Go to a local animal rescue centre and don’t buy a pet online
Ella is a two month old kitten bought online last week. The new owner say that they saw an advert online advertising kittens for sale.
They met the seller in a “dark car park” and handed over €80 for Ella, only to discover when they got her home that the kitten they had bought was not the one they had wanted and that the one they got has a chronic skin condition causing her to scratch so much she ripped into her own skin.
She also has a very sore bottom from bad diarrhoea. Ella the kitten has now been surrendered over to the DSPCA and is receiving treatment.
Our call centre received a call yesterday from an owner who purchased a puppy online before Christmas.
The owner was invited to the home of a middle aged couple who showed them the mother and puppies telling them that this was the first litter they had bred from the dog.
A while after the puppy came home, the owner who was checking that the puppy was now registered in their name by the seller, discovered the pup was microchipped to an unknown party.
Having searched the name online they found it on a list of registered dog breeding establishments.
The new owner told the DSPCA that she was confused as to how her puppy, which she had believed was from a “family home” was registered to a person who breeds for profit under the Dog Breeding Establishment Act (registered to breed multiple bitches).
In the same day the DSPCA arranged to take in a puppy with a serious ear infection and flee infestation which was also purchased online.
We would like to advise new or prospective pet owners that any new pet should be brought to a vet within 24 hours of purchase so your vet can see it and so that you are registered on their 24hr emergency service should the need arise”
With thousands of pets looking for homes in rescue centres, people wanting to get a new pet should go to their local animal shelter to rehome a rescue animal and not buy any animal online.”
