Puppy buyers duped into adopting short-lived pets  

“星期狗”注射血清充健康犬 交易后難活過一周

This undated photo shows some special serum that dog dealers use to delay the appearance of symptoms. [Photo / The Beijing News]

(ECNS) -- A woman surnamed Liu bought a teddy bear puppy for 2,000 yuan ($300) and named it Little Tiger.

But the puppy wasn't as strong as a tiger. The next day it became ill, and on the third day blood was found in its stool. The puppy failed to make it to a fifth day.

A veterinarian said puppies like Little Tiger are called "week dogs" because they can't survive one week. The dogs are infected with a fatal virus that later causes canine distemper or parvovirus.

The secret lies in a special serum that dog dealers use to delay the appearance of symptoms for three to four days. Dogs seem fine when they are taken by their new owners, but quickly fall ill when the serum runs out in their bodies.

Liu found the dealer on ganji.com, a classified website similar to Craigslist.

According to Liu, the dealer claimed he has a decent dog mill and provides breed certificates for each dog. Buyers sign contracts with the dealer that state that dogs are refundable in case of any problem.

After her puppy's death, Liu went back to the dealer with Little Tiger's diagnosis and a medical bill of 4,000 yuan (about $600). The dealer suggested Liu buy another dog at half of the original price.

She bought another teddy bear dog for 800 yuan. But it ended in the same tragedy.

Liu wasn't alone.

A poll conducted by Beijing News found at least 30 victims last year in Beijing, who spent over 200,000 yuan ($30,000) purchasing dogs from various online stores and later treating them for illnesses.

All stores on ganji.com were set up by the same dealer located in Taihu County of Tongzhou, a Beijing suburb.

About 50 teddy bear dogs were found locked in 20 cages in a packed room, which is different from the pictures posted online.

"I downloaded the pictures from elsewhere. But the dogs are absolutely fine," the dealer said.

Sick dogs are bought from dog mills for only a few hundred yuan, and can be sold for thousands of yuan -- a much bigger profit margin compared with trading healthy ones.

Sick dogs are then injected with serums costing 40 yuan ($6) each before being sold. An even cheaper substitute is human painkillers to make dogs look active.

Wang Chuanwei, a lawyer at Beijing's Score Law Firm, said selling sick dogs disguised as healthy ones is a type of consumer fraud. But the lack of regulatory enforcement makes compensation impossible.

Wang calls for supervision from the Department of Industry and Commerce as well as the police to protect consumers' rights.