On July 14, 2008, Tennessee puppy importer, Gina Price, was convicted of fraud by mail, fraud by wire, income tax fraud, and social security fraud, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee. The witnesses testifying at her trial included myself, Tom Sharp of AKC-CAR, and 42 victims. Ms. Price was taken into custody immediately upon the jury rendering its verdict. She faces about 6-7 years in federal prison when she is sentenced on December 8, 2008.

Gina Price
First, a bit of background. About 90 percent of the commercial puppy importing involves Bulldog and French Bulldog puppies. The reason is simple. Puppies of those breeds sell here for more than puppies of most other breeds do, and the puppies are readily available at much lower cost abroad. There is thus a higher profit margin available in reselling imported puppies. Also, by buying from exporters who buy from many different breeders, a U.S. reseller can have a constant supply of puppies, avoiding the problem that breeding bitches at a single location tend to synchronize their heats. The puppies come from eastern European countries, principally Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Hungary, and from South Africa. Large scale puppy importing appears to have started in 2003 when domestic puppy mill breeders discovered that it was more profitable to import puppies than to breed them here. Importing puppies is also much easier than breeding them as Bulldog and French Bulldog puppies are typically conceived by artificial insemination, delivered by Caesarian, and largely hand-raised (because dams tend to roll over and crush puppies). Finally, importing puppies rather than breeding on site tended to reduce problems with Animal Control inspections since the puppies are often pre-sold before they arrive in the U.S.
In the summer of 2004, Charlotte Creeley and Rebecca Sazegar, both of whom were active in French Bulldog rescue work, asked me if I would assist the Lake Elsinore animal control agency (Animal Friends of the Valley) deal with complaints about a Lake Elsinore, California, importer named Patricia Slack. I was able to put Ms. Slack out of business about a year later with the help of the United States Bankruptcy Court after Ms. Slack foolishly filed for bankruptcy in an effort to avoid paying about $12,000 in small claims court judgments obtained by puppy buyers.
In researching the subject, I found that there were many other puppy importers across the country operating similarly to Ms. Slack. I also discovered that there was a federal quarantine regulation that the puppy importers were ignoring, and that proper enforcement would likely end importing of puppies for resale. I contacted the CDC, but learned it had no funds for enforcement. In frustration, I contacted AKC for help. Jim Holt, the AKCÕs lobbyist, was unable to secure enforcement of that regulation, but arranged for an imports provision to be added to the PAWS bill on which Senator SantorumÕs office was then working. After PAWS failed to be enacted, Jim Holt continued to work to regulate imports until his untimely death on April 27, 2008. A month later, Congress enacted ¤14210 of the Food, Energy and Conservation Act of 2008 (the Farm Bill), which prohibits importing of puppies for resale at less than 6 months of age. Unfortunately, USDA seems to be doing nothing yet to enforce its provisions.
In January 2006, Los Angeles television stations ran stories on puppies being smuggled into southern California from Mexico. I approached one of the reporters, Ana Garcia of KNBC Los Angeles, about reporting on the puppies being imported from eastern Europe and the frauds being perpetrated on puppy buyers. Ms. Garcia wished to interview a seller and a southern California victim of that seller. On March 19, five days before Ms. Garcia was to interview me, I learned about a website called www.RebelRidgeKennelsIsBad.com, which a defrauded buyer named Warren James had created to collect information from other defrauded buyers. Warren James kindly provided me with copies of his documents and those he had received from other buyers, including two in California. I therefore suggested that Ms. Garcia interview Gina Price, the owner of Rebel Ridge Kennels, and one of PriceÕs California buyers. That became the plan.
About a month later, Mr. James told me that the Tennessee Attorney GeneralÕs office would be seeking an injunction within the next couple of weeks to shut down Rebel Ridge. Ana Garcia had not yet interviewed Gina Price or any of PriceÕs buyers. I told Ana Garcia that it was now or never if she wished to interview Price. A couple of days later, Ana flew out to Tennessee with her crew and interviewed Price. Less than a week later, the Tennessee Attorney GeneralÕs office filed an application for injunction in a Tennessee state court. That was the day before Ana GarciaÕs report was broadcast on the May 4, 2006 evening news.
