Bad, unreasonable imports - Page 1

Since recently there had been lots of new imported dogs into Sri Lanka from nearby countries such as from Indonesia which are been sold for very cheap prices around USD 700 including broker profit.

I too have imported dogs for myself from various countries and from Indonesia too but I have paid much more. From what I figure, the transport cost and taxes all remain the same but how is the person able to get the puppies so cheap without compromising on the quality of the puppy.

There is no real fixed price of a puppy, all depends on the quality of the parents and the blood line.

I feel that these puppies are from pet shops or puppy mills as most of the puppies end up having rashes and a poor immune system not to mention some hip problems. We just keep encouraging the trade in another country.

Our people love cheap imported stuff including dogs regardless of quality, most think that imported means quality when you really can get the same quality locally for quater of the price.

From experience I knw that cheap dogs are not good and good dogs are not cheap, and there is always a reason why they are cheap. The brokers are not aware of the breed standard. Recently there he was marketing a yellow labrador puppy - 4 months old with a red nose telling is a rare colour and asking a higher price for it. Only fools will fall for it.

With these kind of people how can we really imporve the breed standard in a small country like mine.

Well, you are not alone in having poor imports. We get them in the U.S. too. I don't know if you are familiar with the American expression "buying a pig in a poke", but it means buying an animal (or anything) when the quality is unknown. Lots of people do it and buying puppies is basically a gamble anyway.

If people expect to show those poor quality dogs, then the way to stop such imports is to educate judges about the standard. If judges know the standard and judge to it, they won't give prizes to poor quality dogs. This will get people who want prize winning dogs to buy better quality dogs.

As far as shutting down puppy mills, you'd have to get legislation to do that. I don't know what your political system is like, so don't know if this is possible in your country.

I had many judges commenting that the dogs are poor quality and that they did not want to award anything but did because they were forced to. Well, i do not want to say who and what I do in the dog world but I get pretty close to the judges and get basically all there comments.

Stopping puppy mills is impossible, stopping puppy mills in other countries is impossible too.