“We filed this lawsuit to shine a light on this problem and to try and stop this family because they’re ruthless,” says Attorney Gary Praglin.
The family Praglin is talking about is accused of illegally breeding and selling sick and dying puppies over the internet.
Eleven-year-old Manuel Loy is one of those who was heartbroken over a sick puppy. Manuel worked at his dad’s barbershop to pitch in $600 for a $1200 Goldendoodle puppy named Penny. As soon as they brought Penny home, the Loys found out that the puppy was very sick, that it wasn’t a Goldendoodle and that Penny wasn’t even a girl. They renamed the puppy Bear.
“We took him to the shower and his red dye came out and it was all over our hands. The next morning, I took him outside to use the restroom and he couldn’t even walk straight.”
Bear was suffering from Parvo and had to be euthanized. Several other families say that was their experience after buying puppies from this one seller. Elijah Kenny and his family are accused of misrepresenting puppies as Goldendoodles or Labradoodles, misrepresenting the sex, and advertising them with fake immunization records.
Kenney talked to reporters in 2018 when the complaints were first voiced and animals were confiscated from his home. He said, “It makes me really sad to hear that. I do the best of my ability to take care of the dogs, I de-worm them and give them the shots that are needed and take care of them.”
Veterinarians say the dogs all tested positive for parasites.
“As far as I know, all the dogs were healthy when I gave it to them. If they were getting sick, it’s from their poor care, not mine,” added Kenney.
Attorneys say their clients could not get a hold of the Kenney’s and if they did, they got threatening responses from the family.
“I would just ask them a bunch of questions, mainly why. Why would they do this to other families including us? Hopefully, we can put an end to this,” says Loy.
So, what could have been done differently in this situation?
Most of the time, if someone says they have immunization records, we take them at their word. But unless you're buying a pet from a known entity, you need to ask for a picture of the record and contact info for you to double-check.
Most of the time, when 2WTK does online puppy scam stories, it's because people don't ever get the dog they purchased. The reason? The picture online has been used to sell the same dog to dozens of people.
To know if your online dog is for real or not do a reverse image Google search:
Click on images in the upper right-hand corner
When the camera pops up, click on it and then you can either upload an image or copy and paste it in a picture's URL.
When you do those steps, you'll get a page that displays how many times the picture or an article with the picture was published. This works for those fake weather stories too.