postheadericon November 18, 2004

This last weekend, I had one of the worst experiences of my life. A group of us, including representatives from Lucky Star Rescue, attended a dog auction at the Amish Fleamarket in Millersburg, Ohio. Amid all the booths for furniture, crafts, toys, baked goods, and so forth, was the dog auction hall. Thank God I had not eaten breakfast as I surely would have lost it. My friends Steve and Margaret and I had prepared ourselves and promised each other that we would not break down at seeing the Cavaliers–we would go to the car if we could not take it. There were many breeds represented, fifteen of them Cavaliers, some AKC registered, some with other registries, and some just “Grade” like in horses. Older stud dogs, puppies, and a pregant bitch that Lucky Star could not get out as she sold for $4900.00. I checked the AKC numbers in the catalog when I got home; all of them were bogus. I know that buying dogs from auctions, pet stores, or puppymills just keep financing such horrors. However, it is really difficult to stick to one’s guns with faced with dear little Cavaliers who will spend the majority of their lives in wire crates being bred. Please be careful when purchasing your Cavalier; there are so many brokers, dealers, puppymillers, and huge commercial breeders out there. The AKC website features a new classified advertisement section for litters of puppies. Please be careful as not all the breeders listed may be reputable; to my knowledge AKC is accepting all ads without knowing who is reputable and who is not. Best to check with our parent club site first for breeder listings. Please pray for the mother of my dear friend and fellow Cavalier breeder, Roxy Hayes of Roxians and CavaliersOnLine. She is very, very ill and not expected to live.