| Alana Snook Shade |
| Alana Snook Shade Mountain Kennel SELLS PUPPIES WITH HIP DYSPLASIA Beaver Springs, Pennsylvania |
| 4th of May, 2011 by User573969 |
| Alana Snook and Alicia Lutz are selling sick puppies. We bought our puppy on November 13th, 2011. We found our puppy through the internet at Gold Standard Kennel and we payed Alicia Lutz for the puppy. Later, after more than a month of asking Alicia for our puppy's birth certificate, we received it by mail. Then, we found out she is not even a breeder and the breeder is actually Alana Snook from Shade Mountain Kennel. After having our puppy for more than 2 months we started to see some changes. On February 13th, we did an X-ray and got very bad news. Max (our puppy) has genetic hip dysplasia. We contacted Alicia, the person who sold us the puppy. The only option she gave us was to replace Max with another dog. We told her there was no way we could do that, since after a couple of months Max had become part of our family already. We were later able to do some research and find out how to contact Alana Snook, the breeder of our puppy. We explained our situation to her and told her that we are going to do our best to help Max and not replace him. The only option to help him with his pain was surgery. We did a lot of research and we had no idea before that puppies can be sick at such a young age. The only reason our puppy has hip dysplasia is because one of his parents had it. This means that our puppy breeder is only making puppies for money, and doesn't care if her dogs are healthy enough to make puppies. We found a doctor for Max's surgery and we did his first surgery on February 28th. During this time period, we were staying in touch with Alana Snook. She promised us to return the money for the puppy, which is nothing compared to the expenses we had to pay for his surgery. We paid almost $4500 in total for Max's first surgery. Max still needs to get another surgery for his other hip later on. It was a very hard recovery for Max, he was in a lot of pain all the time and it was very upsetting and heart breaking to see. On top of all this stress, Alana was giving me a hard time as well. She payed us $425, the amount we payed for an X-ray. She said the rest of the money she'd pay us after the surgery was done. Every time after our hospital visits I would send Alana statements from the hospital as proof. Alana persistently called us liars and called the hospital to make sure we actually went. She probably doesn't believe people because she is a liar herself. We never received the rest of the money like Alana Snook promised us after the surgery. She was sending us emails with different excuses and kept being stubborn. It's going to take a while for our family to pay off the bills from the hospital but we never had to think twice about helping Max. One day, we found a scam report from some person about Alicia Lutz's website, saying that she bought a puppy from Alicia and had the same problem with her puppy as I have with mine, hip dysplasia. I was very shocked and angry and decided I was going to place a scam report on Alicia Lutz as well. After placing my ripoff, I received an email from Alana saying "...you will not be receiving another penny from us until you take the report off and sign and notarize a contract stating that you will never post negative feedback anywhere on the internet about us again...if you want the rest of your money you will need to mail me a signed and notarized contract like I mentioned above, and remove the scam report. Don't contact me again unless you have done the above-mentioned things." Alana I am not going to remove this report. The only thing my family wants to do is help Max and we were asking you to help Max too. Everything we have to do for Max is really expensive for our family. Instead of helping us you gave us a hard time and called us liars. We have nothing to lie about. We have nothing to hide. We are still going through hard times. It's not easy to see that our dog cannot do things dogs do at his age. He has a lot of pain to go through again after his second surgery. I don't know when our family will be finished paying all the medical bills from the hospital. The only reason that Max and our family are going through all of this is because of our breeder Alana Snook and the seller Alicia Lutz. The only reason why I am doing all of this is because I am an animal lover. I don't want any other families to go through what my family had to and still have to go through. I don't want to let some breeder like Alana let dogs suffer. Don't even try to say you didn't know or that your dogs are healthy. Healthy dogs don't give birth to a puppy with genetic hip dysplasia. Don't tell me it's just my puppy either. Alicia already has a scam from somebody else, so we are not alone. Before calling other people liars, look how much you lie. Before somebody decides to buy a puppy from Alana Snook (Shade Mountain Kennel) or Alicia Lutz (Gold Standard Kennel) think twice. I am open for any questions from anyone, because I don't want anyone to be in our situation. My name is Marina My email is |
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| First of all, saying that we sold you a sick puppy is not true. I have the reports from our vet that the puppy was healthy at the time of sale. Also, it is not true to say that one of his parents has hip dysplasia. The father has OFA CERTIFIED GOOD HIPS! The mother is PennHip certified at 90% which is EXCELLENT! We have ALL these documents if anyone would like to contact us to see them. We have done our best to work with this woman but she is very demading and rude. We offered her a replacement puppy in accordance with our guarantee but she was not happy and REFUSED to accept a replacement puppy. Our contract states in all caps "NO MONEY WILL BE REFUNDED FOR ANY REASON". I don't know what she doesn't understand about that, although she doesn't speak English very well so maybe she really didn't understand it. We then went above and beyond our guarantee to offer her the money for her replacement puppy when we sold it but we didn't have any litters at the time. I sent her some money to help with vet costs and AFTER I sent her that she started slandering our name all over the internet after we verbally agreed that she wouldn't do that. I don't think it makes sense that I continue to keep my end of the deal and pay her another $1600 just to have her continue to try to ruin our good name when she did not keep her end of the bargain. I do feel sorry for Max and what he is going through, but our dogs are vet checked and HIP CERTIFIED before breeding to try to avoid situations like this. This was the very first time any of our puppies EVER had any issues. I tried to explain to her that we did all that was humanly possible to prevent hip dysplasia in our puppies by performing all available testing on our adults but hip dysplasia is something that is very common in Golden Retrievers and sometimes just happens. We