Question for Breeders- - Page 1

A friend of mine purchased a puppy for her mother who just recently had to put her dog down after 14 yrs.  After a week with the puppy was urinating while it would walk around and even while it slept. After a few more days the pup had a seizure and was taken to the ER.  I'm not sure what the details were but the vet recommended that they take this puppy back to the breeder because they felt the pup was going to possibly need extensive treatment, tests and likely surgery that was gonna be costly.  Whatever the pups diagnosis was (I can't remember off hand) the vet said it may or may not grow out of it.  The lady contacted the breeder and told her what was going on with the puppy and the breeder very non chalantly said "well, just bring her back, we'll refund your money for the pup and she'll be fine here- the urinating isn't an issue for us since she'll live outside in the kennel".  The new owner was mortified with this response and said "we've grown attached to the dog and I don't want her to live in a kennel without getting the proper treatment-she's sick".  The breeder said, we'll deal with it; we'd offer you another pup but we don't have any left and no one else has contacted us with any health issues on their pups, we're sorry this happend but all we can do is refund your money.  The breeder never mentioned that the lady was now out $800.00 to the vet in addition to the money she paid for the pup.  The owner decided to keep the pup hoping the vet would be correct that the pup may grow out of this issue but a month later the dogs condition worsened and now in addition to the problem with the subconcious urinating now there is an infection.  The dog had to stay at the vet and she had to pay an additional $1,500 for the treatment.  She wants to sue the breeder.  I'm not sure she has any recourse to sue.  Here's what she wants-a full refund for the pup which is $550.00 without giving back the pup or she wants the breeder to split the vet bills with her and she'll keep the dog.

Oh I wanted to mention that the owner who the dog is registered under is not the actual person who bought the dog from the breeder.  So in this case I'd have to say how can she have grounds to sue if she was not the one who entered into the sales agreement right?  The other thing I mentioned to her is although I sympathize with her situation she's gotta understand that the breeder was willing to refund the money and take back the dog-although that does not settle the added up vet bills...the breeder is still willing to work with her.  She can't have it both ways get the money and the dog and the breeder is assed out altogether.  Is it possible that if they went to court she could recover the vet bills and still keep the dog?

vomlandholz;  she lives in Pennsylvania and I'm not sure if there is a puppy lemon law.  That's interesting though; I've never heard of such a thing with dogs.  Cars yes,dogs no. lol  There was no contract, no health guarantees from what I understood.  Sounded to me like the breeder was BYB.  I wished I had known my friend was seriously looking to buy a pup at the time so I could have at least told her what to ask before buying but it's too late for that now.  I'm not a breeder and fortunately I have never been placed on the receiving end of getting a sick pup but me personally I would have cut my losses very early on when I found out the pup had issues.  Just as quick as I got attached to the first pup I'm sure I would have bonded with another healthy one that I would have likely had a much longer life expectancy with.  But I think now the new owner is stuck on the emotional part that if she returned the pup it's future would be to live out life in a kennel without her health issues being addressed.  It's an unfortunate situation.

A hard lesson but hopefully one they will remember next time they get a pup. 

vomlandholz; thanks, I will pass this info on to her but somehow I think she's gonna be screwed on this one and will have to live with her decission to keep the sick pup.