Houston animal rescue groups warn against man selling sick puppies

HOUSTON (FOX 26) - Puppy parents are warning people across Houston to beware of a seller who posts to Craigslist and various forums. They want potential buyers to know they believe the man is knowingly selling sick puppies

Fox 26's Angela Chen spoke with buyers who say they spent hundreds on buying the puppy, then thousands more later on trying to save it a few days later. All the buyers ended up calling the same Houston phone number in ads they saw online.

Now, different animal rescue groups are investigating.

Home video shows one puppy's last days before he died. Kelly Schrock bought a baby pug from this seller two weeks ago. She named him Pikachu and fell in love with him. But then, a few days later, he began acting differently.

"He started acting sluggish that Sunday. Just real tired. I woke him up. He threw up, and then he had diarrhea real bad," said Kelly Schrock.

She took him to the vet and found out he had parvovirus, which is a deadly disease. But the best treatments could not save him. The pug died soon after.

Another buyer Lizet Luna bought a pug from the same ad only to find the same disease a few days later in her puppy -- parvo.

"We had already purchased everything for her. We bought her cage, her food, her bowls, her little clothes. We got everything for her, and...we were devastated," said Luna.

In both instances, they had called the same Houston number after seeing the man's ads online. They met a man in different store parking lots in the Heights and Midtown area and bought the puppies with cash. They said the man would only except cash. They never suspected the puppies would get sick.

"He knows that they have this disease, and he's selling them and that's why he's in and out, in and out, cash. I mean, it's big business, but it's very shady, and it's...the inevitable...they're going to die. They die five days after you get them," said Schrock.

Both buyers said the seller stopped taking their calls after he took their money. We trace the number to the website HTXpuppies.com and we called it, but the number has since been disconnected.

More buyers who believe they were scammed by the same man have come to Fox 26.