We purchased a male english bulldog from Anton and Dawn on 8/25/08. Three days after we brought him home, Otis ended up with cherry eye. We immediately called Anton because before we purchased him we expressed concerns about his eyes because they were a little red (Anton told us that it's "normal" for puppies to have red eyes and he was fine). Anton told us not to worry and cherry eye happens a lot with this breed and to wait a few more days and if the third eyelid doesn't go back in then he would remove it. A few days later we called him and arranged to bring Otis to him so that he could have his "vet" remove the third eyelid. We initially expressed to him that we would just take him to a vet in midtown and send him the bill and he told us that it wouldn't be necessary and that it would be best if his vet took care of the surgery because he already knew Otis and it would be better for the puppy. We reluctantly agreed to go all the way back to Brooklyn. When we arrived, Anton was nowhere to be found; instead we were greeted by a young woman who hardly spoke any English (she was Hispanic). I immediately called Anton asking where he was - he responded by saying "Isn't the girl there?" and I said, "Yes, but..." Then Anton interrupted me and told me to just leave Otis with "the girl" and come back in 2 hours. I felt a little uneasy about this, but just went with it anyway. After the "surgery, " I came by to pick up Otis and Anton sent us home - he didn't even give us any antibiotics and had no instructions on how to care for him. All he said was "the dog will be fine."
Fast forward to the issue: Otis has been to the vet with eye issues approximately every three weeks from the day Anton removed his third eyelid until we had surgery on his eyes in the beginning of January. After three months, our vet noticed that there may be an ulcer in his eye and referred us to an ophthalmologist. She was great she took care of Otis and let us know that he had a stromal corneal ulcer in his right eyelid (the eye that developed the cherry eye). She didn't want to do surgery on his eyes, but Otis was unfortunately born with Entropion eyelids (due to poor breeding) and his ulcer would never heal with the lower lids rubbing against his cornea. If we did not have the surgery, Otis would have become blind in his right eye. Because he had no third eyelid (in either eye they removed it in BOTH eyes and did not inform us that they also removed it in the left eye), there was not enough tear production, which resulted in dry eye. Dry eye is a common cause of corneal ulcers. If Otis did not develop a corneal ulcer, we would never needed to have the entopion surgery.in a nut shell: the negligence of Dawn and Anton caused all of these issues. Between all costs (vet and specialist) it was about $3200. We have all the paperwork and even have a letter from the ophthalmologist stating that the ulcer was caused from the removal of the third eyelid.
We approached Anton via phone about 3 weeks ago and he told us to mail him all of the info. We immediately developed an email and scanned all documents and also mailed him a hard copy. He gave us the run around for about a week and then told us that we needed to speak with Dawn because she was the breeder. My boyfriend called again and Anton said Dawn would call him later in the evening. She never called (shocker). Yesterday I called to speak with Dawn and he told me that she is away for a week. I know he is full of crap, so I basically told him that we are taking him to small claims court and we are suing for all veterinary costs as well as the cost of the dog because of their fraudulent business practices (contacting Attorney General Cuomo).
I regret purchasing a puppy from them, but in a sense I feel a little happy to know that I could rescue a puppy that probably would have been killed and thrown into a barrel somewhere. Otis is otherwise a healthy dog and he is very loveable. We learned our lesson and would rather buy a bulldog from reputable breeder though it would have cost us about $3500, it would have saved us in the long run (we are in the hole about $5000 including cost of the dog). I would never recommend buying ANYTHING from Anton or Dawn. They use the email addresses [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], and most recently [email protected]. Their business names are D&A Kennels and I have also seen Maize Bulldogs as well as Anton Maize. Their registered name is Just Puppies, LTD.
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