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Monday 30 January 2017

The Sad/Happy Story of Pippa (and puppy mills...)

On one of our regular Monday evening outings to CafĂ© Verdi with our dogs, we spotted a little puppy with a hind leg heavily strapped.  Of course, Gerda had to investigate…

Turns out it is a sad story with a happy ending, but it goes beyond just this puppy’s story, it is also an attack on back street breeding, or puppy mills.

The puppy was introduced to us as Mia by her foster mother, Daina. This is Daina’s story.

“We heard about the puppy (her new family has named her Pippa) from my boyfriend’s mom. A colleague of hers knew of a couple in Mitchells Plain that had a few puppies to sell.

Little Pippa was hit by a car and her back leg had been broken in two places. Because of this, she was unable to get to her mom for milk and as soon as we heard about her we went to go pick her up.

We took her to the vet immediately and were told that she was in a very bad condition, not only due to the broken leg and lack of nutrition, but she had also lost a lot of blood from ticks and fleas that she was covered in. The vet dewormed her and gave her a blood transfusion to increase her blood count and two days later she was ready to come home with us for rehabilitation at just 8 weeks old.

We immediately fell in love with her as she had the sweetest little personality and didn't let her bandaged leg stop her. Each day she got stronger and stronger. She really is a little fighter and once she seemed healthy again we started looking for a home. A month went by with little interest.

One day I went to Forrester’s Arms in Newlands and Pippa would not leave one group of people alone. She was obsessed with the table. There was some interest so I gave them my number and the next day I received a phone call that Pippa would finally have a forever home.

I took her to the vet again and her bandage was removed. Due to the fact that the new parents had two other dogs, I was asked to keep her for another week (I didn't mind at all - she was my baby!) for some more rehabilitation to increase her mobility.

By the time I dropped her off at her new home, she was able to walk on her sore leg even though it isn't very strong yet and she was so excited to meet her new brother and sister.
Her new family loves her so much and the second I handed her over I could see the adoration in her new mom's eyes.

Her new mom and I are still in contact and Pippa is doing extremely well and is having a ball with her new family.

I am so glad that I was able to have helped this little girl and gotten to know her gorgeous personality.

I will miss her dearly but I know she is now well looked after and is so happy at her new home!”

Young Mia, rather, young Pippa, is one of the few happy stories when it involves puppy mils. These are unscrupulous sub-humans that breed dogs purely for cash with absolutely no care for the mother or the puppies’ health. Far too often the mothers are literally dumped when they can no longer breed or becomes ill – mastitis is a common ailment that goes untreated and will result in death. Less than perfect puppies or ones that do not find buyers quickly suffer the same fate – abandonment or death, often by drowning.

What Daina did for Pippa is unquestionably wonderful and was certainly done with the interests of the puppy in mind. The problem is that she, unwittingly, supported the back street breeder.

Daina should be rewarded for her compassion and the breeder must suffer for his/her heartless and cruel actions. Unfortunately the is little that can be done under the law to prevent this behavior. The breeder can be reported for cruelty against animals, but if his kennels are clean and the animals healthy, the SPCA cannot act.

This has to be changed and the only way is to not support these so called breeders, who are in fact animal farmers with no hint of conscience.