I'd be very curious as to what airport the first situation took place. I've known many, many people who have had dogs flown in from down south (U.S) and have had no problems at all. Duty is paid by the purchaser or receiver on the price stipulated by the breeder or seller, and the only paperwork required is the bill of sale and vaccination (rabies) certificate. It's usually pretty cut and dried.
It's so sad that the poor animals had to go through all those hours on a flight and back. (as someone who flew a pup who ended up waylaid due to freezing rain, I can definitely empathize).
To me, it sounds alot like the Target situation...a person wielding alot of power having a bad day and taking it out on those who don't deserve it.
As far as the 'gift' situation goes, and as one who lives on the border and deals with customs regularly, I know that if the gift is a substantial one, (and sometimes even if it's a small one) there will always be duty, GST and PST applied. Given that there was no bill of sale or dollar amount attached to the pup by the sender, duty, PST and GST would have to be applied using an 'average' price or a price stipulated by Canada Customs. Two thousand dollars is quite high, though if it is factual, this would be in Canadian Dollars and equal out to quite a bit less in USD. (One also must take into consideration that Yorkie prices up here are on average higher than in the US... usually around $1500.00+) This could have been avoided had the breeder attached a dollar amount, even 200.00 for example. GST, PST and duty would have had to be paid ONLY on that amount.
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