Charlie

We purchased a miniature Dachshund dapple puppy on Saturday 27th March 2021 from an address in Bedford after seeing the puppies advertised on a website. We had believed the seller to be legitimate due to their website, and manner, though of course now we feel that something is simply not right about the whole arrangement. We responded to the website via text to arrange the purchase of Charlie and initially everything looked to be legitimate. We were given the Vaccination Record card at time of buying. The property had other animals there and appeared to be a home rather than a front.

The puppy was quite perky and appeared ok until the early hours of Monday morning when it began vomiting and looking poorly. By 8a.m. he had also developed diarrhea and my wife got him to a vet by10.am. He was monitored for a bit and diagnosed with Parvovirus. During the following days they tried to keep him hydrated with a drip and stomach tube feeding.  Sadly his condition deteriorated and became critically ill yesterday (Thursday) with no prospect of recovery. We were both grateful to be able to hold him while he was put to sleep yesterday evening after losing his battle.  Naturally we are devastated that he had such a short life.

The Veterinary Practice where Charlie spent his final days is Cromwell Vets in Huntingdon. The vet told my wife on the Monday to inform the seller as the seller must notify the buyers of the other puppies, as well as there being a risk to the other dogs at that property.  When messaged about the risk the seller replied claiming that all of her dogs were fine. Within a few minutes the seller called my wife and said she had checked with all the other buyers and none of the other pups were ill. Very unlikely to have checked this in such a short time.

We now believe that the seller is highly suspicious as the dog's welfare clearly has not be adhered too, whereby the puppies and mothers must be kept isolated and protected from sources of infection during suckling and early life.

 The account sort code relates to a Lloyds Bank in the High Street  in Bedford, rather than a clearing bank. The Vaccination / chipping record card appeared to be produced by: Mobile Vet London. The veterinary Surgeon who signed the card was #### ####.  It indicated that Charlie (originally listed as 'Yellow') was born on 20/01/2021 and had the chip and jabs performed on 17/03/2021.

Having been better informed we now understand that there is a chance that this vaccine card was not issued by the vet but by the seller, with fake vaccine stickers and maybe they chipped the pups themselves. There is also a chance that these puppies, or/and the mother were bought into the UK. We have yet to confirm the registered own of Charlie’s microchip number.

We are now aware that this seller is not on the Bedford Borough Council public register of animal activity.

The picture of the person on the website claiming to be ### is not the person we dealt with - but believe she was at the property on the day. Her Facebook page has one conversation under the change of profile picture it shows a video of our puppy along with its siblings. We suspect also that financial gain from this business is probably not declared.  Some searching revealed that a number of business have been registered at the seller address that have dissolved after a year that leads to many suspicions.

This is an amazing volunteer group with lots of advice and support. We would highly recommend contacting them if you need help. Puppy farming needs to be stopped. We would personally like to thank Ann and Em for all the help that they gave us. They both went over and beyond with advice and support, we are truly grateful. We are devastated and heartbroken RIP Charlie, my gorgeous boy will always be in my heart