Puppy Importing Leading To Disease Outbreaks In Colorado
By the time the seizures began, Elliot says, it was too late.
“They were happening back to back to back to back.”
She says he was diagnosed with distemper despite paperwork from the rescue showing he’d been vaccinated.
“I had to explain to my 4 year old, who had the dog for three weeks, that we had to put him to sleep and that he was not coming back home.”
Billy is one of five dogs from New Hope Rescue that would be euthanized. Owner Joann Roof, who had no comment, was charged with misdemeanor animal cruelty. Investigators say she knowingly imported and sold sick dogs from a New Mexico Shelter. The state suspended the facility’s license. […]
Fisher says, last year, rescues and shelters imported 37,000 dogs, most of them puppies that are in high demand. CBS4 went undercover and found people lining up for them at adoption events. Fisher says some even buy the dogs right off transport vans. We got video of dogs being unloaded in parking lots.
“If an animal is being taken right off the truck, that rescue has no idea what’s going on with that animal,” said Fisher.
It’s not rescue — it’s international trafficking.