of dog, size of your house, and ammount of excercise you want to give er hello? :huh: There is nothing on there AT ALL about commitments to getting a dog-vet bills, food costs, insurance, training classes etc (also it says larger breeds need more excersise-mmm what rubbish information-so a border collie is a third the size of a Douge De Bordeux so only needs a third of the excercise!)
and does anybody know what temp vaccinated is??

<snipped for brevity>

I know!!! It's so distressing, especially when you think about how many of these pups will be bought on a whim, with no thought to the fact that (as The Dogs Trust says) "A dog is for LIFE, not just for Xmas".

I dread to think how many of these poor pups will be bought as Xmas presents, only to find themselves dumped when the novelty wears off.

Where's a "beats head against a wall" smiley when you need one?

Just emailing them to ask about health testing, lets see what response I get.:rolleyes:

Just emailing them to ask about health testing, lets see what response I get.:rolleyes:

Yes good idea did you ask about any specific tests like hip/eye testing for thier "pedigree" labs/ GSD's? Or ear testing for dalmations/white puppy's? Or any other of the many tests that the puppy's and parents should have had. Otherwise you will just get a generic answer like "THANKS FOR YOUR QUERY, YES ALL OUR PUPPIES COME WITH A 6 MONTH HEALTH GUARANTEE BLAH BLAH BLAH!"

The thing that I find the worse on the site is that everything on there is tailored to what the owner wants what the owner needs - typical sales patter e.g.

"For your peace of mind each puppy is covered by a 6 month guarantee"- What a guarantee that it won't die?!?!:loopy:



Yep, the guarantee is that if there's anything wrong with your puppy, they'll just take it back. Kill it. And give you a new one.

Horrendous!

Yep, the guarantee is that if there's anything wrong with your puppy, they'll just take it back. Kill it. And give you a new one.

Horrendous!

Shame they won't be able to trace the breeders in a few years when half of them end up with hip dysplasia and the like. :sad:

I don't agree with selling dogs in this way AT ALL but there is a lot of things they could do to improve and help reduce the probability of them getting dumped. For example, I can't belive they don't even have any information on the breeds online the good AND bad points of owning each type let alone cost analysis for the next 10 years for each breed, excersice/grooming/shedding and basic information that an owner would need. Then they have the cheek to say "You may find it useful to read up on your chosen breed"!!!!!
Basically they don't care it's pick a cute puppy (notice how they are all bloody dressed up!!!), the size you want and the colour and we'll have one waiting for you, let's take your cash and after that off you go...which begs another question-how much are the selling them for?

Its aweful that this place has been able to exist and be licenced let alone all the the illnesses these animals can be bred with too!!! so what will that produce its not good either way you look at it.

Well I've had two pieces of good news today:

Spottie tells me she's had a reply from Hallam FM who were unable to 'resolve the issue' with Dogs4us, so they pulled the ad (thought I'd not heard it in the last few days)

Peaches tells me she's seen an article in the Metro which appears to have been written in collaboration with the Dogs Trust - headlined 'A slogan is for life, not just for Christmas' :thumbsup:

Does anybody have a copy of the Metro article to quote directly?

Oooo look! The Metro article is online :)
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?Popular_puppy_slogan_turns_30&in_article_id=434336&in_page_id=34
(read past the 'related links' box :thumbsup: )

I was reminded of this thread earlier whilst watching TV.

The new Andrex advert was on, depicting a litter of Lab puppies all coming to visit on christmas day, which caught my attention, the relationship between christmas and new puppies being so prominent on a few forums I visit at this time of year.

Their slogan is ' get your hands on an Andrex Winter Puppy' - catchy heh :suspect:

They are donating £1.50 for every 'winter' puppy sold.

I don't really know what to make of it, on one hand it's for charidee (teenage cancer trust) and I wonder if my christmas puppy radar has only been activated because of what I am reading day in day out at the moment, but still, it seems they have got as close to giving a puppy for christmas as possible, don't you think?

erm, didn't they used to donate their charity money to guide dogs for the blind? :?

I'm not keen on the images of puppies and Christmas going hand in hand. Perhaps they should have only had the stuffed ones in the ad, rather than encouraging kids to ask for a real pup for Christmas?

