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Frenchies in Montreal Puppy Mill Bust

A handful of new photos over on Flickr, including one of Heart REFUSING to share the bed, and the cutest squishy face photo of Jelly Bean ever taken.

Pix on Flickr —

http://www.flickr.com/photos/frenchbulldogs/sets/72157607640196814/

Screen capture of French Bulldog in cage at Montreal puppy mill bust

Now, in more grim news…

A HUGE puppy mill just north of Montreal has been busted. I mention this here, because one or two people I’ve spoken to have mentioned that they were going to Montreal to look at French Bulldog puppies.

I’ve since heard that this is apparently the same place some of them visited.  I’m told it wasn’t a pretty scene, and that the dogs were in abysmal shape, even the ones being trotted out for viewing by buyers. There were at least five or six French Bulldogs there, both adults and puppies.

This is on top of the English Bulldogs, poodles, and numerous other breeds also rescued from this tiny corner of hell.

From the CSPCA news release:

HSI and CSPCA rescuers were able to save 110 dogs, seven cats and one rabbit from this overrun breeding facility. The dogs, ranging from Boston Terriers to Dogs de Bordeaux, were living in piles of their own feces, and many were suffering from obvious medical conditions such as open sores and severe skin conditions. Skeletal remains were found still locked in cages inside the home, and a pile of burned animal remains was found in the rear of the property.

“The conditions at this puppy mill were by far the worst Humane Society International has ever seen,” said Rebecca Aldworth, director of animal programs for HSI Canada. “These animals were living in tiny wire cages stacked on top of one another with little or no access to food or water. Ninety percent of the dogs we rescued were severely emaciated, and many needed immediate medical attention. It is criminal that the CSPCA does not have the power to enforce provincial animal welfare legislation; in absence of this, puppy mills will continue to thrive in Quebec.”

News links:
http://www.hsicanada.ca/puppy_mills/second_montreal_bust_1009.html
http://ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080926/puppymill_Montreal_080926/20080926

Video (warning: graphic images)

The CSPCA is in DESPERATE need of funds to help care for these dogs. We ask that you consider making a donation. We’ve already made one, in the name of Heart and the Nellkins.

Link for donations:

http://spcamontreal.com/aidez1a.php?lg=en

By the way, did you know that you can help with situations like this, even if you can’t personally take a dog into your home? Volunteering for rescue takes many forms – you can help transport dogs, you can assist with fund raising, you can do home visits in your area, if you’re a trainer you can help rehabilitate dogs in need of re training, you can make sure your local shelters know about French Bulldogs and French Bulldog rescue – and yes, you can even foster dogs waiting for adoption.

Why not take a few moments, and register to become a French Bulldog Village volunteer? It doesn’t take much time, and it will repay you in more ways than you can imagine!

http://www.frenchbulldogvillage.com

Update: Gina Price is Found GUILTY

Updated news from two of the trial witnesses: Gina Price has been found GUILTY!

From John Hoffman –

I am very pleased to report that this afternoon, July 14, the jury in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee convicted abusive puppy importer Gina Price of fraud by mail, fraud by wire, income tax fraud and social security fraud.  The jury acquitted her on 2 counts of witness tampering because they were unable to sufficiently recall the revlevant testimony.

Ms. Price was remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshall pending sentencing on December 8, 2008.

There will likely be stories in at least two local newspapers tomorrow.  I will forward copies.

John E. Hoffman, Lawyer

This note from Tom, another trial witness, details how Gina tried to play the ‘poor, sick, crazy lady card’, and failed –

Gina Price was found guilty on:

1. Wire Fraud
2. Mail Fraud
3. Social Security Fraud
4. 2 counts false statements to Social Security
5. 2 counts False tax returns

They are looking at between 72 to 84 months in prison. Hopefully it will be close to 7 years.

Its finally happened!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SHE PULLED HER MENTAL THING AND THE JUDGE CALLED AN AMBULANCE, SHE REFUSED THE EMTS OF EVEN TOUCHING HER. NANCY HARR ASKED FOR IMMEDIATE INCARCERATION SINCE THE RISK OF A RUN WAS GREAT.   (Judge) AGREED, Said ” US MARSHALL, PLACE THIS WOMAN IN CONFINEMENT”

…….YEAH AND WOO HOO!

The case has been well covered in the Tennessee newspapers, with Knox News and the Tricities Paper doing an excellent job. Reporter Mac McClean in particular did a wonderful job. It was refreshing to see newspapers and reporters not blowing this off as just ‘another dog thing’.

You can read the full reports on the jury’s decision here and here.

And before you leave… Go read Charlotte Creeley’s excellent blog – “What if the Price Trial Was Conducted by Dogs?

My thanks to those who’ve been following the trial via this blog, and to the witnesses who’ve been sending me reports from the trial.