In the fall of 2006, I learned that the U.S. AttorneyÕs office in Greeneville, Tennessee, would be indicting Gina Price in federal court, and that the prosecutor wanted to use a copy of the KNBC interview of Gina Price at trial. I arranged for KNBC to provide the prosecutor with a copy. The video became a key piece of evidence because the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination prevents the prosecution from calling a defendant as a witness. The video was thus the GovernmentÕs only opportunity to allow the jury to see and hear Gina Price answer questions about her business. (The video can be viewed on KNBCÕs website at http://www.knbc.com/video/9165524/index.html.)

Ms. PriceÕs trial began on Monday, June 30, 2008 in the small Tennessee town of Greeneville, about 50 miles west of her residence in Blountville, Tennessee. The jury returned its verdict on Monday, July 14, 2008 after about 5 hours of deliberation.
My role as a trial witness was to provide a bit of background about the puppy importing business and to introduce the KNBC video. Tom Sharp, who headed AKCÕs Compliance Department for several years, testified about proper dog registration practices and how Gina Price had tried to evade them. Much of the testimony of the 42 victims was dramatic.
David Bishop, the FBI agent who began investigating Gina Price back in 2005, was the first witness to testify. He told the jury that Price routinely purchased her animals from three suppliers, but mostly from a Vigandas Banys in Lithuania, and that Price had complained to her suppliers that many of the dogs arrived in the U.S. suffering from parvovirus. That was in direct conflict with PriceÕs representations to her buyers that she was buying top quality puppies, who arrived Òin perfect healthÓ and were shipped to buyers Òin perfect health.Ó Agent Bishop further testified that Price paid about $500 for each dog, and then sold them for between $1,200 and $2,800. Veterinary records furnished by the buyersÕ veterinarians demonstrate that the puppies suffered from other serious conditions like hip dysplasia and heart murmurs. BishopÕs testimony was corroborated by testimony of PriceÕs ex-brother-in-law that the puppies were already sick on occasions when he picked them up for her at the Atlanta airport.
Buyer Robin Croce testified that Rebel RidgeÕs Web site was very convincing and made the business appear to be a good place to buy puppies. She paid $1,550 for her puppy, Chloe, and $250 more to have Chloe shipped to her Norton, Massachusetts, home. But Croce said Chloe looked sick upon arrival at the airport. Chloe died less than two months later when a collapsed trachea caused her to cough up blood and stop breathing.
Buyer Tony Diliberto, an area manager for a tire store chain, testified that Gina Price assured him that his $1,200 payment was buying a purebred puppy born and raised at her kennel Òon the Ridge.Ó Within days, he learned the dog was an import with serious medical maladies. Diliberto said that when he contacted Price, she said, ÒIf you want, you can ship me the dead dog, and I'll send you another one.Ó Diliberto testified that he responded ÒThat's sick. The dog's not deadÓ and that Price then said ÒSend me the live dog, and I'll put it down and send you another.Ó Diliberto testified that he realized then he was not dealing with a rational, sane human being.
Buyer David Norred, a high school football coach, told jurors that he grew suspicious of the deal when the dog arrived at the agreed-upon delivery site in the lap of a child without a crate or collar. ÒThey handed me the dog like this (turning up the palms of his hands and reaching out his arms).Ó When Norred asked how he was supposed to transport the dog, the woman delivering the dog told him to use a seat belt. ÒI tried. I did,Ó Norred said, as jurors began laughing. ÒThe dog was looking at me like, ÔOK, you are an idiot.Õ I drove home, holding the dog, praying.Ó Norred said he took the puppy to the veterinarian, where the animal was diagnosed with a hereditary disease. He told jurors he never received pedigree papers or even a shot record for the pup.
Buyer Harold Snyder's puppy was not so lucky. Snyder testified that he bought the dog via Price's web site. ÒHow did it come to you?Ó Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy Harr asked. ÒSmelly,Ó Snyder replied. ÒIt wasn't the dog on the (web site).Ó ÒHow was it different?Ó Harr asked. ÒIt was a different color,Ó Snyder answered. ÒThis dog had one eye. The puppy we ordered had two eyes.Ó Snyder further testified that his dog died from medical maladies months later. On cross-examination, Gina PriceÕs lawyer, Rick Spivey, made the mistake lawyers are told in the first days of law school never to make. He asked a question to which he did not know the answer. Pointing to a picture of SnyderÕs dog, he pointed to one eye and asked: ÒIs that an eye?Ó ÒYes,Ó responded Snyder. Then pointing to the other Òeye,Ó Spivey asked: ÒIs that an eye?Ó ÒNo,Ó said Snyder. ÒLook carefully. The eyelids are closed. There is no eye under them.Ó
Gina PriceÕs veterinarian, David Redwine, testified that, when Price brought dogs to be examined at his office, she mostly just wanted to obtain a climate certificate Ð which simply certifies that a dog is healthy enough to be shipped in the cargo hold of an airplane Ð rather than a full health exam as represented to the buyers. Worse, he also testified that several climate certificates that Gina Price provided to airlines and sent to her customers appeared to have been created by Price herself by altering earlier certificates Redwine had issued.

