Complaint Review: Puppie Puppies Puppies

On December 5, 2010, my husband and I purchased a 10 week old Boston Terrier puppy from Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies on 650 Central Park Avenue Yonkers, NY 10704. We were told the puppy was in good health and had his first shots and we were to take him to their vet as soon as we can to just get him examined and get his next round of shots. The puppy seemed very mellow when we took him home but we just thought it was normal because he was in a new environment. Early morning we noticed he had some discharge from his nose and eyes. We called the pet stores vet to make an appointment and we brought him the next day Monday, December 6. The vet said everything was fine just a little eye infection which she gave us drops for and an upper respiratory infection which she gave us an antibiotic for. She said he was fine and nothing to worry about.

On Wednesday, December 8th he was not eating or drinking, very lethargic and vomited several times. It was 8pm we called the vet and they were closed but their answering machine had phone number to a 24 hour animal hospital. We called them and they said to bring him in right away. When we got there they took an x-ray and told us he had pneumonia and at his age and the condition he was in that he may not make it. We both looked at each other with tears in our eyes we didnt know what to do if we should just get another dog or see if we can save him being he did have a chance to survive. We decided to keep him overnight to see how he progressed once he was on medications. The next day we went to see him and he was in isolation with IV and oxygen tubes. They told us he wasnt getting any worse but he hasnt made any improvements. We already spent $1500.00 just from this one night of x-rays, medications, emergency room visit, fluids, catheter, oxygen, ICU, etc. So we didnt want to just waste the money we spent and forget about him so every day we just kept praying he would get better. Finally, on December 13, after 6 days of hospitalization and a vet bill of $4900.00, we took him home. He was not better though but we had no more money left on the care credit so we couldnt keep him there anymore. He still had pneumonia and kennel cough and was hardly eating on his own. We had to hand feed him baby food, and give him water through a syringe, as well as buying a vaporizer to help him breathe.

In the meantime, we contacted the owner Louis Gaudio at Puppies Puppies Puppies and he wanted to see all the paperwork, he didnt believe us because he claims he doesnt sell sick puppies. So once we got all the paperwork from the hospital, my husband brought it to the store and approached Lou about it. We knew about the lemon law and we were entitled to get back our money for veterinary expenses for trying to heal the dog up until the price of the dog as long as we contacted him within 14 days of purchase (which we did). So for us it was $750.00 which really doesnt help a growing bill of $5300.00 now. But that is the law so that is all he would give us. He fought back and forth for a while stating it was our fault we have this bill now because we brought him to a hospital when we could have brought him back to the store and Lou would have cared for him and brought him back to health and then we could have picked him up. We explained that the stage of pneumonia he was in he had one lung filled with fluids and he had trouble breathing and there is no way a pet store can care for him otherwise we would have cared for him if we could because we definitely dont want to spend $5000.00 on a hospital bill. We also explained to him that this is the problem because this puppy was infectious and contagious and should not have been in these kennels with other dogs and more than likely all these dogs are sick. He is very arrogant and rude and just brags that he sells 300 puppies a year and he gets his puppies from licensed breeders and they are not sick and he knows how to take care of dogs. He said he has 10 days according to the law to mail us a check and thats when we will get our money. So he did mail us a check on December 23, 2010 for $750.00 so technically by law he did what he was supposed to do and we should just drop it now. But I refused to do that because its not fair what he did and apparently after all my research about this store he just opened and his store across the street he owns (Exotic Pet Warehouse) and his other Puppies Puppies store in Mohegan Lake, NY, he has been doing this for years and he knows very well that he is selling sick puppy mill puppies that come from Crittersville Kennel, Inc. in Nebraska. He is not caring for these puppies and he is selling them to people who think they are taking home a healthy puppy and a few days later they are paying hundreds or thousands of dollars to save their life. Its animal cruelty! These puppies are sick and contagious and they are all playing and getting each other sick. For a store to just open several months ago and have reviews online of all these people who purchased sick puppies too and for the hospital to tell us that there have been many puppies here sick with parvo, kennel cough, worms, pneumonia from this store, the something is not right and this guy should not be able to continue to do this.

I know I am not entitled to get my $5000.00 for the vet bills because the puppy wasnt $5000.00 and if the owner follows the New York State Lemon Law, I cant sue him for anything. And he knows that if he gives the consumer back the money for the price of the dog, he isnt doing anything illegal and he continues to get away with it, but he is doing something illegal! He is not taking care of puppies if they have a disease and they are infecting the rest of the puppies and this is animal cruelty. They are also selling animals that they claim are healthy according to the contract and paperwork that we sign but the puppies are not healthy and then the veterinary expenses now become the consumers responsibility. What we went through was not fair and I am glad I was able to save a puppys life in the end, but a business cannot continue to do this to people and I want to try and stop it so other people do not have to go through the same thing we did.