Price Trial Aftermath – shutting down puppy import brokers

To understand why I’ve been devoting so much time to the Gina Price trial, you need to first understand the ramifications of this case.

This is the very first time that a US puppy import broker or re seller has faced Federal charges and a federal trial. This has long reaching implications for every other currently operating broker who has victimized buyers, and put innocent puppies through hell.

Attorney John Hoffman has worked relentlessly towards the eradication of puppy re sellers. Here’s an email detailing what they’re planning next, and how you can help.

Please – if you know of anyone who has been the victim of a puppy import broker or re seller, ask them to get in touch with John. Witness who are willing to testify are the only ammunition available to fight these scumbags.

Email for re distribution from Charlotte Creeley, co founder of the Wrong Puppy

Gina Price of Rebel Ridge Kennels is currently on trial in federal court in Tennessee for abuses in connection with the sale of imported puppies and there is a very good chance of having investigations of other importers started if we can gather enough buyer complaints to show a pattern of fraud.

The federal prosecution of Price and the fact that Brenda Moncrieff (BulldogRavine, APlusBulldogs, and HeavenlyFrenchBulldogs) has voluntarily surrendered her kennel license to the Pennsylania authorities and taken down her websites shows us that responsible breeders and owners and purchasers of French Bulldogs CAN make a difference. Price and Moncrieff were two of the most prolific and abusive of the puppy import brokers.

The Wrong Puppy (www.thewrongpuppy.org) is asking for your help.  We need to gather as many complaints as possible about the purchase of import puppies from each and every abusive puppy import broker still hanging out their shingle. Warren James, one of the puppy buyers from Gina Price, set up a website called RebelRidgeKennelsIsBad.com (no longer in existence), which he used to collect complaints from puppy buyers. He had more than 30 complaints when the FBI investigation against Price started and more than 200 by the time the decision to prosecute was made.

We need to gather information and documents that we can use to justify prosecution of more of the bad guys. The information we need is:

1.   What the buyers were promised, and

2.   What the buyers received.

Documentation should include:

1.   Purchase agreement and health guarantee;

2.   Registration papers;

3.   All emails and correspondence between the buyer and the seller or anyone working for the seller;

4.   Vet records, including diagnoses and invoices

Please contact Attorney John Hoffman at canada@dslextreme.com if you have available documentation, or simply mail the documentation directly to his office at John E. Hoffman, Esq., 4035 Robin Hill Road, Flintridge, California  91011-3811.

Be sure to include any envelopes in which things were mailed, and records of any wire or Internet transfers of money in connection with the purchase of their puppy, because it is necessary to show use of the mails or wire facilities (including Internet and Western Union transfers) to show fraud by mail and fraud by wire, each of which carry sentences of up to 10 years in prison.

We especially need your help if you are a former employee who has information and/or copies of records. Please contact us! The Government can promise employees lower sentences or immunity in exchange for cooperation. Former employees (and current employees) can help break the cases wide open since they have far more information as to what was really happening than do the buyers

Cases involving puppies who died or who had serious medical problems are the most important, but we also want cases in which the promised registration papers were not provided and in which a promised health certificate was not furnished.

PLEASE, CROSSPOST FAR AND WIDE, GET THE WORD OUT TO EVERY BULLETIN BOARD, EVERY BLOG, EVERY EMAIL LIST, EVERY FRENCH BULLDOG OR BULLDOG MEETUP, EVERY FRENCH BULLDOG OR BULLDOG CLUB.  WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Charlotte Creeley, Esq.
cccpups@aol.com
cccreeley@comcast.net
http://www.cccpups.com

Gina Price's victims have their say in court

I’ve written before about the responsibility puppy buyers have to do their homework before shelling cash for a puppy they’re not even sure exists. In spite of this, it’s impossible not to feel for the people who’ve been victimized by puppy brokers like Gina Price.

Over the last week, some of Price’s victims had a chance to tell the court about their experiences with the puppies they bought from Rebel Ridge.

Jere Judd wanted an American-born English bulldog puppy he could register and one day breed.

He said he got an imported pooch so diseased it had to be euthanized two months later.

Tony Diliberto wanted a “Tennessee born and bred,” healthy bulldog for a pet.

He said he got an ailing import and $800 in veterinarian bills.

Michelle Cates said she wanted a snow-white bulldog that would be a mirror image of the mascot of her favorite college football team, the University of Georgia Bulldogs.

She said she got a spotted import beset with health problems and a slew of excuses for missing paperwork.

In the best tradition of scumbag puppy sellers everywhere, Price had the standard ‘send me the dog, and I’ll kill it and give you your money back’ guarantee. I call that the ‘dead dog clause’. It’s a get out of jail free card for sellers, because what loving owner is going to ship a sick puppy across the country to a certain death?

