Please help us petition the Kennel Club to stop the use of extortion by unethical breeders.
To ensure healthy breeding of puppies, breeding endorsements with the Kennel Club can be placed by dog breeders when puppies are sold. These are then lifted when the puppies reach maturity and all the listed health checks have been done and passed. It is important as it ensures genetic problems are not handed down through the generations. The lifting of the restrictions allows the progeny to be sold as KC registered puppies.
Unfortunately, currently the only person who can lift the restrictions is the dog breeder who placed them, which is where the problem lies when the dog breeder is not ethical and tries to use extortion to extract more money.
This is our story
Ballymara’s Liesel of Zagzagel (Piper)
In 2013 my daughter [then 16] went down to Ashford in Kent to visit Ballymara Labradors, with her father to purchase a Red Fox Labrador. The dog breeder, Kate Morris, who my daughter had found on the Kennel Club website, appeared very nice and she came home with a beautiful puppy called Ballymara’s Liesel. I paid £650 for her. I was unable to go as I was awaiting major surgery at the time.
When I saw the half completed contract Kate had given them, I rang her to question the breeding restrictions she had listed. Prior to going down we had explained we wanted the puppy primarily as a pet, but also to breed when she got older. She assured me there was nothing to worry about and once the relevant health checks were done, all she had to do was drop a line to the Kennel Club and the restrictions would be lifted.
Move forward 2½ years.
At a cost of c. £1000 we had all the tests done and Piper passed with flying colours. We lined up a lovely mate with a brilliant pedigree and all was well. My daughter then contacted Kate to ask her to lift the restrictions.
Kate kept telling us she was too busy and even sent one message saying “Trust me, have lifted endorsements on my own dogs on the day before pups were registered xxx it’s about the only thing the kc are actually fast at doing”. She was actually encouraging us to have the litter before the restrictions were lifted.
However we were not happy to wait until then, so we waited until she had posted that the horses she had been busy exporting to Portugal were gone and contacted her again. She again said she was too busy We kept politely asking her and then I got the message via Facebook saying:
“ps The contract only says the endorsements “may” be lifted. There is a £500 charge to lift it. Regards”
Now it all became clear. There had never been any mention of any additional fee for this previously, it was not in the contract nor in any of the previous discussions, but what she was trying to do was extort more money from us.
When I asked her why she was doing this, she would not answer, so I rang her and asked her. Her response contained a lot of choice words and she told me “all breeders do this because they can”. This is not true, I have never done it and reputable breeders would never consider it. I kept trying to call and text but she just kept hanging up on me.
We had a dog we had purchased as a pet and also to breed from which had cost us £650 to buy and £1000 in health tests, only to be now told we could not sell her puppies as KC registered. It was a very rude awaking for my now 18 year old daughter into how some people can be and one I wish she had not had to learn.
So I contacted a solicitor who told me that I could not take Kate to court because she had used the words “”may be” rather than the “will be” lifted” in the contract, so the Court could not force her to lift the restrictions. However she did state that had there been any question of any more money being payable this should have been clearly stated in the contract. It wasn’t.
They advised me, that if I agreed, I must do it via a solicitor and only allow the money to be released when she completed her part of the agreement and within a specified time period of say 7 days.
When I put this to her via email, she had by now ‘unfriended’ me from Facebook, I got a very strange email from her saying that “Your threat of so-called exposure’ on social networking sites if I would not lift an endorsement that was properly and legally placed on Ballymara’s Liesel (a dog that is not even in your ownership) is unacceptable and it is for this reason that I will not be entering into any contract with you at this time. Accordingly your offer is declined”
One plus point was this was the politest she had ever been. However where she had got the idea I did not own Ballymara’s Liesel I have no idea. She had obviously forgotten her demand for £500 and yes I had told her they were already posts about her behaviour on line and I would be adding my story, but only stating the truth which I could back up with written proof.
When I had asked her for a copy of the contract she had, as the copy I had was only partly completed. She refused to send it, I believe it may be because, my then 16 year old daughter’s name so it is not legally binding. However as she won’t allow us to see it, we shall never know. Her father cannot remember if he signed it as well.
When I said “I just need the signed copy for the solicitor” her response was “No you don’t”!
When I said “Please can you post, fax or scan it to me. They need it.” – They being the solicitors, she retorted with “I don’t need to. My contract is with your husband. Not you.”
Kate’s final comment on this was very strange “I am looking at my contract right now my dear”. It was as if she was trying to taunt me for some reason!
I am not the only person who has had problems dealing with her
Unfortunately I am not the only person who has had problems dealing with her. When searching her name I found this:
“Well, this morning the breeder (“Kate Morris” in Ashford for anyone considering a lab puppy purchase in the future) looks like she has shown her true colours, after 3 weeks, pleasant phone follow ups and a couple of nice texts from us to her asking if she had sent the paper work, sends a response saying go ahead tarnish her name as she doesnt care, says she wont send any paperwork as there is outstanding monies due (what on earth she is talking about we have no idea as having paid the initial deposit and the balance on collection clearly there cannot be anything ‘due’) so it looks like we have a beautiful pedigree puppy with absolutely no paperwork or proof that we paid £750 which is not an insignificant sum”.
How I need your help
Unfortunately I can’t make Kate lift the restrictions, but I can tell my story and petition the Kennel Club to lift the restrictions as it is their registration process which is the key issue here.
My petition is to the Kennel Club that, “where their registration service is being used by unethical breeders to extort more money [never before discussed and not listed in the orignal contract of sale], and all listed medical/breeding tests have been met”, the Kennel Club should override the breeder and allow the registration of the puppies.
We are extremely ethical breeders where our dogs are first and foremost our pets, live with us for life and are only bred very much within KC guidelines. We are very choosy about who we sell to, visit their future homes and keep in touch with our owners via Social Media and take the puppies back in when the owners go on holiday. Unfortunately everyone is not like us as we have found to our cost.
Please support us by signing our petition.
If enough people put their name to it, the Kennel Club might just take action and stop this type of extortion.
For information I have documentary proof of everything stated here.
Kate Morris Ballymara Labradors Blue Barn Farm Ashford Road Great Chart TN23 3DH 07904 511741 Ballymara Caramel Eclipse AL02781206 Miss K M Morris http://www.bluebarnequestrian.com/ ballymara@bestfriends.uk.com.