A Queens home is doubling as a designer-dog emporium, brazenly hawking dozens of posh pooches for as much as $38,000, despite New York\u2019s puppy-sale ban, The Post discovered in a sting of underground pet stores.<\/p>\n
The Empire State\u2019s landmark \u201cPuppy Mill Pipeline Act\u201d<\/a> outlawed the sale of dogs, cats and rabbits in pet shops last December.<\/p>\n But at Tiny Cuties NYC at 28th Street and 36th Avenue in Astoria, customers can still pick up the latest designer canine cross from Taiwan \u2014 a miniature \u201cPomchi,\u201d or Pomeranian chihuahua mix, for $7,800; or a palm-sized \u201cMaltipom,\u201d a cross between a Maltese and Pomeranian, for $8,800; or a teacup \u201cPomapoo,\u201d a Pomeranian poodle mix, for $9,800, according to the selection currently available for purchase on the business\u2019 flashy website. <\/p>\n Herbie the Maltipom is being sold for a whopping $8,800. J.C. Rice<\/p>\n The prize pooch on offer is Miffy, a \u201cmicro teacup\u201d white poodle that promises to be only 2.2 pounds fully-grown, selling for an eye-watering $38,000, an undercover reporter posing as a potential customer found.<\/p>\n The business is run out of a living room that boasts a fish tank, a half-dozen Louis Vuitton and Hermes purses neatly displayed on a shelf, and photos of owner Jenny Tsai in a pink gown with some of the tiny pups.<\/p>\n It was found through a simple Google search for \u201cpuppies for sale NYC,\u201d coming up in the top local results. <\/p>\n Tsai \u2014 who showed an 8-month-old, 3-pound Maltipom named Herbie to The Post, and even let the reporter pet it \u2014 said she keeps a stable of dogs in the back of the two-bedroom home. Their loud barking could be heard from the street.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have 35 puppies here,\u201d Tsai bragged over the yipping and yapping . \u201cAnd we have another 30 in Taiwan.\u201d<\/p>\n Tsai told The Post there were 35 puppies in the Queens house, and another 30 in Taiwan. J.C. Rice<\/p>\n \u201cMy family has a kennel in Taiwan,\u201d said Tsai, adding that the dogs are shipped when they reach 6-months-old.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve sold more than 600 dogs,\u201d she claimed.<\/p>\n \u201cThe mom only has one puppy at a time,\u201d she continued. \u201cBecause if they have two, one will not survive. They have a C-section, so they are very valuable.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSize is the number one factor,\u201d explained Tsai, who said the smaller the miniature pup, the higher the price. At that size, \u201cit\u2019s a miracle basically\u201d that they\u2019re alive, she said.<\/p>\n Owner Jennie Tsai shows a Post reporter posing as a potential customer a picture of Herbie the Maltipom\u2019s parents. J.C. Rice<\/p>\n She also explained that some form of patellar luxation \u2013 a dislocation of the kneecap \u2013 is \u201cnormal\u201d and happens to 90% of their teacup puppies, and advised the tiny dogs steer clear of sudden movements.<\/p>\n \u201cThe kneecap is not too strong. It\u2019s just too small to fit everything inside,\u201d she said. \u201cYou want to prevent him from jumping. He can run in a flat place but not jumping too much.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the new designer breed,\u201d said Tsai of the Herbie the Maltipom. \u201cWe do our own R&D, so we come out with all kinds of breeds. They\u2019re all tiny and cute, it\u2019s just a unique mix.\u201d<\/p>\n Potential buyers choose a dog from the website, and they are brought to a living room area to meet with clients. J.C. Rice<\/p>\n \u201cOur clients, they want a tiny dog . . . something they can put in a Birkin and travel around the world,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n Brian Shapiro, New York State director of the nonprofit Humane World for Animals, was horrified by The Post\u2019s encounter.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve never heard anything so absurd,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis this is a big money big business with signs of puppy mill cruelty behind it,\u201d said Shapiro.<\/p>\n Tsai proudly showed Herbi the Maltipom to a Post reporter posing as a potential customer. J.C. Rice<\/p>\n \u201cThis is just baffling my mind because I\u2019ve never heard of such intense breeding that ends up in such a horrific physical place for an animal . . . It\u2019s almost like you\u2019re mutating these animals into something so unnatural.\u201d <\/p>\n After the visit, The Post confronted the owner. She denied running a puppy mill.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not a pet shop,\u201d Tsai said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe breed our dogs ourselves, we breed them more than ten generations, and we know their lineage,\u201d Tsai defended. \u201cWe don\u2019t do in breeding. We raise them in a family home.\u201d<\/p>\n The business is run out of a Queens home doubling as a designer-dog emporium. J.C. Rice<\/p>\n \u201cWe have USDA license, we have our attending vet coming to visit regularly, so everything is fine. We are not like a puppy mill that we don\u2019t know where the dogs come from, or we buy from somebody else. This is all our own puppies.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe also do events, we are not only selling puppies,\u201d she added. \u201cWe use them for puppy yoga, puppy therapy, so it actually benefits the society.\u201d<\/p>\n She also defended concerns about the tiny dogs\u2019 wellbeing.<\/p>\n Herbie, who\u2019s being touted on the website as having \u201cbig eyes, baby doll face, soft fluffy coat and compact short body\u201d has an estimated adult size of 3-3.5 pounds. J.C. Rice<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very common for any small breed dog to have patellar laxation,\u201d she insisted. \u201cThere\u2019s not too many health issues. The common health issue just in the kneecap. And the remaining puppy teeth, they won\u2019t fall out themselves. The average lifespan is 15 years.\u201d<\/p>\n The store is part of a handful in the city that appear to be operating in a legal gray area \u2013 importing or appearing to broker the import of puppies through a foreign pipeline and blurring the lines by operating a large part of their business online.<\/p>\n The Post also found a Midtown pet shop that appeared to be brokering the sale of Korean-bred designer pooches through an Instagram catalog, also specializing in teacup-sized designer dogs, which retailed for up to $4,000.<\/p>\n A store employee at this Madison Avenue pet store in Midtown Manhattan showed The Post available puppies displayed on an Instagram account, when a reporter posed as a potential customer last month. New York Post<\/p>\n It appeared to get around the law by not physically holding the pups in store, only saying they could be picked up at the store after they arrive from South Korea, The Post found when it paid a visit to the Madison Avenue shop posing as a potential customer.<\/p>\n New York\u2019s Puppy Mill Pipeline Act states that a retail pet shop, defined in the bill as any for-profit place of business that sells or offers for sale animals, shall not sell or offer to sell dogs.<\/p>\n The text doesn\u2019t differentiate between brick and mortar and online sales, and the law applies to both, according to state Sen. Michael Gianaris (D-Queens), who cosponsored New York\u2019s puppy ban bill.<\/p>\n The Midtown pet store visited by The Post also specializes in teacup-sized puppies imported from Asia. New York Post<\/p>\n It was intended to \u201ccut off the pipeline\u201d of animals being trucked into the state from\u00a0abusive puppy-mill breeding practices<\/a>, Gianaris told The Post, and instead encourage adoption from overwhelmed shelters.<\/p>\n