are not God and cannot control these things although we have the certification to prove that we did our best to prevent it. We also tried to work with this woman numerous times but she refused a replacement puppy from different parents (we did discontinue breeding her puppy's mother, just in case, even though she has excellent hips). We are ethical, responsible breeders that do our best to prevent these situations, but we are not God and are not in control of the puppies while they are being formed and we don't know why only one puppy got hip dysplasia nor why it had to be this woman's puppy, the most difficult person I've ever had to deal with in all my years of breeding. I trust that if you are reading this that you would go to our website, shade mountain kennel. com and see the testimonials for yourself or contact me and I will give you lists of email contacts of our customers that will gladly tell you of their experience with us. The bottom line is, we DO NOT sell sick puppies; every one of our puppies is vet-checked and healthy. We DO NOT breed dogs just for money. We take our profession very seriously and it costs a lot of money to provide people with happy, healthy, socialized puppies and to run a facility the way we do. I don't think you're going to find any good puppy that someone is going to give away after they've done the amount of work and spent the amount of money and time and research that it takes to produce a good puppy. I feel really angry that this lady is allowed to come to the United States from some foreign country and try to ruin years of our hard work building our reputation and our name just because she feels that she is entitled to it and she can't understand that when you are dealing with a live animal, things happen that are out of anyone's control. I'm sure that people can see by her article above that she was impossible to please and very difficult to work with. She is now literally trying to sue us over this and our lawyer laughed at the amount of money she is trying to get. The attorney said that she has no right to anything above a replacement puppy and she refused that so she doesn't know why she is wasting her time trying to get more money out of us. It's sad how people try to take advantage of the hard-working citizens of the United States to make themselves rich. I'm sure she won't win but it's still sad that she's trying. In light of everything, I do wish their family and their dog the best and I hope he recovers to live a long, happy life and I'm just sorry that things had to be this way. |
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I have been looking for a puppy and came across this kennel.
Unfortunately, after reading these two threads, I will not purchase a puppy from them. You would think that the kennel would have immediately tried to help the puppy get back to good health. But Instead, they took the position of READ YOUR CONTRACT. Anyone who loves their animal does NOT want to swap another puppy for the one they chose. Especially, if their puppy is in pain. The most upsetting question is 'What if they chose to swap for another puppy, what would have happened to Max???????? |
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| Having read both posts, I can see both sides. I am considering eventually adopting a puppy from Shade Mountain. They "retired" the mother, even though she's in good health, no hip problems and I would hope they would have given Max to a rescue group. I believe you will find this happening once in a great while to any reputable kennel. Recessive genes can pop up unexpectedly. |
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| We are in the process of locating a breeder from which to purchase a puppy. I have carefully read the above string and for the record have not spoken to Shade Mountain Kennel yet ( I had left a msg yesterday before finding this string). I feel compelled to respond, especially to "Puppyfindr". It is a sad fact in a world full of people looking to sue or make a buck that you must, as a buisness owner, abide by your contract. This in NO WAY means that you are unfeeling or unsympathetic to the legitimate concerns of the buyer. When you are an employer responsible for many jobs which affect many households as well as the feeding and quality care of your product, in this case, precious puppies, you must be clear and stand by a written contract. It is your only course of action if you are to keep your people employed and your buisness running. One good scam artist can wipe you and your buisness, that you spent your life building, off the map. I am not saying that this buyer in any way expected to be in this position, but the attitude is prevelent. It sounds like this kennel did abide by their contract and went beyond to help finacially when they were not required to do so. Any quality establishment, in my opinion, would need to do that but who determines how much "going beyond" is enough? It is emotional when a little life is affected and the bills seem out of control but our actions cannot be solely determined by our emtions. It would be heart wrenching to return a sick puppy you cannot afford to keep but, in deciding to keep him, you cannot require others to foot the bill. You can hold a fundraiser, bake sale, or other creative idea to allow your community to come alongside and help. This is what responsible people do. If you chose to return the puppy, as painful as that would be, you would heal and Max's future would hopefully be focused on what is the most humane option for him. Recessive genes happen. They do. How we deal with these unplanned and difficult situations show what we are made of. You are responsible for your choices. The kennel apparently had no indication of an illness when the puppy was sold. Hard choices are exactly that - hard. We cannot make personal choices and expect others to pay when they had done due diligence to avoid harm and offer a quality product. I always tell my kids, life isn't fair. How you respond to the seeming unfairness is what counts. A responsible, loving and often sacrificial response isn't ever easy but it is always worth its weight in gold. Our sensitive hearts must be guided by wisdom and clear thinking. In this country, your signature on a contract means something. Read it before you agree to it. |
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| Don't adopt a puppy from Shade Mountain. Alana is the biggest piece of scum I have ever dealt with. If you want to deal with heartache, unprofessionalism, liars and cowards, just go down to your local methadone clinic and start conversing with some of those people. I honestly have been sickened and disgusted by their practices and although it is late and I won't go into detail, I will say, I'd be more confidant driving into Baltimore City, finding the nearest heroine addict and asking to buy a dog from him. Hope this place is shut down and their livelihoods are ruined. |
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