RSPCA investigation!

Fireflyaway

I will telephone in a bit and see what they say. It's worrying that I may have inadvertently supported a puppy farm but I honestly didn't feel anything was wrong at the time. As some of you say I'm unsure how I could help anyway. 

comeandgo

Fireflyaway said:

I will telephone in a bit and see what they say. It's worrying that I may have inadvertently supported a puppy farm but I honestly didn't feel anything was wrong at the time. As some of you say I'm unsure how I could help anyway. 

Telephone who?  Not the number who contacted you.  Phone the RSPCA direct.  The general opinion here seems to be it is a scam.  I would ignore it,  they would actually phone you if they need info, not leave it to you to contact them.

Fosterdog

It's generally obvious whether you have found a reputable breeder or not.

A reputable breeder will rarely have puppies available that are not already going to people on waiting lists, they hardly ever need to advertise their dogs because they will have waiting lists of sometimes over a year for homes for future litters. They will know their breed inside out and will question you about your knowledge and suitability to a breed, and may even want vet references or a homecheck like a lot of rescues want. They will have as many questions for you as you should have for them. They like to stay in touch with new owners and offer lifetime backup for any puppies. They also have a spay/neuter clause written into the sales contract unless you are specifically getting a dog to show, compete with or breed, or sometime if they want to use the dog for breeding in the future but they usually either keep these ones themselves or let them go to other breeders they work closely with.

If your breeder doesn't match any of that description or if it is a cross breed then they were either a backyard breeder or a puppy farm. There are not very many reputable breeders left and they have hoops for people to jump through that people just don't want to jump through and they want an instant puppy so will just go with the easy option regardless of where the dogs come from.

As for being contacted the way you did the RSPCA do not hold many powers but they do carry out the investigations and push cases to prosecution on behalf of the police so it is possible that during a seize operation mobiles were recovered and once processed by police any information is passed on to them for them to investigate so it is possible that it really is the RSPCA trying to contact you.

CJDogsbody

Fosterdog said:

It's generally obvious whether you have found a reputable breeder or not.

A reputable breeder will rarely have puppies available that are not already going to people on waiting lists, they hardly ever need to advertise their dogs because they will have waiting lists of sometimes over a year for homes for future litters. They will know their breed inside out and will question you about your knowledge and suitability to a breed, and may even want vet references or a homecheck like a lot of rescues want. They will have as many questions for you as you should have for them. They like to stay in touch with new owners and offer lifetime backup for any puppies. They also have a spay/neuter clause written into the sales contract unless you are specifically getting a dog to show, compete with or breed, or sometime if they want to use the dog for breeding in the future but they usually either keep these ones themselves or let them go to other breeders they work closely with.

If your breeder doesn't match any of that description or if it is a cross breed then they were either a backyard breeder or a puppy farm. There are not very many reputable breeders left and they have hoops for people to jump through that people just don't want to jump through and they want an instant puppy so will just go with the easy option regardless of where the dogs come from.

As for being contacted the way you did the RSPCA do not hold many powers but they do carry out the investigations and push cases to prosecution on behalf of the police so it is possible that during a seize operation mobiles were recovered and once processed by police any information is passed on to them for them to investigate so it is possible that it really is the RSPCA trying to contact you.

The RSPCA do not prosecute on behalf of the police.  They investigate and prosecute on their own behalf.  

Many breeders do not put in spay neuter clauses because the newest scientific evidence shows that removing hormones from young animals causes growth problems at the very least, and on any animals it can cause more health problems than it is claimed to solve.  

Fireflyaway

So I spoke to the RSPCA inspector who explained they had received numerous complaints about people who had been selling puppies from 2 different locations. Many puppies had become seriously ill within days of being taken home. The police had a warrant to search the houses and took a mobile phone which is where they found my number. Fortunately my little ones seems to be happy and healthy. The RSPCA were trying to get a feel for the scale of the problem. How many dogs had been sold, how many were ill and with what and how much money these people made. Scary stuff.