I wonder what Andrex would say if they were contacted about it

Makes me cringe how these chuffin' companies get away with it. Designed purely for the none pet lovers in this world - who more money than sense (about 50p then) who just want to buy a pet as a gift on christmas morning....to either pacify their little darlings...or get them a tick in the good book with their partner.

Sick, scum sucking (better not put what I'd like to!) turnips! :rant:

Real radio are running this ad too I have been reliably informed today.:rant:

Sick, scum sucking (better not put what I'd like to!) turnips! :rant:

lol that's a class insult hee hee:hihi:

Real radio are running this ad too I have been reliably informed today.:rant:would you like a copy of my complaint to Hallam to send to them?

lol that's a class insult hee hee:hihi:

Ta ;) :) ....

I saw this ad in the free paper that drops through our door and was horrified, and that was before visiting the website :(

anybody want to see an expose on the kind of place that supplies them?

click the owl for subtitles

http://www.s4c.co.uk/clic/e_level2.shtml?series_id=315133547

Can't face watching that one at this time of night Strix - maybe another day when I have the stomach for puppy farming evil people.

Also - found this thread about a few sad tales of people who had naively fallen into the trap of thinking puppies could be bought like this - this is a great site with a lot of knowledgeable people on there.

http://www.petparliament.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=180&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=45

They seem to have made that one visible only to members now, so you'll have to register to read

any bits in particular you can share with us RainRescue?

I sent a rather uneducated email to them asking about cavvies and also asked them about Syringmyelia I misspelt it and apologised and told them a breeder had asked me to ask about it and that I didnt know what it was.

This was the reply:

Thanks for your enquiry.
We do have cavalier pups at the moment and they cost £550.00 for both sexes; we have tri-coloured and also blenheim.
When the pups arrivr to us, they are checked by the vet and given a temporary vaccination - their vaccinations are done at 10 & 12 weeks by your own vet.

(I spoke to our vet about the "syringomelia?" and i'm not too sure myself of how you spell it either!and he says he has never seen a case in 30 years of prcatise! It is the disease caused by problems with the brain.)


Regards
Dogs 4 Us

To say I am gobsmacked is an understatement.!

I sent a rather uneducated email to them asking about cavvies and also asked them about Syringmyelia I misspelt it and apologised and told them a breeder had asked me to ask about it and that I didnt know what it was.

This was the reply:

Thanks for your enquiry.
We do have cavalier pups at the moment and they cost £550.00 for both sexes; we have tri-coloured and also blenheim.
When the pups arrivr to us, they are checked by the vet and given a temporary vaccination - their vaccinations are done at 10 & 12 weeks by your own vet.

(I spoke to our vet about the "syringomelia?" and i'm not too sure myself of how you spell it either!and he says he has never seen a case in 30 years of prcatise! It is the disease caused by problems with the brain.)


Regards
Dogs 4 Us

To say I am gobsmacked is an understatement.!

Thats terrible, words just fail me. They really do.

There was an advert run on Galaxy this morning for this awful place:rant:

If anybody wants a copy of the email I sent to Hallam outlining the problems Dogs Trust, RSPCA and the Advertising Standards Authority have with the ad, I'm happy to forward it

I watched the video you posted this morning Strix, sadly nothing in it surprised me in the least, it's a shame councils are allowing profit to come before stopping animal cruelty and fraud, but it seems to be the sign of the times.

If it were a retailer selling such defective electrical goods in contravention of the sale of goods act, the council would make more effort over this :mad:

anybody want to see an expose on the kind of place that supplies them?

click the owl for subtitles

http://www.s4c.co.uk/clic/e_level2.shtml?series_id=315133547

OMG! Just watched this can't belive that people wll buy puppies from the back of a van!!:o
I actually didn't know whether to belive that the puppies there were puppy farmed for the superstore but after watching that it's pretty obvious that they are-otherwise they surely would be KC registered???

but it's all done in such a friendly fashion - he'll bring the dogs to meet you - after all, you don't want to drive all the way into deepest darkest Wales ;)

You can tell people to buy pups under certain criteria from ethical responsible breeders 'til you're blue in the face, and they'll scream it's none of your business, but when they get more than their fingers burt (and a £3k vet bill to boot) somehow it's the fault of the system

if people didn't buy from these places they'd go bust :banana:

