Breeder, dog owner battle over puppy ownership

A HUNGARIAN vizsla puppy has become the subject of a legal wrangle in the Johannesburg High Court involving a breeder and the owner of a male dog.

The male mated with the breeder’s dog with the aim of producing a litter of highly sought-after puppies. According to the contract, the owner of the male, named Cody, was allowed to choose the best pup as payment.

But Charlie, the female, produced only one pup. Cody’s owner claimed the pup, but Charlie’s owner refused.

Cody’s owner, Willie Wolmarans, turned to the court to force breeder Tania Davey-Smith to give him what he regarded as his pup. Wolmarans asked for an order to declare an oral agreement entered into between them to be a binding agreement.

Both parties agreed that Cody would be used to mate with Charlie, and that this was by way of an oral agreement. On July 17 last year, Cody was transported to the breeder’s kennel by Wolmarans’ son. He asked Davey-Smith when he could collect the puppy. The respondent stated that it would be best if the puppy be collected at six weeks of age. But then only one puppy was born, namely Ocean, a male.

Wolmarans’ version, as set out in an affidavit, is that he would receive compensation for the use of Cody by Davey-Smith in the form of one puppy born from the litter. However, despite the terms of the oral agreement and subsequent demands, she failed to deliver the puppy.

Wolmarans maintained that from the outset, the parties never discussed a situation that if only one puppy was born and it was male, the puppy would remain with the breeder.

He said it was made clear from their WhatsApp conversations that he would produce Cody for breeding in return for a puppy.

Accordingly, he argued, the breeder reneged on the terms of the agreement.

Davey-Smith, on the other hand, said when Cody first arrived at Roxstar Kennel, she posted his arrival on her website and also created a WhatsApp group consisting of people who would be interested in puppies with Cody and Charlie’s bloodline.

She then contacted Wolmarans for the mating between Cody and Charlie. She states that this agreement was initiated by her and that she specifically told Wolmarans that she wanted a male puppy from the litter and that she would have first choice over the said litter.

Upon the birth of Ocean, she informed Wolmarans that the pup was male, and if paternity tests confirmed that Cody was the father, then Ocean would be staying with Roxstar Kennel as per the agreement.

During the conversation, she said, she also informed him that she would only proceed with the mating arrangement on condition that Wolmarans transfer ownership of Cody to her, so she could register Cody with the Kennel Union of South Africa.

This, she said, was not to take physical ownership of Cody, but to ensure that Roxstar Kennel would acquire all rights with regard to Cody’s progeny from the litter and that the pups born from the litter would be registered as Roxstar Kennel Hungarian vizslas.

According to Davey-Smith, Wolmarans agreed. When only one pup was born, she asked Wolmarans whether he would want Cody to try to have another litter with one of her other dogs, called Beetroot, and he agreed, she said.

Davey-Smith said although it was agreed that Wolmarans would get a pup as stud fee, it was agreed that she, as breeder, would have first choice on any male puppy born from this litter. She said the sole purpose of the mating was to ensure that she had a healthy male pure-bred vizsla, with this specific genetic combination which she could use as a stud.

But, Ocean will remain with the breeder, as Judge Dario Dosio said there was so much in dispute he could not decide the issue by means of affidavits and not by oral evidence. He accordingly dismissed the application.