Hello,
I READ the article in your magazine regarding dogs in China and now am in a situation that is making me nervous. I'm selling Old English Sheepdog puppies on puppydogweb.com. I received two emails from persons in China wanting to buy my pups. I told both persons no, too far to ship and even told one that I feared the animals would be used for coats. One indicated he had a friend in USA who would buy the pups. When I asked for the friend's name I never heard back from him. I only wanted the name to avoid working with this person.
Well, now I have a lady emailing me and wanting two pups, and she wants to send me the $2400.00 as soon as possible. I advised her that I will take the deposit and hold the puppy for her. She said she has been out of country and made money with artwork and will have her client send me the $2400. I emailed back and asked her for her complete name and address. She emailed back the name Tolu. No address or phone number. On the bottom of all of her emails she has the word Martindale. She indicates she lives in Allentown NJ. I searched the white pages and found no name. I visited her website that she sells art on and it has a Naver address, which is portal for Korean, Chinese and Japanese buisiness. Also, If you put the name Tolu Martindale in for search, it brings up that Tolu and Martindale are botanicals used to make a medicine. I'm really worried and am thinking of sending the check back when I receive it. Please advise me, do you think this sounds fishy? - Dot
Hello Dot,
I would say yes, it sounds about as fishy as it can get. Send back the cheque (or simply don't bank it just rip it up and advise the client of no deal).
This type of thing is just typical of the Asian dog dealers cheating and lying to get what they want. Even if they want legitimate showdogs and live out in the country, the way they handle their dogs in that country is just to cast them out on the street when they stop winning shows or breeding or whatever they were bought for, and from there they either die of disease or starvation, or are eaten or bashed to death by govt agents.
If they don't live in the country areas (and remember these people are BUSINESS people) they are not allowed to have a dog over about 12 inches high in the city - it would be bashed to death with iron bars by govt agents if they kept it there. Just the two connections - Korea and China - are enough to ring alarm bells.
Beijing is, in fact, at the moment carrying out a "cleansing" of all dogs, even small ones, that are not licensed or not vaccinated (which means most of the dogs there!) and the carnage is not pretty. They are entering homes and taking pets - it is just a bloodbath, but the Chinese have never been squeamish about treating their own citizens like that, so what chance have the animals got?
As your breed is a large one with a very warm and furry coat, I would say that fact alone is enough to ring alarm bells. Asians just do not buy such large breeds unless for the commercial markets. Be wary, even, of Asians approaching you at dog shows, or sometimes they just 'cruise' the streets looking for signs of dog breeders or owners who may sell.
The addresses they give are usually false, and they always have an excuse for the phone number being 'offline' or they changed their address or the dog will be staying with a friend until they can pick it up, etc, etc. Please be VERY suspicious and always alert to them, and if even one small fact does not add up, just refuse to sell. You don't need a reason, you just need to say you sell only to approved homes where you have inspected the premises and met and approved of the purchasing family.
If THEY supply you with a local purchasing family address, look into that well also, as they often have agents in many countries that are sympathetic (and money-hungry) and will buy dogs on their behalf and send them on in groups. UK is not allowed now to sell dogs to Asia, but sellers who don't care can send them to a collecting agent in nearby places that allow such activity, such as the independent part of Ireland!
Keep your beautiful dogs safe and stay right away from any Asian buyer at all. I hope you will also warn any fellow breeders and owners, and pass on any names that they need to be wary of. I would also contact the puppydogweb.com and pass on the names and any other information to them - I have contacted them some time ago and warned them to be very careful and they said they were aware of the problem and tried to filter out any such contacts, but of course they usually don't know until they are alerted to a name or situation.
Good luck with that - I would love to know if there are any more developments or if any of your friends have similar problems. - Ed
