Yes you read the title of this post correctly. When I say “sleaze balls,” I meant it. It seems that animals tend to bring out the con-artists, the abusers and the scum of the earth at times. They prey on people that will do almost anything for the welfare of animals.
Craigslist seems to attract more than their fair share of the scum buckets. They post pictures of dogs, cats or horses and state they can no longer keep them and the animals will be disposed of if they can’t find a home in the next few days. Of course there is always an “adoption” fee. They state that they have to list it because it is to deter the real criminals that want to take the pet for experiments.
So how do you find out if they are legit or not. Usually you don’t until the 2nd or 3rd email from them. That is when they go into a song and dance about how they can’t afford the gas for the trip to drop off the animal to you or if you offer to pick the animal up the animal is located in a different place than where they are at. Their whole ploy is to get you to part with some money up front before you have even seen the animal. They seem to make up ways to part you from your money as each email or phone call becomes another email or phone call.
Then you get the child molesters that work with animals and often are around children. About 10 years ago there was a horse trainer in the Sierra Foothills that was giving riding lessons to young girls. The parents would be conned into leaving their children with him while they ran an errand. Of course the young girls finally blew the whistle on his antics and he went to jail.
So far I have not included the puppy mill wanna bees with their mutt crosses breeding them because they are tiny or just because they are registered with the AKC. Nor have I listed the animal rescues that are breeding their animals. Both of them deserve their own blog posts.
I am all for finding out who you are dealing with and running background checks on them. If they have just moved to this country from another one then if there is such a thing as an international background check, then do it. You never can tell if someone is on the run from the law in another country, especially for molesting children.
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March 31st, 2010 at 5:43 pm
Unfortunately, there is some sort of block on posting a response to the entry I wanted to respond to. This is the only “leave a reply” form I could get to. I am responding to your post on July 26, 2009 about “the great dane breeder that lives in a dump.” It is unfortunate that you have never emailed or called them to find out what type of people they are, what their breeding practices are. Have you researched and talked to any of the families who have their puppies? It seems that all of the families who have puppies from Mt. Olympus Danes are extremely happy with their well-adjusted, healthy puppies. It’s also very sad that people like you are allowed to sit around and post any old idiotic idea that comes to your mind, without doing any research, ignorantly slandering peoples’ way of life. I mean, do you live in a nice house? Drive a nice car? Some people are extremely happy on much less income than you may be selfishly enjoying. These people work hard, give to the community, and offer lower income families a chance to own terrific, well-socialized, healthy pets. They don’t charge outrageous prices, and they don’t make a huge profit. What do you do for your community? Not much good, I would guess. You have been extremely lucky so far that someone hasn’t wasted their time slandering whatever it is that you do. You should be careful who you aimlessly attack, someone eventually will get fed up with it and strike back. I would suggest you post an apology to these people. Also, research would be nice… all dogs lose weight when it’s “breeding” time. Some breeds, including great danes, are highly susceptible to life-threatening health issues if not bred each heat. The dane you were referring to, Pandora, was not bred until her third heat: most danes don’t even come into heat until 10-12 months. Not all dogs are the same, as most people know. As a breeder, most would think you would have known that. The danes at Mt. Olympus Danes are extremely healthy, happy, and have great temperaments. Also, these people have never claimed to be “top notch” breeders. Just because they are not “show” dogs does not mean they are “second rate.” Lots of show breeders will sacrifice temperament for the “perfect look.” We are Christians, but even Christians have a limit: the word of the day is “slander.” If you are truly a person who has a dog’s best interest in mind, then feel free to re-post this message. Of course, I will completely understand your reply if you choose not to.
March 31st, 2010 at 9:36 pm
Well Sharon, I did post your reply. You must either be a relative or a friend of those “backyard” breeders or the breeders themselves by the sound of your last sentence. Apparently you have not seen the over abundance of the so called registered dogs now at Safe Haven and the dog pound at the Albany shelter looking for homes because of overzealous breed for profit and not for the improvement of the breed type of people. All the information that I wrote was from their own website at the time. I have not looked to see if the website is still up or not.
So Pandora was not bred until her 3rd heat, wonderful that a dog not even fully grown was bred just to line the pockets of that backyard breeder. As I am someone who is very active with the animal programs at OSU I can tell you that your claims of “life-threatening health issues if not bred each heat” is a bunch of bunk. Spaying would be a kinder and healthier way to go if that was the case and with that breeding operation it should be the only way to go.
So you think that $800 per puppy is the rate that low income people should be paying for those pups? That was the price they were charging the last time I looked on their website and their varoius ads all over town. That is the price of a good quality show pup. The price of registered pet quality pup it typically under $300 (in this recession much less than that) and most breeders that sell pet quality pups out of their show stock require them to be spayed or neutered before they are placed in home.
Yes I have done my research on them and I am not biased. I wonder if they have a business license for their operation and of course the proper permits?
Now I ask you, what does being a Christian have to do with breeding dogs for profit at the rate of almost a puppy mill? Why drag religion into this subject? This has to do with the welfare of poorly bred Great Danes and their affect on the Great Dane dog population as a whole.
By the way “slander” is not the word of the day - go look it up in the dictionary.
Also if you were a regular reader of this blog you would have known that all blog posts have a 3 month limit for comments and then they are closed. That is to prevent spam which is a standard practice for popular blogs.
Edited to add:
SHARON YOU ARE THE BREEDER!!! I just checked your business license online. Yep Sharon King is listed as one of the owners of the operation. By the way the business license is listed as inactive as of 08-2009 and that means you are operating a business without a license which does not sit well with OR state officials.
All I can say is WOW, too bad none of your customers even bothered to comment on the original blog post last year. All I can say is that I have heard some not so nice things said about your business and I was letting it go but you brought it up to the surface again. Since you are operating an illegal business in the state of Oregon, you should have not even have that sign up at the end of your driveway with the “taking deposits” for the pups. Some official is bound to see it and report you.