Diliberto said Price also assured him that his $1,200 payment was buying a purebred sired at her kennel. Within days, he learned the dog was an import with serious medical maladies, he testified. Diliberto said he contacted Price.

“She said, ‘If you want, you can ship me the dead dog, and I’ll send you another one,’ ” Diliberto said. “I said, ‘That’s sick. The dog’s not dead.’ She then said, ‘Send me the live dog, and I’ll put it down (euthanize it) and send you another.’ I realized then I wasn’t dealing with a rational, sane human being.”

Price’s attorney, clearly grasping at straws, presents this ‘guarantee’ as normal and reasonable. The grieving owner not only disagrees, but points out a simple fact – you can’t ship a dog without a health clearance, and you can’t ship a dead dog at all.

..defense attorney Richard Spivey noted that Price listed on her Web site a “health guarantee” that promises a replacement dog if the buyer ships to her the carcass of a bulldog that dies from poor health.

“Did you do that?” Spivey asked.

“Are you kidding?” an angry Diliberto replied. “You can’t ship a dead dog, by the way.”

Read the rest here on KnoxNews.Com

Other puppy buyers complained about odd delivery methods, and Price’s even odder instructions to them.

Norred told jurors Thursday that he grew suspicious of the deal when the dog arrived at the agreed-upon delivery site in the lap of a man, sans a cage or collar or anything else.

“I’m not an idiot, but something wasn’t right,” Norred said. “They handed me the dog like this (turning up the palms of his hands and reaching out his arms).”

When Norred asked how he was supposed to transport the dog, the woman delivering the dog “said use a seat belt.”

“I tried. I did,” Norred said as jurors and courtroom spectators began laughing. “The dog was looking at me like, ‘OK, you are an idiot.’ I drove home, holding the dog, praying.”

What wasn’t quite as funny was the scene that greeted Norred after his pup ate its first meal.

As soon as he arrived home, he dished out food for the scrawny pooch and left it to dine alone. When he returned, he found an empty food bowl and a dangerously bloated canine.

“I’ve had the dog an hour and I’ve killed him,” Norred recalled of his reaction.

Other victims tell even more heart breaking stories.

“How did it come to you?” Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy Harr asked.

“Smelly,” Snyder replied. “It wasn’t the dog on the (Web site).”

“How was it different?” Harr asked.

“It was a different color,” Snyder answered. “This dog had one eye. The puppy we ordered had two eyes.”

The dog died from medical maladies months later.

You can read the rest here.

The trial is ongoing.

Pet Store Hate Mail…

Oh, goody. We’ve got some pet store hate mail to share with you today, which always makes for fun reading. I should actually clarify here that the mail came in response to this post that I made over on the French Bulldog experts blog.

I don’t know if the person who wrote it is affiliated with the Pet Store mentioned in the blog. I assume not, but since they didn’t sign their mail other than with a first name, I can’t say for sure.

I’ll give you the entire email first, then break it down bit by bit afterwards.

Firstly I am writing to ask WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE???? You dont know anything about my pet store or probably any pet store anyplace. Mine is as very up scale a place as you will ever find. My puppies and kittens are all clean and healthy and friendly. We are a GREAT PLACE for people to get their new pets from!!!

So what if some people want to use a credit card to buy a dog???? Big deal!!! Do you think only rich people should get to buy a dog???? Money isnt everything you know.

You don’t know where we get our puppies from. For you information we only ever get ours from real LIVE caring breeders. Yes caring sell to us, imagine that!!! We look in the papers and find people who have had a litter and let them know we can find such good homes for them. They are grateful to us!!! And the puppy buyers are too. Other times we have agents who find us puppies from great breeders. All our puppies and kittens are loved!!

If a puppy we sell gets sick we take it back. How many breeders do that huh?? We will even partly pay vet bills or even sometimes just give them a new puppy. You don’t even get that when you buy a car, but we do it because it’s the RIGHT THING to do. We have a vet look at all our animals and he says no breeders can care for them as good as we do.

So you need to get off your high horse and stop thinking that all you breeders are sooooo special and better than pet stores. We are as good as you and better. And people who get a puppy here come back again and again to us. I would say you need to APOLOGIZE but you likely dont even know what that means. Well God bless anyways or are you not even a Christian huh???

Whew. She sure told me, didn’t she? I need to take a moment here and recover from the total shaming she gave me, and then I can move on.

Firstly I am writing to ask WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE????

I think I’m Carol “Just-Gravestock-dammit-stop-calling me-Taylor-it’s been almost ten years now”, and that I breed French Bulldogs under the prefix “Bullmarket”. I also waste my time running far, far too many French Bulldog information sites, because I need to get a life. Oh, and I’m a capricorn, my favorite color is black, my favorite drink is two pots of coffee per day and I’m not a fan of pet stores, BYBs, or stupid people in general.

