Twitter
Facebook
The first question to ask yourself before buying a puppy or any other pet animal is “Do I have the space, time, patience, financial means and necessary approvals (from your landlord, for example) to afford an animal?” When acquiring a pet, you assume the respon-sibility for a living being, which brings about many obligations.
Neglect or maltreatment of the animal may result in civil, administrative and criminal consequences. Therefore, before you get a pet, carefully consider this decision.
Once you make the decision, acquiring a new puppy should be a joyous event. However, it is important for buyers to be aware of unscrupulous individuals who sell puppies. Regrettably, some of these puppies become sick or even die shortly after their purchase, resulting in large veterinary bills and heartbroken buyers.
Here are a few helpful hints to increase the likelihood of making the right choice when buying a puppy:
• Purchase your puppy from a reliable source. Make sure you meet with the seller and write down the seller’s name, full address and phone number. Ask the seller for a list of references that includes previous buyers and other breeders. This is even more important if the seller is not from the local area since pursuing remedies in case of problems can be much more difficult.
• Visit the puppy two or three times before making the purchase. This will allow you to check out the facility more than once and will also let you better understand the animal’s actual temperament and health.
• Insist on seeing the mother and also inspect her. Some less than honest breeders may tell you that the mother has been removed because she is either
protective of the puppies or that the animals are being weaned.
• Examine both the puppy’s and the mother’s vaccination records. If the record is in a foreign language, make sure to ask a local veterinarian’s office what the vaccinations cover. Also, take notes as to the vaccination dates and the age of the animal when it was vaccinated as this will help the vet’s office verify that the animals are on an adequate vaccination schedule.
• Inspect the actual pedigree. Pedigrees should have both the VDH (Verband fuer Hundewesen) and FCI (Federation Cynologique Internationale) symbols and the dogs with these pedigrees must be identified by either an individual tattoo or be microchipped. These identification numbers must appear in the pedigree as well as the numbers from the animal’s ancestors.
• Does the breeder have a large selection of animals (and quite possibly different breeds) to choose from? This is a huge tip-off that they may be running a
production facility and are breeding solely for profit.
If you encounter problems when purchasing a puppy, you are encouraged to contact a legal assistance attorney at a judge advocate office to explore your legal options.
For German legal assistance in the KMC area, there are two offices to contact: the 435th ABW International and Host Nation Law Office on Ramstein, phone 480-2552; and the 21st Theater Sustainment Command Judge Advocate at Kleber Kaserne in Kaiserslautern, phone 483-8848.
(Courtesy of the 435th Mission Support Group)
