GAINESVILLE, Fla. – A Gainesville woman is linked to an alleged puppy “flipping" scheme involving the sale of underage puppies on various internet posts, including Craigslist.
News 6 viewer Judith Bell said she purchased a male Chihuahua from Brittany Renae Cassels for $250 in late October.
She said Cassels met her at a McDonald's restaurant in Ocala, but that Cassels offered no papers or medical records.
Bell said the woman showed her an empty vial and claimed that she had administered a vaccine to the puppy.
Bell took the puppy to the Brevard SPCA clinic because she had never had a dog that young.
According to Dr. Anik Chavez the puppy, Aceie, was no more than 5 weeks old.
Under state law, puppies may not be sold until they are 8 weeks old.
“He was definitely struggling,” Chavez told News 6. "What really concerned me was his temperature. He was very cold.”
Chavez said the puppy’s body temperature was only 97.1 degrees, well below the accepted medical standard for puppies, which is 103 degrees. The puppy was treated Oct. 31 and died the next day.
A friend of Cassels said she attended Hawthorne High School but had never owned puppy kennels or had any dog breeding experience.
Lynette Yancy and Nicole Belmonte, both residents of Central Florida, purchased chow-shepherd puppies from the same litter. The puppies were purchased from Cassels in December 2016 for $400 each.
Belmonte named her puppy Bodhi and took the ailing pup to the Animal Wellness Center of Mt. Dora.
According to Jodie Gregalunas, a veterinary technician at the center, Bodhi was sold "much younger than 8 weeks old.”
In an email to News 6, Gregalunas wrote: "We all hoped and prayed Bodhi could pull through. He was just so weak and malnourished. He had failure to thrive. It is unfortunate that innocent people fall into to the 'cute' puppy trap.… Bodhi had more internal parasites (hookworms) than I have ever seen before, Just makes me sick."
Yancy’s puppy was female, and she named her Gizmo.
She told News 6 that Gizmo was treated at a local clinic, and the puppy died at home.
She said she tells her 3 -year-old daughter that Gizmo is "on vacation."
News 6 made several attempts to contact Cassels, including messaging her on Facebook.
At last check, her Facebook site had been pulled.
Susan Naylor of SPCA Brevard said people behind so called “dog flipping” operations are in it
for a quick profit.
“They don’t have any regard for the animal’s life ,” she told News 6. “They’re getting them from some source and turning around and selling them for more money than what they paid for them.”
If you want to adopt a pet, SPCA Brevard is holding an open house billed as the “Share the Love” adoption event from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.
The adoption center is located at 6035 Sisson Road in Titusville.
For more information, visit www.spcabrevard.com.