I doubt that many of our readers are looking to re-home a dog—in fact, they’re more likely to be the ones taking in new animals—but it’s worth putting out the word on a growing problem: “dog flipping.” In the same way someone would “flip” a house, buying it to then sell it at a profit, unscrupulous pet dealers do the same thing with companion animals. As the report above makes clear, these dealers scour classified ads and websites such as craigslist looking for people trying to re-home their dog. (Perhaps the dog owner is moving or can no longer care for a pet.) The dealer then pretends to take in the dog, offering it a new home, but instead offers it up for sale.
One family that got burned in such a scam tracked their dog down. They have started a facebook page called “Citizens Against Flipping Dogs.” The unspoken question here is What happens to those dogs that don’t sell? One shudders to think.
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