You dont know anything about my pet store or probably any pet store anyplace

Well, you didn’t sign your full name, or the name of your pet store, so who’s fault is that? If you’re so proud of it, why not share it? As well, I feel I’ve done a good bit of research into the retail pet industry, but again, if yours is so outside the norm, share its name and address with us. I bet one or two of my readers will be happy to stop by for a visit (and a bout of covert photography).

Mine is as very up scale a place as you will ever find. My puppies and kittens are all clean and healthy and friendly.

My Grandmother always said “Pretty is as pretty does”. Clean does not equal ethical. Also, it takes a truly sick baby animal to not be cute, or to not beg for attention.

So what if some people want to use a credit card to buy a dog???? Big deal!!!

Do you want to know why it’s a big deal? It’s a big deal because people should not view their purchase of a living being the same way they purchase a sweater. If you can’t afford the puppy, you’ll be unlikely to afford its on going care, either. No one claimed pet ownership wasn’t a luxury, especially ownership of breeds prone to esoteric diseases and conditions even when bred to the best of a breeder’s ability.

Money isnt everything you know.

Yes, I’m sure you’re one of those non profit charity pet stores. Give me a break.

You don’t know where we get our puppies from.

Yes I do – the same place every other pet store does.

For you information we only ever get ours from real LIVE caring breeders.

As opposed to what, dead caring breeders?

We look in the papers and find people who have had a litter and let them know we can find such good homes for them.

Oh. My. GOD. Did you just admit to trolling the papers for BYB litters, then re selling them? And you think you should be praised for that?

They are grateful to us!!!

Of course they are, because they bred their pet without any idea at all what to do with the puppies, and now they’re getting older, and eating, and pooping non stop, and now they need shots and… that breeder is thinking “Who cares who the pet store sells them to, because my wife/spouse/parents are going to throw a fit if I don’t get them out the door soon, and the kids who kept telling how they’d do all the work are no where to be found, so good riddance”.

Other times we have agents who find us puppies from great breeders.

Umm, those agents? They’re called brokers. They’re the middle men between you and the puppy mills, and the big outfits like Hunte Corporation. This makes you different from other pet stores how?

If a puppy we sell gets sick we take it back. How many breeders do that huh??

Every single good breeder I know. That’s sort of the line in the sand between ‘good’ and ‘bad’.

We will even partly pay vet bills or even sometimes just give them a new puppy.

“Partly”? “Sometimes”? Let me guess – the only way they get a refund is if they ‘return’ the puppy to you so you can ‘euthanize’ it. That’s called the death card insurance policy – the odds that someone will return a sick puppy they’re emotionally invested in weighed out against the risk of refunding their money. I bet you don’t have to pay out very often, do you?
You don’t even get that when you buy a car, but we do it because it’s the RIGHT THING to do.

You do it because most states require it by law. Also, dogs – living beings. Cars – hunks of metal. Not a good analogy.

We have a vet look at all our animals and he says no breeders can care for them as good as we do.

Have your vet breathe on a mirror. Does it fog over? No? That’s proof your vet has no soul, a common trait among the living dead. He sold his soul when he came to work for you. I’d pity him, but really zombies just sort of freak me out.

So you need to get off your high horse and stop thinking that all you breeders are sooooo special and better than pet stores.

I like my high horse. It’s comfortable, and the view from up here is great. Plus, I don’t think all breeders are so special, but I do, however, think all pet stores are the debbil.

people who get a puppy here come back again and again to us.

Of course they do, because they are the type of Paris Hilton esque nitwits who change their pets like the rest of us change our socks. They buy a cute puppy, get sick of the not so cute adult, dump it, then buy another cute puppy. Stupid people are a pet store’s best friends.

I would say you need to APOLOGIZE but you likely dont even know what that means.

No, I do apologize. I apologize to every puppy hauled cross country in a truck to be sold by you. I apologize to every sick kitten sitting in your display window and shivering with FLV. I apologize to every well meaning person who ‘rescues’ a puppy from you, only to have it break their heart when it dies.

Who do you apologize to?

Well God bless anyways or are you not even a Christian huh???

Why? Why do they always, always have to throw in the God part? Do they think it’s some sort of animal cruelty get out of jail free card?

Am I a Christian? Not if being a Christian means that I have a special dispensation to commit acts of animal cruelty. Not if being a Christian means cloaking myself in God every time someone questions my very dubious morals. Not if you’re one.

Somehow, I have the feeling that Jesus would be saying the same thing – “If that’s what they’re calling themselves, I’m getting a name change”.

So, Mr. Pet Store owner, if you have any more to share, please do so. And, like I said, share the name and address of your store with us, too. Come on – prove me wrong. It would be a relief, actually.