Breeze, a Golden Retriever, suffering from a severe case of mange.

Breeze is a Golden Retriever who was born on August 22, 2004. According to the paperwork provided by Joyce Stolztfus, her breeder is Ben Fisher of Gap, PA.
Breeze was purchased by my cousins on December 24, 2004 and given to me Christmas Day. They did this because my best friend "Sunny”, a Golden Retriever that I had adopted, had tragically died. They purchased Breeze as a gift for me because they knew how empty my heart was. Breeze was sick from day one and was lethargic and coughing. I took her to the vet on Monday, Dec. 27th. She had a severe case of Kennel Cough and worms. Soon after, I noticed pockets of puss on her belly and was told it might be mange. Well, of course, I was horrified. The vet confirmed that she not only had scabies but that she also had Demodex and he had never, in his career, seen a dog with both at the same time. Demodectic Mange is hereditary and as you can see by the picture, I am having a hard time getting rid of it. Breeze could only have contracted this from her mother and although Breeze’s mange may never completely clear up, the sad thing is, I am one of the luckier ones.

 

 

We purchased Buddy from Puppy Love Kennels on December 6, 2004. Paperwork said that Andrew Stoltzfus was the breeder. Three days later we took him to our vet because we noticed blood in his stool. When we got him there they were extremely disappointed to hear that we purchased him from Puppy Love. They let us take him home with some medication and told us to bring back a stool sample first thing in the morning. However things got worse over night. Buddy would not eat or drink the next day and had not had a bowel movement.
When I called our vet they thought he may have Parvo and recommended that we take our puppy back. We truly did not want to do this. I contacted Joyce and she was very rude and said she seriously doubted that our puppy had that and if we wanted to bring him back we needed a letter from our vet. I told her that was fine and continued to let her know what I thought of her selling sick puppies. She told me that she had NO IDEA he was sick when she sold him to us. I said "Right, just like the hundreds of other puppies on the internet that you didn't know they were sick either?"

And she hung up on me and would not answer any more of my phone calls. At this point Buddy could not even walk and he would have small seizures. He was truly suffering, and looked like he was going to die. When my husband got home from work he called her from his cell phone and asked that if our vet recommended putting him to sleep would we still get our money back and she said "NO, I need the dog." We did not want to see this poor puppy suffer so we decided that if they recommended putting him to sleep we would just be out $300. Our vet was closed so my husband and father in law took him to the veterinary hospital. They checked him for parvo and that came back negative. They took x-rays and found that our puppy had kennel cough and SEVERE pneumonia and he would have to stay. That night alone we spent $476.00. The next day my husband went to get our money back from Joyce. He had the paper from the hospital with what was wrong with him but she did not even want to see that. I don't know if it was because she then knew he is a police officer or because she had other consumers there and was afraid he would make a scene.

Now it has been almost four full months and our poor little puppy who was so close to death still has a touch of pneumonia and continues to take medication. He has also been found to have an ear infection, mange, and roundworms. To date we have spent well over $1500, but at least we saved his life. How can this woman call her "business” Puppy Love? There is nothing loving about it. This woman does not care about animals; she is only out to make a buck.

 

Gunner, a little Beagle, died of Distemper a few short weeks after being purchased, breaking the hearts of one little boy and his family.

Our son, Jeremy, has wanted his own dog for a long time. So, for his 11th birthday, we decided to surprise him and unknowingly took him to Puppy Love Kennel to choose any puppy he wanted. He chose a Beagle and after tossing names around for a few days, named him Gunner.

It was love at first sight and Jeremy doted on his new puppy. He spent all his birthday money buying him toys and treats. We moved his whole bedroom around to make room for Gunner.

Sadly, Gunner became ill after only two weeks. The third week he was on antibiotics and the fourth week he started having seizures. After being in the hospital for 1 week we had to have Gunner euthanized. The vets did everything they could to save his life. We were told that the puppy tested positive for distemper. Additionally, Gunner had roundworms and Coccidia. These were all pre-existing conditions. My vet bill was $985.00. Of course, I would have paid anything to save Gunner's life because he meant everything in the world to my son.

