New York Attorney General (AG) Eric Schneiderman today announced an agreement with women from Oswego County and Buffalo who have been permanently barred from selling animals or becoming licensed pet dealers.
They were responsible for illegally reselling or “flipping” puppies to unsuspecting consumers in the Syracuse and Buffalo areas, Schneiderman’s office said in a news release.
Schneiderman made the announcement at the Central New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (CNY SPCA) headquarters at 5857 E. Molloy Road in DeWitt.
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In one case, the Schneiderman’s office reached an agreement with a woman from the village of Cleveland in Oswego County who bought puppies on Craigslist, kept them in poor condition without access to a veterinarian, and resold them illegally, the attorney general’s office said.
Carissa Seaman bought animals, or obtained them for free, from Craigslist and the trading post of a local radio station.
She would then re-sell the dogs to other consumers for more money than she paid for them, flipping the dogs and pocketing the difference, according to Schneiderman’s office. In just one year, Seaman sold more than two dozen dogs.
Seaman, who is not a licensed pet dealer, kept the dogs in her home, but cared for them poorly. All of the dogs that Seaman sold needed veterinarian care, the attorney general’s office said.
In July, she offered to sell a five-week old St. Bernard puppy that had fleas and flea feces on its skin to two undercover AG investigators, the office said. Another seven-month old fawn pug for sale had two patches of fur missing from his back revealing raw and irritated skin.
In another case, the attorney general’s office obtained a court order against Stephanie Arcara, a Buffalo woman who posed as a puppy breeder, even though the puppies she sold were purchased online, malnourished, and sold to consumers who reported fleas, filth, and near-death health conditions among the pets.
Arcara is a self-confessed “puppy flipper,” Schneiderman’s office said.
Both Seaman and Arcara violated state law by failing to provide consumers with any records of the puppies’ breeder or the veterinary care they had received, and sold or offered to sell puppies that were less than 8 weeks of age, according to Schneiderman’s news release.
Both women also failed to have a licensed veterinarian examine the puppies prior to selling them and did not advise consumers of their rights to return sick puppies, as the law requires.
Through the voluntary-settlement agreement, Seaman is permanently barred from selling animals or becoming a pet dealer. As a result of a court order, Arcara is also permanently barred from selling animals or becoming a pet dealer.
Additionally, the agreement also requires Arcara to pay $1,000 as restitution to an individual who purchased a puppy that died, Schneiderman’s office said.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com