It's just so sad. The people with the Pom puppies-they didn't know the puppies were 5 times the size they should have been!?Or with the pug which she spent a fortune on-it seemed like all she wanted was a pedigree else how could she switch her dogs 3 times???
It's just ignorance and the lady who swapped her dog like 3 times and ended wit a £3k+ vet bill I kinda feel like it's thier own fault for thier ignorance I just feel sorry for the dogs-thier the victims at the end of the day

Anybody heard this advert now on Galaxy??? I have just emailed them a piece of my mind!

email the advertising standards authority too

I emailed Hallam FM and never heard a peep from them.

they pulled the ad though

oh did they, thats good

I'm just speechless! I have to admit I have heard the advert on the radio alot but to be honest I'm at work and not paying any attention to it really. They makeit sound like buying a car from carcraft or something, next you'll beable to trade in your old dog!!!!
Gets me mad!

I'm just speechless! I have to admit I have heard the advert on the radio alot but to be honest I'm at work and not paying any attention to it really. They makeit sound like buying a car from carcraft or something, next you'll beable to trade in your old dog!!!!
Gets me mad!

Especially if your old dog no longer matches the décor(or the carpet) Eh!

it really does make one's blood boil.

you would think the RSPCA would be able to stop this through the Animal Welfare Act wouldn't you? Sickening.

This was the reply....

Thanks for your feedback on the advertisments currently on air for dogs4us.

I understand your concerns and appreciate you taking the time to contact us.

The advertising on our station falls under the regulations of Ofcom and the
Advertising Regulatory Authorities, and all campaigns are in compliance
with these guidelines.

This advertiser has met all of the criteria and therefore we are not at liberty
to refuse them advertising space.

I appreciate this is probably not the reply you would have wanted, but I hope
that at the very least you can see we take our listeners views seriously and
can only hope that you continue to enjoy what Galaxy has to offer as a listener.


I'm still waiting on a reply from my response;

Neither is wearing fur illegal, or eating dogs in China, but it sure doesn't mean I would do it. I have morals.


As far the advertising standarads what can they do when they are not breaking any laws? so many people even dog lovers don't realise the implications of the store. I'm constantly having to explain to friends/colleagues why the store is a problem-they just don't realise or think of where the puppies come from. It's been some years since we have had a problem with pet shops selling puppies. I wonder how long it will be until they have some competition as other's catch up.

This was the reply....

Thanks for your feedback on the advertisments currently on air for dogs4us.

I understand your concerns and appreciate you taking the time to contact us.

The advertising on our station falls under the regulations of Ofcom and the
Advertising Regulatory Authorities, and all campaigns are in compliance
with these guidelines.

This advertiser has met all of the criteria and therefore we are not at liberty
to refuse them advertising space.

I appreciate this is probably not the reply you would have wanted, but I hope
that at the very least you can see we take our listeners views seriously and
can only hope that you continue to enjoy what Galaxy has to offer as a listener.


I'm still waiting on a reply from my response;

Neither is wearing fur illegal, or eating dogs in China, but it sure doesn't mean I would do it. I have morals.


As far the advertising standarads what can they do when they are not breaking any laws? so many people even dog lovers don't realise the implications of the store. I'm constantly having to explain to friends/colleagues why the store is a problem-they just don't realise or think of where the puppies come from. It's been some years since we have had a problem with pet shops selling puppies. I wonder how long it will be until they have some competition as other's catch up.

I also hate this god awful place ... years ago i went to the one in Manchester. The first thing you saw was a massive photo of Colleen Rooney buying her dog from there!!! I cried when i came out , little pupies sat in their own XXXX , without their mum, hundreds of people gawping at them . The poor mum probably looks so awful that its probably her 6th litter or something absolutely disgusting. Surely this place should be closed down?:rant:

Even from somebody who doesn't think where the dogs come from do they think it's accepable to pay for a puppy a ridiculous ammount where the puppies are very unlikley to be full pedigrees anyway as theyare not KC reg?
Then have a normal puppy who has not been traumatised by this crazy early life?
And to top it all you have no idea how it's going to react in a house as they have probably never been inside one before!!!!
Also puppies generally get vaccinated at 8 and 10 weeks not 10 and 12 weeks as stated in the Dogs4Us reply is this just a way of getting out of them providing the injections at extra cost to themselves??
I'm glad I havn't gone it's bad enough seeing Iam's food stored in our local Pets at Home, let alone a load of puppies on show.