As some of you know, we purchased our first yorkie (Benny) back in June. Yes, he came from a pet store. But, this is before I found yorkie talk! We were told this was a good place to go and that Belgium has strict laws concerning the sale of animals. Three days later he died. We don't know exactly what caused it. They did an autopsy, and it was inconclusive, no virus evident. We were heart broken.
On July 4th we put a deposit down on a new puppy (Oliver). The breeder lived in an older house out on a farm. He had all kinds of animals, horses, goats, deer, etc. This is not uncommon for Belgium. He took us into the back to show us the puppies. There were red flags, but we hadn't done our research (I know shame on us!!), and I think we were thinking with our hearts and not with our heads so we ignored them! We saw the parents, they were beautiful! We chose the boy puppy. We were told that we needed to purchase the puppy food from him, the breeder (5 bags at 35 euro per bag). We thought HOLY COW but figured he mixed his own food and that's what the puppy would be eating and didn't want to take the chance of switching his food during his transition into our home. We paid extra for his microchip and pedigree papers.
We finally went to pick Oliver up on July 28th. The "breeder" brought him out to us (we were in his office at his house). Oli was dirty, and smelly and had poo stuck to his rear. We took him home and gave him a bath.
The next day we took him to the vet because he wasn't eating, and by this time I knew from this board that he HAD to eat. This vet is WONDERFUL! She knows all about small breeds (even told us not to use a collar, but rather a harness).
She asked where we got him from and we told her. She said "ugh" and we knew right then it wasn't a good place. She told us that he is the same family that runs the pet store where we bought Benny! They are an hour and a half from each other! How could this happen??! She also said she used to work for this guy about 5 years ago but quit after a month or so because she "couldn't work for a man like that".
She asked if we saw all of his dogs and we said no, he only showed us the yorkies. She said that his whole farm is covered with dogs and that he has over 300 dogs. She asked if we saw the parents, and we said yes, they were perfect. She told us he is known for switching the mom to show people. He has a really small perfect female yorkie that stands in for the real mom.
Then she asked "did he make you buy a lot of expensive food?" and we said "yes!". She said Oliver wasn't eating because he's never even SEEN dog food before. More than likely he was still nursing. She said "Think about it, do you think this guy is going to buy 35 euro per bag dog food for 300 dogs and their puppies?!" He probably doesn't buy dog food for the pups. They stay on their mothers milk until they go to their new families. He probably makes a commission off of the dog food he sells (Swiss formula, bio mil)
We are now making sure that we get the word out to anyone and everyone who will listen to stay away from these 2 places!
The good thing is, Oliver is healthy so far. The vet was concerened about him at first because this guy has a problem with typhus.
The latest on Benny's case...
The pet store will not refund our money because we can't prove what killed him. They are however offering us a new puppy for just 175 Euro! UGH!
I think that' s it. If you made it this far...sorry it's so long! LOL Now you know why it's taken forever to write it! Thanks to all of you here, we now know what to look for when we are looking for a new puppy. We know what to avoid, and we know what to tell people to keep them away as well. So to all of you WONDERFUL yorkie lovers...THANK YOU!
We learned our lesson, puppy mills are EVERYWHERE in EVERY country! We also learned that a good place to turn when searching for a new puppy is your vet! They will be able to tell you if they have seen a lot of sick dogs from a particular place!
Brooke