Today's Stars and Stripes' front page pic and subseqent article is about that lying (he lies straight out in the article) jerk that sells puppies outside the gate. Dee is in it too! I really hope they ban that guy. What do you think they should do?

Don't know if lying salesmen are breaking Korean law.
Everyone should know by now that puppy mills are all over the world, U.S. included, and once you buy one, it's your baby unless a legitimate pet shop gives you some sort of written guarantee, Kennel Club document, etc. Buyer beware- you get what you pay for. Many have diseases and die soon. Sad tale. I didn't see the article.

Mr. Joe, you definitely have a point in that when buying any animals, it is a situation of "buyer beware", and certainly, when it comes to the guy outside the gate, there is definitely a level of awareness about his practices already.. word of mouth to avoid this guy was quick to reach me when I arrived, and it wasn't a good word :)

If this were a civil lawsuit involving an enraged buyer who got stuck with a sick dog, I'd say that the buyer wouldn't have much of a leg to stand on.

When I bought my dog, I was fully aware of the fact that most of those dogs were sick, and that I was likely bringing a dog home to die..my idea was that at least I could offer the dog comfort until he passed. Fortunately, and miraculously, I got lucky, and my dog ended up being one of the few healthy pups to come from that guy. Sascha's now a happy, healthy 9 month old success story, where there shouldn't be a success story at all. :)

-However- , that being said, we're not really dealing with a legal issue at all...we're dealing with the possibility of a base policy being enacted to place the vendor on an "offlimits" status due to questionable activity, activity documented by numerous veterinary reports, and anecdotal witness reports. It's really no more than the same sort of sanction that would be placed on a club downtown for questionable activity. You bring your business standards up, the American GI's are allowed to frequent your place.. you engage in wrongful activity, you lose the business of the military community.

I recognize there's a bit of a cultural void in the way Korean citizens think of and consider pets...but the vendor's actions, both ones that I've witnessed,and ones that are recounted in the story as anecdotal tales, go beyond that difference.

I personally bought my dog because I witnessed a level of abuse that , in my opinion, went beyond a cultural difference,and into a humanity issue. I know there are cultural differences, but you can't deny an American soft heart. The tales and other stories I've seen and substantiated, such as the guy holding a puppy from the back of a truck and telling a mom and little girl that if they didn't buy it, he was going to drop it, which would effectively kill it.... or saying that if the dogs didn't get bought he was going to take them to the meat market for kagogi are far beyond cultural differences,and almost extortionary in playing upon American hearts.

Placing the guy on "offlimits" status probably won't have a huge effect on his behavior, and since the guy's not really doing anything "illegal" by Korean standards, chances are it won't fully shut him down, but I think the command has very valid reasons for prohibiting interaction with him, not only due to the way the man does business, but the effects that the sick dogs coming into base can have on other healthy military dogs. It's a valid concern, and one that's now been documented by base veterinarians.

I personally wouldn't mind seeing the guy shut down at all, however, given what I've seen of his behavior, I worry about the animals that will remain if he is, what he'll do to them.

Dee :)