A $5.00 Rolex Will Not Tell Time!

It is not uncommon for someone to approach you on a New York City street and offer you the deal of the century. Hung on the inside lining of a long coat are all sorts of shiny objects, including a $5.00 Rolex watch. If you spend your hard earned cash on this watch, two things will be true. It will not tell time and you have no one to complain to but yourself.

The same is true for dogs. A $3,000. purebred puppy, offered from the back of a truck in a parking lot for $500 in cash will often be ill, unable to survive, will have forged papers, and could cost you $10,000 in lifesaving medical bills. The seller is usually long gone leaving you only a burn phone number and heartache.

spcaLA recently convicted one such individual, Armando Viramontes, on 2 counts of the Penal Code - selling a puppy under 8 weeks of age and selling said puppy in a public place. He is currently awaiting sentencing.

Holiday season brings out more of these individuals than we have the resources to deal with. Please, don't create a demand for these puppies. You do not want your holiday puppy to die in someone's arms, nor do you want to be complicit in the suffering of these animals.

spcaLA suggests giving a gift certificate for a pet which allows the recipient to choose, adopting a shelter pet, and, as a last resort, researching a legal, humane and local provider of puppies.

The $5.00 Rolex will simply not tell time. The callous trafficking of these babies hurts all of us, all the time.

The Painfully High Cost of Adorable

puppies from mill seized by spcaLA

I recently appeared on a radio show to discuss the harm caused by irresponsible breeding practices and the avarice of some breeders, specifically, bulldogs. These dogs should be the "poster children" for everything that is wrong with this system. They are extremely expensive, have extensive medical and skin issues, and are magically adorable. Despite the former and because of the latter they are in high demand. The other guest on the show billed herself as a bull dog breeder who loves these dogs, yet orders them from mills in the Ukraine forcing them to travel when only 7 weeks old to suffer all the perils of transit aggravated by the respiratory and other medical complications caused by inbreeding, nutritional deficits and the like. A caller to the show lamented that her french bulldog cost $10,000 and a lot more than that in medical upkeep and surgeries to ease all the congenital defects in the dog. A very common story that in many cases ends with the dog being turned into a shelter. The fact that everybody wants one plus the huge price tag of one, is all the breeders need to hear to create a supply of these dogs.

The same day, a shipment of 23 unresponsive puppies (pure breed and mixed) found in a hot car at the US-Mexico border were confiscated by officials. Again, people looking for a specific breed or in some cases a "reduced price" for an expensive breed create a demand for the puppy mill breeders on the Mexican side of the border. People pay cash only for these dogs, often via a street sale, for less than the going rate, only to find the dog dead within 48 hours and nothing but the number to a burn phone and fake paperwork left in his or her wake.

This has to stop. The dogs are sick, the families who care about them are heartbroken, the breed is decimated and these unscrupulous people laugh all the way to the bank.

If we stop creating the demand the suppliers will suffer. Isn't that better?

Chris Brown Breeding and Selling Pit Bull Puppies for $1000 Online

courtesy Google Images

Would you buy a used car from Chris Brown? Let alone a pit bull puppy.

Chris Brown is breeding and selling 2 month old pit bull puppies for a $1000 each.

Why does a rock star and known domestic violence abuser choose to breed dogs, and why, specifically pit bulls? What does Brown know about the genetics of responsible breeding? Will the dogs be fixed? How will they determine what is a good home? Who would pay that price? Do pit bulls enhance his "bad boy" image?

Animal shelters across the country are brimming with unwanted pit bull dogs. Adopters shun them because they fear that the dogs have violent dispositions as they are associated with dog fighting, gang violence and other crimes. Home insurance companies won't insure homeowners with pit bulls as pet. The breed is completely banned in some cities altogether and some animal shelters won't adopt them out as a matter of policy.

The result is the dogs suffer when they are misused and abused by felons and those who want to convey a "bad-ass" image, or euthanized in droves because nobody wants them - not even the "good ones". So it is this dog that Chris Brown chooses to breed.

I fear that people who want a celebrity dog will pay this price despite the fact that they can get a dog from an animal shelter for a fraction of the cost. I fear that those who wish to emulate Brown's tough guy persona and violent temper will now want a pit bull accessory. I wish his mother would talk some sense into him rather than advertising these dogs on Twitter. I wish that Brown would use his celebrity and financial resources to help deal with the existing pet overpopulation problem in this country.

I would love to see the USDA ( as online sales will cross state lines) or local enforcement that regulates breeding step in and stop this activity and perhaps deter any other similar escapades.


Where did I place my magic wand?