Woman sues dog breeder and sets precedent
A purebred dog breeder from Noord Brabant has been found guilty of selling an Irish setter with hereditary epilepsy to a woman in Rotterdam. He did not inform the woman of the possibility that her breed of dog could contract the disease during the sale and never mentioned it on his site for fear of bad publicity.
Once the woman’s dog contracted epilepsy, she took the breeder to court and won: the breeder was found guilty of ‘bad business practices’. He has been fined € 4,500, the original purchase price of the dog, plus € 1,500 in damages.
Clients expect that the purebred dogs they buy have been bred properly, as so many genetic-based diseases can affect these dogs. This now means than any purebred dog breeder in the Netherlands will have to be on their guard to avoid future lawsuits, but can they really guarantee that their dogs don’t have any health issues? I doubt it.
(Link: www.nrc.nl)
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