PUPPY FARM EXPOSED

Puppies face a grim new year

Inside Out's Chris Packham uncovers the misery behind the puppy farming trade.

There are a number of disreputable dog breeders out there who are in the business just for the money.

The Inside Out team decided the only way to check the true health of puppies being sold by one such breeder, at Keepers Cottage Stud near Farnham, was to buy one.

So, they sent an undercover vet, posing as a buyer, to investigate complaints.

Infestation

Vet John Hawkridge tells Chris Packham about conditions at the kennels

Vet John Hawkridge bought a 13-week-old white German Shepherd bitch for £440. He then gave her a thorough examination and carried out a series of tests.

The results are shocking. The puppy turned out to have a gut infection, mange and an infestation of fleas, ear mites and worms.

Keepers Cottage is run by John Lowe who also lied to the vet telling him that tests had been carried out on the puppy's parents to check for serious hereditary problems.

Inside Out has discovered that no such tests were ever done.

Mr Lowe is well known to Surrey Trading Standards department which has a long list of complaints from people who have bought puppies from his kennels.

John Lowe insists it is his customers that make the pups ill

Many of those puppies have fallen ill within days of being bought, and some have since died.

Dreams dashed

Ian Birch, from Petworth, West Sussex, will never forget the day he bought a West Highland white puppy from Mr Lowe as a birthday present for his 12 year old daughter, Vicky.

The dog fell ill within two days and had to be put down.

A few days later the family's eight-year-old German Shepherd, Khan, became ill too and also had to be put to sleep. Mr Birch's four children were heartbroken.

Twelve-year-old Vicky wrote a letter to Mr Lowe.

A poignant letter of broken dreams

She wrote: "The 'West Highland' puppy my Dad bought me for my birthday made my dreams come true. I loved him from the moment I saw him because he was so cute, sweet, and loveable.

"My dream became sorrow when he became ill... it has broken my heart to lose him and I want to thank you for breaking my heart. I'm wondering if you have children would you let their hearts be broken like mine is?"

Mr Lowe did not reply to Vicky's letter or others written by her father.

Ian Birch is still furious and warns other people not to go near Mr Lowe.

His advice is: "Stay away from him and don't give him the pleasure of taking your money as that's all he wants is your money; he's not concerned about the animals. Just stay away from him."

Huge vet bills

Others who have bought from Keepers Cottage Stud feel the same way.

Jillian Macdonald, of Woodley, near Reading, bought a female German Shepherd from Mr Lowe which turned out to have parvo virus - a killer disease.

Her dog survived but not before she had passed the disease to the family's Golden Labrador, costing them £2,500 in vet bills.

Prospective buyers get little chance to meet the puppies

Miss MacDonald won a court judgement against Mr Lowe but he has never paid up.

So how does she feel about Mr Lowe?

"I hate him. I really hate him and he shouldn't be allowed to get away with this any longer. People need to speak up to stop him," she says.

Mrs Joan Pearce, of Westbourne, near Emsworth, also suffered after buying a West Highland white from Mr Lowe.

She decided to buy a dog as a companion following the death of her husband but within five days the puppy was dead.

Mrs Pearce told Inside Out: "I cried my eyes out. I literally sobbed and I was absolutely distraught. No animal deserves what he went through and I honestly feel he (Mr Lowe) should be closed down; made to cease trading so nobody else has to go through the anguish we went through."

Mrs Pearce also won a county court judgment against Mr Lowe who was ordered to pay her a total of £590.

Mr Lowe has not paid a penny, but Mrs Pearce says she can not afford to pursue the matter.

Public complaints

Mrs Pearce: 'I cried my eyes out'

Mr Lowe is licensed to breed six different breeds and has 46 bitches. But the BBC has discovered that Mr Lowe is advertising seven different breeds.

Waverley Borough Council, who licence Mr Lowe, admit they have received 30 complaints from the public this year and Surrey Trading Standards has warned Mr Lowe not to continue selling puppies in poor condition.

Undercover vet, John Hawkridge remains appalled at what he found.

"It's the sort of thing I saw quite frequently 30 years ago and I really thought these sorts of places no longer existed.

"It really is most extraordinary that you can still, in this day and age, go to somewhere which is basically a farm; animals kept in farm conditions on straw and sold to people without any care whatsoever who they are selling them to."

Mr Lowe did speak to the programme on the phone, and insisted that his puppies don't have fleas and it's his customers who make the puppies ill. He claims he'll always buy puppies back, but the BBC has met people who say that is not true.

The RSPCA gives the following advice:

• Insist on seeing the puppy with its mother where it was raised
• Never buy from an unlicensed breeding establishment
• If unsure, ask to see the breeder's licence
• Avoid adverts offering lots of different breeds for sale
• Never buy a pup sold straight from a car boot or at an open-air event like a market
  

The Kennel Club add:

• Always buy from reputable breeders - contact the Kennel Club for breeder details
• Never buy if you feel sorry for it - they can invariably be ill
• Try and leave the breeder and then report the breeder to local authority or RSPCA
• Dog should ideally be raised in home - assess the state of house
• The mother should be on site - ideally the father too