Despite running a business that was grossing about $500,000 a year, Price was collecting full Social Security disability by representing that she was unable to work. She was also paying almost nothing in income taxes by misstating her income on her returns. When the prosecutor concluded the GovernmentÕs case, Gina PriceÕs defense counsel put on only one witness: an accountant and tax preparer who testified that, in his year living in east Tennessee, he had learned that people in eastern Tennessee did not understand financial matters, including the obligation to file accurate tax returns. Needless to say, that testimony did not play well with an east Tennessee jury who understood their own obligations to file accurate tax returns.

Many in the fancy with whom I have spoken have expressed the view that fraudulent sellers like Gina Price do not affect the fancy, and that the buyers got what they deserve for not having done their homework before buying their puppy. Taking the second point first, every buyer with whom I have communicated in the past five years has told me that he or she was convinced that they had done their homework but were deceived by the sellersÕ misrepresentations. Misrepresentations that are clearly nonsense to those in the fancy can be persuasive to those less knowledgeable. The argument that fraudulent puppy sellers do not affect the fancy is likewise mistaken. First, and most obviously, French Bulldog Rescue asked me to help with the problem because they were beginning to receive surrenders of imported puppies with chronic, expensive to treat health problems. Second, to the extent that such dogs are surrendered to shelters, they become part of the numbers that are cited by those urging mandatory spay neuter or other burdensome legislation. Third, and perhaps most importantly, we are in the fancy because we love dogs and it should be our concern when fraudsters are causing puppies with serious health problems to be bred, imported, and foisted off on unsuspecting customers.
Six to seven years of prison for Gina Price is not nearly enough punishment in view of the number of victims and the impact on them. Nonetheless, it will be unprecedented. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first prosecution ever of a puppy importer, and probably the first prosecution ever in federal court of someone committing fraud with the respect to the sale of puppies. (A state prosecution would likely have resulted in much less punishment.) Nancy Harr, the prosecutor, and David Bishop, the FBI agent, devoted extraordinary time and effort to the prosecution, notwithstanding the old aphorism that ÒNo-one was ever elected a judge for prosecuting a dog case.Ó David Bishop, the FBI agent first contacted about the case, had the foresight to see that this was a case that demanded attention, convinced his superiors within the FBI, and contributed an effort well beyond what his job required. Nancy Harr, the Assistant United States Attorney in charge of the Greeneville office, worked countless hours helping put the case together and did a truly superb job of trying the case. On the State side, Brant Harrell, a Tennessee Assistant Attorney General, likewise deserves enormous credit for closing down Rebel Ridge in 2006, thus preventing Gina Price from defrauding more victims during the two year period before she was convicted and taken into custody. Reading through his motion for injunction reveals the enormous amount of data Mr. Harrell needed to gather, review, and assemble into a persuasive legal brief in order to succeed, and his legal skill in doing so.
Others who contributed significantly to the prosecution were:
Bruce Lorenzen, an AKC judge and Bulldog breeder who first brought Gina Price to the attention of the authorities and continued to gather victim information until she was stricken with cancer;
BruceÕs friend, Penny Porter, a Bulldog breeder who worked with Bruce in gathering victim information and has stayed involved;
Warren James, a puppy buyer who created the RebelRidgeKennelsIsBad.com website to gather information from other victims, and who took over leadership of the victims when Bruce Lorenzen was stricken with cancer; and
All the buyers who took time off from their lives to travel to Tennessee and testify at Gina PriceÕs trial.
Gina Price will be spending the next several years in prison. Let us all pray that she will soon by joined by several of her fellow abusive puppy importers who continue to import puppy mill puppies and misrepresent them as healthy championship line dogs. n