[sneri13]

I think it's great that everyone here is pulling together to stop puppymills and inform people about buying from reputable breeders and hearing about bruce's mom's story. I was thinking about my own ignorance when I purchased Mac. It dosen't seem to be limited to just pet stores but a lot of these "Broker" web sites also. Which unfortunately is where I purchased mac from. I spoke with the dealer who happened to leave near me and seemed like she actually had a couple of people she dealt with and that she only sold the very best dogs. I should have known something was wrong from the start. At first she said I had to wait an extra week because he had a cold and the breeder did not want to ship him. I thought this was actually very wise at the time. However I think I should have known this was a red flag. When Mac finally came to live with us I immediately took him to the vet. Everything was in order but he seemed to have an eye infection. Well that was just the beginning. Within the first 2 weeks we were at the vet constantly. My vet then recommended that we take mac to the animal hospital that we have in our state. It turns out that Mac was born with AtlantoAxial Malformation. At time the Neurologist recommend that we put him to sleep he didn't think he would live and was to tiny to have the necessary surgery which he problably would not survive or return him to the dealer. I just could not do that, so I decided to keep him and just give him a happy loving home and leave it in God's hands. Thank God he's doing just fine now the vet calls him little miracle man. I went back to the dealer who at this time decided she was just and advertiser. It was between me and the breeder and even though our state has a puppy lemon law it turns out that taking her to court would cost me more in legal fees then I had already paid in vet bills. She did however decided that she would refund her profit on the deal $800.00. She was not concerned at all about the dog and I found out that she had never dealt with this breeder ever before and the breeder actually sold Mac's sister to a pet store.

When I deceided to get Mellie is was alot more educated and knew what to look for in a reputable and responsible breeder. I wish I had this knowledge to start with.

Ok after my long winded speal my thought is that we could start a thread of any places or websites we know of that people should avoid or have had a bad experience with maybe that could help put a dent in things.