Irish Jacks

May 6, 2010

PUPPY MILL: I ino9w this sonds like a rant, but if you read to the end, you’ll see why I started this.  The reason I set up this particular blog is that a friend of mine, who happens to have two of the pups I bred recently, purchased  a Jack from a woman in the US – Violet Meadow Farms or irishjacks.com. Turns out the “breeder” – and I say that in the most loose of terms – runs a puppy mill.  The purpose of this blog is education and prevention. 

Breeding is easy. It’s natural for the dogs. It’s the human’s responsibility to make sure it’s done right.  Let’s face it, in nature, the young males and females would be driven from the pack to create their own lives and families. Since we control nature with “controlled” breeding, we change the natural course of life and should be held accountable.

Even though I have so much more to say on this topic, I’m going to leave it alone for now and am hoping you all can pick up the slack. Violet Meadow Farms is not the only mill in my sights, but right now the most pertinent. This poor pup came to his new family with worms, Corona, Giardia, Kennel cough and possible Parvo.  He’s only 10 weeks old!!!! No baby should have to endure that!

You know, that really sad thing is, judging by her website, her health guarantee, videos, etc, I would have been douped too.  And I’m SUPER particular about my dogs. She’s a master of disguise, and unfortunately, most puppy mills are.  So I’ve talked to as many breeders as possible and the only consensus I can come to about ending this kind of tragedy is education.  So let’s start looking at where our dogs come from. 

I know I was considered a “back yard breeder” because I didn’t have a registered kennel, but I gave my pups and give my dogs more time, love and consideration ( I only ever had 10 on site – including pups and adults at any given time) than some people give their children.  You’d have to know me to  completely understand that statement.  Let’s put it this way – when I make a fast meal for my family it takes me 2 -3 hours between shopping for the right ingredients and getting it on the table and my dogs eat  as well as we do.  Pups included. 

Don’t get me wrong.  You can luck out with a puppy mill or pet store dog.  My sister has lucked out twice.  Sometimes a pet store dog actually comes from a reputable breeder.  The unfortunate truth is those cute little puppies in the store have been taken away from their moms waaaaay to early.  8 weeks is the norm, but if you’re adotping an 8 week old pup, how old do you think he/she is when they leave their mom? 8 weeks is the minimum you’d want to seperate the pup from his mom, but when you take into account shipping and quarantine… How long have they been apart?

Food for thought.  Anyway, this is the little guy that brought this whole thing about:

He;s become my poster child for anti-puppy mills.  Hoefully you’ll adopt him as the poster shiod as well.

Irish Jacks – the Truth About Violet Meadow Farms

April 22, 2010

To the clients and followers of IrishJacks/Violet Meadow Farm,

My name is Keith Butler and I’ve resigned my position as Web Designer, Photographer and Office Manager at IrishJacks due to the mounting ethical and financial problems I’ve encountered there. I worked for IrishJacks for five years and worked very hard to untangle the problems caused by bad business practices and a profit-blinded owner.

I’m writing this to expose the issues that Susan Sarao has let fester for many years. I feel complicit in her actions but I worked daily to rectify the issues. When I discovered that I could make no progress on any of the issues below I had no choice but to quit and have decided that I can no longer sleep at night knowing how she has handled business and our clients, and that despite the proper support, she won’t change.

If you paid sales tax on your puppy, that tax was never submitted to the State of New Jersey. It was deposited into her account and used to support her lifestyle.
Susan has not paid any income tax with the business of IrishJacks to the IRS or the State of New Jersey.

She has been running an illegal kennel at her home. She was summoned by the Hunterdon County Department of Health and subsequently lost a legal battle to do business from her back garage. To my current knowledge she still has over 10 adult dogs that live in stacked crates in her back garage.

She has knowingly sold sick puppies and then treated the purchaser as if they did something wrong if they complained. She has promised many clients a refund or payment of medical bills and then delayed payment as long as possible. She had ducked phone calls and e-mails making a situation that was caused by bad practices into complaints.

Puppies are imported from Ireland with no control of conditions in Ireland and no US Department of Agriculture license or inspections. Puppies imported from Ireland were sometimes as young as six weeks old with their health certificates backdated. The legal age to put a puppy on an international flight is ten weeks. Parentage of the puppies was often absent from the health certificates.

If you have a puppy from the Heff line, please have them checked out by a vet. We consistently received puppies with poor socialization, flees, scabies and worm infections from this line. I tried to make her stop importing from this particular breeding family in Ireland. We received over 100 puppies a year from this line meaning the original breeder in Ireland needed 50-60 female dogs to produce this amount. I can only infer the conditions in Ireland from the health of the puppies we received.

To be absolutely clear – The majority of puppies IrishJacks sold came out healthy and good tempered, sold as exactly advertised – Jack Russells from Ireland.Good food and water were provided. There are few congenital or hereditary issues. Where Susan failed is making good on the guarantees offered, accurate linage and birthdates, sanitation and medication procedures and dodging clients who wanted their vet bills taken care of.  Most medical problems were caused by bad quarantine and lazy worming and vaccine procedures.

Breeding conditions at her home are uncontrolled. Just a few days ago our videographer witnessed her let a stud dog and his daughter (who is in season) into the same area and they ended up breeding. This is not the first time her oversight and laissez faire attitude has resulted in an inbred dog or multiple studs breeding the same girl.

The overcrowded conditions at her home have resulted in the death or injury of many dogs over the years by being attacked by a large unsupervised pack. Only in the most extreme cases were these injured dogs seen by a vet.  Most recently this type of oversight has resulted in the death of a puppy (Porky) and a completely unplanned breeding to a seven month old puppy (Ashley) by multiple dogs at the farm. She plans to sell these puppies.

I ask everyone who has done business in the past and may do business with her in the future to check the town, county and state records on her and her business. Please visit her listings on Complaints Board http://www.complaintsboard.com/?search=irish+jacks and Ripoff Report http://www.ripoffreport.com/Search/Company/Irish-Jacks.aspx to see some online resources of how IrishJacks was run.

If you were charged sales tax, I urge you to report her to the New Jersey Department of Treasury, Division of Taxation at 609-292-6400.

If you feel that you received a sick puppy, New Jersey has Puppy Lemon Laws. Please see this link: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/pets/lemon_nj.html
You may also call the Hunterdon County Department of Health at 908-788-1351.

If you wish to talk to the breeder in Ireland and investigate the problems there, the breeder and exporter of the puppies is Olive Dempsey of Athenry, County Galway.

She is now in the process of setting up a pet shop to sell puppies at Stephan Farm & Horse Supply at 28 Schooleys Mountain Road, Long Valley, NJ 07853, 908-876-3580. To my knowledge, she did obtain a license to operate a pet shop there. This license was granted by the Washington Township, Morris County Department of Health at 908-876-3650.

I’m so embarrassed and sorry to have belonged to this organization and the length of time I allowed her behavior to continue. I am being threatened with legal action if I reveal her illegal and unethical practices but I believe if I reveal the truth the law will stand behind me.

Sincerely,
Keith Butler
uptownkeith@gmail.com