People are selling sick puppies in Charlotte and there’s nothing we can do about it

But there are some new unregulated puppy sellers popping up in Charlotte that you haven’t heard of. They’re called puppy flippers.

I asked a few of my friends if they knew what puppy flippers are. Here’s what they said:

Puppy flippers aren’t breeders, they don’t train dogs and they certainly don’t give puppies “the care/training they need.”

However, my naive friends did get something right. Puppy flippers do buy inexpensive dogs that are sick or unwanted from Craigslist, puppy mills or breeders. But instead of nursing them back to health, they sell them (sometimes with fake records) to unsuspecting families for double or even triple the price.

The worst part? Puppy flipping isn’t illegal.

“Unfortunately, puppy flipping is something that the rescue community encounters fairly regularly,” said Fara Robinson, vice president of the Greater Charlotte SPCA. “It’s difficult accurately determining the breadth of the problem because it isn’t a crime and, to my knowledge, nobody is tracking the cases that are reported so there is no statistical data.”

As one victim of a puppy flipper, Lauren Rosenau, says, “It infuriates me. There are no laws protecting buyers and it’s not illegal to sell a sick puppy. It’s only illegal to run a puppy mill. It’s INSANE.”

Lauren was interviewed for this news story about the woman she says sold her a very sick puppy. Lauren spent over $1,000 in vet costs to save her dog’s life.

Sedgefield resident Jami Compton has an eerily similar story.

Jami’s story starts when she called a “breeder” back in November after her stepmom saw a posting on Craigslist for Pomeranian puppies.

The “breeder” asked Jami to meet her at Cracker Barrel since she would be selling another puppy there. At this point, Jami thought it was a strange request but tried to look past it. As she pointed out, “Dog breeders can be a little weird. I didn’t want that to affect the way I felt about her puppies.”

When Jami played with the puppy (yes, in the Cracker Barrel parking lot) she immediately fell in love. But she still followed her stepmom’s instructions and checked the puppy’s health before agreeing to the sale. She examined her knees, ears and looked for any signs of fleas.

The puppy checked out so Jami paid $600 for the pup and brought her home. The “breeder” gave Jami vaccination papers and CKC registration papers but didn’t have a receipt. Instead, Jami had the “breeder” hand write a receipt on a sticky note that she found in her car.

Jami brought the puppy, Bailey, home to meet her two other dogs.

After only a few hours, Jami felt something was off. Bailey slept all the time and started having diarrhea. But it wasn’t until a few days later when Bailey couldn’t even lift her head up that Jami knew something was seriously wrong.

Jami rushed Bailey to Long Animal Hospital. Her immediate thought was “OMG what did I do wrong? I killed my mom’s dog.”

Jami hadn’t done anything wrong. Bailey had Parvo.

Canine Parvo (also known as the puppy killer) is a virus that causes diarrhea, sleepiness and reduced appetite. Symptoms show up about 10 days after contracting the disease. And that’s when Jami realized — Bailey had Parvo before she bought her.

Parvo lives in fecal matter and is very common in puppy mills where conditions are poor. The key here is that Parvo is very contagious. Jami’s dogs had contact with Bailey. Now Bailey was on life-support and Jami wouldn’t know for 10 days if her other dogs would suffer the same fate.

Jami texted the “breeder” to let her know what was going on. The seller didn’t respond with concern or remorse.

Instead she blamed Jami’s dogs.

After three scary days at Long Animal Hospital, Bailey got to go home. But small dogs do not mean small vet costs. The 1-pound dog managed to rack up over $550 in vet bills. Add in the $500 she spent on boosters to (hopefully) keep her other dogs safe from Parvo, and Jami had a very expensive weekend.

Side note: If Jami were unable to pay for Bailey’s care she wouldn’t have had many other options. Because of its contagious nature, the Humane Society of Charlotte usually won’t accept animals with Parvo.

Luckily, Bailey is healthy and Jami’s other dogs did not get sick. I asked Jami if she would tell people to not buy a dog from Craigslist. Interestingly, she said no. She said it wasn’t Craigslist that was the problem. It was the fact that she didn’t ask enough questions about the puppy’s parents, she didn’t get to see the place where the puppies were living and didn’t follow her gut when she had to search for a piece of scrap paper in her car for a make-shift receipt.

I don’t know if I agree with Jami. If puppy flippers are hiding on these sites, wouldn’t it be best to avoid them? Look for a dog through a reputable breeder or rescue organization instead?

Jami and Lauren are only a small sample of those who have had run-ins with puppy flippers. There are several stories on Facebook dedicated to puppy flippers. One man said he bought a puppy for his daughter’s birthday only to wake up the next day to find it had passed away. One woman said she sold two puppies to a flipper (thinking she was placing them in a good home) only to be devastated when she saw them listed for sale— at double the price.

So what can you do if you bought a sick puppy from Craigslist? Well, honestly, not much. North Carolina doesn’t have any laws to regulate the sale of pets or to protect buyers if they were misled. I’m no lawmaker, but this seems like an oversight.

The only criminal cases I did find were brought against the lowest of puppy flippers — those who stole dogs and sold them for a profit.

What victims of puppy flipping can do is to pursue their case in civil court. As for Lauren and Jami, Lauren was awarded vet costs in her case in Rutherford County and Jami is currently filling out the paperwork to begin hers.

If you’re in the market for a new puppy, do your research. Don’t accidently support a puppy flipper who cares more about profits than the wellbeing of the animals. And please, if your new puppy is acting strangely, call your vet immediately.

Cover images courtesy of Lauren Rosenau and Jami Compton.