'Lease-Purchases,' Pressure Tactics, More Sick Puppies Alleged At Brick Puppy Store

BRICK, NJ — Francine Campbell says it's partly her own fault.

"I didn't do my homework," Campbell said Tuesday, referring to the English bulldog she bought at Breeders Association of America in Brick five years ago.

"My son and I walked in off the street just to look," she said. They saw Missy, Campbell said, and "I looked at her and totally fell in love."

In interviews and emails from more than 20 owners who've purchased puppies from the store in the Route 70 strip mall in front of Target, the reports are all similar: people who stopped into the store, frequently on a lark, in most cases not even looking to buy a puppy, but end up falling for the sweet faces time and time again and then are pressured into completing the purchases through "lease-purchase" financing agreements.

That was how Brittany and Anne Reeves wound up purchasing Cooper, a pomsky puppy, on March 23. Cooper became ill shortly after the Reeveses brought him home, and on March 31, the puppy died of the effects of parvovirus, a highly contagious viral disease that can produce a life-threatening illness, according to PetWebMD.com. Symptoms of the virus include lethargy, severe vomiting, loss of appetite and bloody and foul-smelling diarrhea that can lead to life-threatening dehydration, according to the website. In puppies, it can damage the heart and cause a lifelong cardiac problem, according to the website.

Parvo is "extremely contagious and can be transmitted by any person, animal or object that comes in contact with an infected dog's feces. Highly resistant, the virus can live in the environment for months, and may survive on inanimate objects such as food bowls, shoes, clothes, carpet and floors," PetWebMD said.

In the wake of a postmortem test that showed Cooper had parvo, the Ocean County Health Department issued a quarantine order for Breeders Association of America last Thursday. The store is not permitted to sell any puppies until April 28, is not allowed to accept any shipments of new animals and is not permitted to remove any of the 44 puppies on site without receiving written permission from the health department 24 hours in advance of a proposed removal, Health Officer Daniel Regenye, who issued the quarantine order, said last week.

It was the Reeveses' efforts to find Cooper that brought attention to the Breeders Association of America, where owners have been complaining of being sold ill puppies, inability to get refunds and other problems on internet review sites and to the Better Business Bureau for years.

Residents and animal advocates also have complained to Brick Township officials, because although an ordinance was passed in 2012 barring the retail sale of puppies and kittens in the township, Breeders Association of America was grandfathered in and allowed to remain in operation due to a state law.

Tuesday night, however, advocates and owners who purchased puppies from the store are planning to attend the Township Council meeting to again press the township to take action. Breeders Association of America operates in Brick under a kennel license; the license must be renewed annually in June, township officials said. The council meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the courtroom at the municipal building on Chambersbridge Road.

Campbell, of Toms River, who said she hopes to share her experience with the council Tuesday night, said she hopes the town will not renew the license, and not just because of the sick animals.

"I don't want other people to be taken advantage of," Campbell said.

Campbell said there was no price visible for the English bulldog puppy when she looked at it.

"I asked how much she was and the girl said, 'I don't know,' " Campbell said. She said the employee told her they were usually around $1,500, and when Campbell balked, told her, "We have financing."

Campbell said she agreed to have her credit checked while she and her son, who was 20 at the time, played with the puppy.

"I was thinking $100 a month, and that we could pay it off at the end of the year," when holiday bonuses came in, Campbell said. But she said that when the employee returned, the price of the puppy wasn't $1,500.

"She told me, 'This dog is $5,400,' " Campbell said. "I should have just said no. But I looked my son and he looked at me, and I looked at (Missy) and her little face," and she decided she couldn't leave without the puppy.

By the time the store added on the transportation fee, a $500 extended warranty, a crate for Missy and a few other items, Campbell said, she was financing $6,400 and paid an addition to $745 on a credit card.

Angela Kyme of Warren Grove said she had a similar experience when she and her daughters went into Breeders Association on April 1 and purchased Harley, a golden retriever puppy.

Kyme said that after the woman waiting on her ran a credit check, the woman told her the puppy was $3,500.

"I asked several times how much the puppy was and I was completely ignored," Kyme said. After some haggling, she agreed to pay $2,500 for the puppy "because my daughters were so excited," she said.

"I was charged $2,500 for this dog plus expenses," Kyme said, "only later to find out that this dog was leased to me and by the time I'm done paying for the dog it would be $4,700."

Financing agreements shared by Kyme and other owners bear out this "lease-purchase" arrangement. The financing company, called WAGS, states at the top of the financing that the agreement is a lease. It spells out monthly payments to be made, and the provision that if the payments are not made, the animal can be reclaimed by Breeders Association.

Kyme said Harley became ill just days after they brought her home, and the puppy had to be hospitalized at Forked River Veterinary Hospital to be treated for parvo. Harley also has kennel cough, which the family's other dog has now contracted, she said.

"My daughters are devastated my husband is enraged," Kyme said. "We have recently just lost a dog to a car accident, she was hit by a car. My family was still recovering from that tragedy. When we told the sales person at the store she told us that we definitely needed to buy another dog. She used that information as a tool to sell. She was pushy, and they were very quick to rush me to sign papers that I never even got a chance to read."

"Now I am obligated to pay this debt. I'm disgusted I'm heartbroken and I'm literally broke from all of this nonsense as the hospital bills keep piling up couple hundred dollars a day,"Kyme said.

Campbell said Missy came down with kennel cough just a couple of days after she and her son brought the bulldog home five years ago, and her veterinarian signed an unfit for sale form. When Francine Campbell contacted Breeders Association about the puppy's illness, the store manager at that time blamed it on the Campbells, Francine Campbell said.

"They tried to say it was because we had her out around other animals, which was ridiculous," Campbell said.

It is a tack the store is taking regarding the parvo diagnosis on Cooper, who died eight days after Brittany Reeves bought him and less than two days after Anne Reeves sought help from the store's manager, Jen, because the puppy was so ill.

In addition to the quarantine notice posted on the store's front window, store personnel also posted two articles about parvo outbreaks in other areas, one in Springfield and another in Cherry Hill. They also posted a letter where they claim, in part, that Cooper could have been exposed anywhere. However, veterinary websites say parvo has an incubation period of three to seven days before they start to show symptoms; Cooper was vomiting just a couple of days after the Reeveses brought him home, according to Anne Reeves' statements to the Patch.

The store's notice expresses condolences to the family over Cooper's death, though it was the store's manager, Jen, who refused to admit Cooper had died even as late as April 4, four days veterinarian James Fenton of Ramtown Animal Hospital in Howell had informed the store's staff that Cooper was dead.

A telephone message left at the store Tuesday afternoon, April 11, seeking comment was not returned.

In Brick Township, persistent controversies with another pet store in the township led to the Brick Township Council passing an ordinance banning the retail sale of dogs and cats within the town in 2012. Brick is one of roughly 90 communities that ban the sale.

The ordinance bans businesses from selling, delivering, offering for sale, bartering or auctioning cats or dogs. It also included a clause allowing current businesses that operate legally to remain in business — and that allowed Breeders Association of America to continue to operate.

Both Campbell and Kyme say they just don't want to see anyone else taken advantage of the way they were.

"They ran my credit to see how much I could pay, and then gave me a price," Campbell said. "I told the girl they price-gouged me and I know it."

"They sucker you in," Kyme said. "It's not right what they do."

Puppies sit inside Breeders Association of America on Sunday evening; the quarantine notice details what steps the store must follow. Photos by Karen Wall