Maybe people aren't so bad

I've always joked that I'd much rather be surrounded by dogs than people, but yesterday we witnessed the fact that people actually aren't so bad.
The story began on Wednesday when I was approached by a lady who's 5 month old Bulldog Rex had been seized by Animal Health for being illegally imported. She'd bought him from an advert on Pets4Homes and had no idea that what she had purchased was illegal until the vet that checked him over noticed the blood tests were missing in his pet passport. What followed was horrendous for all involved when she arrived home to find her dog being seized as being imported illegally and moved to a quarantine kennel in London, made worse by the fact that he would have to stay there until January 2012 and if the family couldn't pay the £1000 bill he'd be put to sleep. I spoke to the kennels (who wish to remain anonymous) directly and they confirmed the story as true and so the campaign began to raise the money to pay the bill and get Rex off of death row.
The following day I spoke the Animal Health Officer in charge of Rex's case, she confirmed that this happens on a regular basis and that there's been at least 20 cases in London alone this year - and that's just the ones that got caught! But she also confirmed that if we could raise the money he would definitely be released to his family in January and seemed quite pleased that we had got involved to help the family in question - it was at that point she let on that as part of a documentary for the Discovery channel she was being followed around by a TV crew, and that the crew had filmed Rex's removal and that they wanted to follow up the story by filming his reunion in January with his family and report the fact that thanks to Bulldog Rescue, 100s of complete strangers had put their hands in their pockets and raised the full amount in just 24 hours! Yes, we did it, the bill is paid and Rex goes home after Christmas and the happy occasion will be filmed and hopefully aired next year.
But there's a more serious side to this tale, if 20 people have been caught, how many go undetected? You know I'm not a fan of ePupz, Pets4Homes and the pet sections of GumTree, Loot etc etc and we're pretty good now at spotting the scams that insist that they are people of God and it's not their fault that the litter of cute bulldog pups are stuck in Scotland when they've had to rush to Nigeria. I asked the AHO yesterday what would be the one piece of advice to give to a prospective buyer and she confirmed "See the pups with their mum" but is that enough? I know of people that cross reference the advert with the Kennel Club lists, all litters that are registered via the KC can be traced, follow your gut - if something doesn't feel right then don't do it, make sure you buy from a KC registered breeder, preferably an "Assured" breeder and if the dog has been imported ask questions - lots of questions and make sure you sign for the dog because there may come a time when you need to prove it wasn't you that smuggled him into the country.
I'll keep you posted on Rex's progress, but what a lovely way to end a very long week