Now, instead of a puppy to play with, my son has a puppy death certificate displayed in his room on his dresser, with Gunner's ashes in a box in front of it. Jeremy was the one to suffer the most through this whole ordeal, but told us through his tears that he was glad Gunner had a good home and lots of love for the month he lived with us.

 

 

On Saturday, November 11, 2005, Maryland resident Keri M. paid $530 for a Boxer puppy at CC Pets. At the time of purchase, Keri stressed that Lily seemed to have a bad wheeze. The employee stated that it was “just from her playing around”. After Keri pressed the issue, the employee admitted that it was “a small cold” yet Lily was given a clean bill of health, as indicated by the accompanying health certificate signed by Tom Stevenson, DVM of Honey Brook, PA.

That very evening, the puppy, named Lily, was seen at Harford Emergency Vet Clinic for a severe cough and nasal discharge. Lily was diagnosed with advanced pneumonia and multiple parasitic infestations. She was given a poor prognosis and it was questionable whether she would survive. Keri was not in a financial position to leave Lily at the emergency clinic until Monday as the estimated cost to treat Lily was between $1500 and $3500. The doctor sent Keri home with antibiotics and “wished her the best” with her prognosis.

Keri followed up on Monday morning with her own vet. Lily was given a full exam and was diagnosed with round worm, tape worm, hook worm, fleas, ear mites and a yeast infection in both ears. The vet also detected a heart murmur. In addition, he felt that the puppy shots may have been improperly given and advised Keri that after Lily recovered, new and complete rounds of vaccinations would be administered.

Keri spoke to Joyce Stoltzfus on Sunday, November 12, 2005 and informed her that the prognosis was not good, that Lily had pneumonia. Stoltzfus wanted Keri to return her puppy so Joyce’s veterinarian "could examine her". Keri pointed out that Joyce’s own veterinarian, Dr. Tom Stevenson of Honey Brook, PA, had allegedly examined Lily and signed the health certificate. Joyce stated that it “was nothing more than a little cold and to give her Robitussin and some Vitamin C.”

Stoltzfus said to send her all the vet records and she would reimburse Keri. On November 26, 2005, Keri sent Joyce Stoltzfus a certified letter with the vet bills she incurred. It was signed for on the 28th of November yet no acknowledgement or reimbursement was forthcoming. Keri then contacted the Attorney General’s office.

 

We purchased our puppy, a Border Collie mix whom we named Squeegee, on December 6, 2004. Within one week, he became sick with an upper respiratory infection and diarrhea and was found to have tapeworms. In addition, Joyce Stoltzfus admitted to me on the phone that the puppy had only received 2 days of a 10 day Albon “vaccination”. Because of this information we had to have the puppy tested for the illness this vaccination should have prevented and we had to have him revaccinated for kennel cough etc. at our expense because the vet did not believe the vaccination record Stoltzfus provided to us.
Our vet also recently confirmed that the birth date of 10-12-04 could not be correct given that the puppy began losing teeth early in January. He feels that the puppy is about a month older than the given birth date. Lastly, we were told that the puppy is a Border Collie mix, but he is in fact an Eskimo mix. The diarrhea, and infection continued, and required treatment with antibiotics through the first week of February.

I did receive my $250.00 purchase price back because I bought the puppy with my American Express card. American Express officials originally sided with Puppy Love, but after the FOX 29 piece on Puppy Love aired, they reopened my dispute and have since sided in my favor! It would be nice to get some of the vet bills back as well, but I am pleased that none of my money went into Joyce Stoltzfus' pockets.

 

Another CC Pets casualty! This little Labradoodle, named Maya, was purchased from Joyce Stoltzfus on November 5th, 2006 and five days later, she became deathly ill and was diagnosed with the deadly and highly contagious Parvovirus. Maya was admitted into emergency veterinary care on November 10th, and never came home.
She died on November 15th, 2006.