Non-BCA Members / Public Alert:
Dear Bulldog Lover or Potential Bulldog Buyer:
We want to make anyone considering the purchase of a bulldog puppy aware of a legal judgment obtained against Rick Johnston and Matt Johnston (together, "Johnston”), offering bulldog puppies for sale through southwestbulldogs.com. They also offer puppies under the websites Hollywoodbulldogs.com and californiabulldogs.com, as well as possibly other websites. '.
The Superior Court of the State·of Arizona entered a judgment against Johnston in favor of Mark Itri ("Itri"); a'victim of Johnston's in the sale of a puppy. The court awarded ltri damages in the sum $16,528 and additional costs of$,1,B54, a total of $18,082. Johnston presented no defense in the action.
According to court 'records, two unrelated legal judgments have been obtained against Johnston in similar cases, totaling thousands of dollars. In addition, Johnston has been found guilty of criminal aggravated harassment by an Arizona judge.
According to Itri's allegations, Itri paid $5,850 for what was supposed to be an AKC-registered male bulldog puppy of show quality which was delivered to Itri by Johnston. Despite repeated requests, Itri .never received any AKC' registration papers for the male puppy he purchased. Itri alleges that after 16 months of waiting, during which Itri received nothing but broken promises, Johnston finally supplied AKC registration papers for a female bulldog that wasn't even born until after Itri had taken possession of his male puppy! It gets worse. Itri also alleges that the puppy he purchased from Johnston had a health condition which required a $1,500 surgical procedure to treat.
Itri also alleges that Johnston has engaged in a similar pattern of deception to other puppy buyers by promising to provide healthy, show quality bulldogs supported by AKC registration papers but failing to do so. At least 10 other purchasers of puppies from Johnston, just during the brief period between April 2006 and September 2007, placed complaints on the consumer complaint internet forum complaintsboard.com. As of the date of this letter, searches on this consumer protection website for "Rick Johnston," "hollywoodbulldogs.com, II "southwestbulldogs.com" and "californiabulldogs.com" turn up a total of 75 individual complaints about the sale of bulldog puppies involving Johnston! We strongly suggest you read these complaints and, once you do, we're sure that you would never consider purchasing a puppy from Johnston or through any of his websites.
On these websites Johnston references an organization called the Genetic Bulldog Breeders Association and quotes an ethics policy for such organization. This organization is not recognized by the American Kennel Club and, to our knowledge, does not even exist. Representations from it should be ignored. In addition, Johnston's websites include video clips and written statements which contain derogatory remarks about the Bulldog Club of America and certain of its longstanding members. Please consider the source of these statements, and we believe that you will understandably question their truthfulness and Johnston's intent in calling our organization and its members into question.
Our purpose with this letter is to make potential bulldog buyers aware of the many complaints about, and the significant legal judgment against, Johnston and his aliases. We strongly suggest that potential bulldog buyers refer to the breeder referral program of the Bulldog Club of America or to other reputable breeders as the source for their new puppy.
