Huntington Beach newlyweds Brittany and Brandon Swigart believed in 2019 that they had to that point completed their fledgling family when they spotted Winnie, a brown mini Labradoodle, in a Craigslist ad and took delivery of the tiny puppy after handing over more than $1,000 cash in a West Covina parking lot.
“We knew we couldn’t afford to have a child, so this was the next best thing,” Brandon said in an interview.
“This is what our life was going to look like,” Brittany added: “We were going to be dog people, we would go to dog parks, we were going to have dog-park friends.”
But that hope — and the puppy they named Winnie — died a month later after Winnie became seriously ill and the fur coloring washed off during a bath, revealing a stark white coat.
The Swigarts and five other families who suffered through similar trauma and filed a lawsuit received a measure of justice, however, when a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ordered the Kenney family of Phelan in San Bernardino County to pay damages and never again sell dogs.
Judge Barbara M. Scheper in her Oct. 31 ruling awarded the families the cost of the puppies and their medical bills, plus $10,000 each for emotional distress and $100,000 punitive damages to be divided among them.
“Defendants made false representations about the health, age, sex and breeds of the puppies they sold to plaintiffs,” Scheper wrote. “Defendants are liable plaintiffs for fraud.”
There may have been other victims, said Gary Praglin, one of the attorneys who filed the lawsuit on their behalf.
“I’m very grateful that we had clients that were willing to have the backbone to stand up to the Kenneys, because they were intimidating,” Praglin said. “It’s a great lesson for people to stand up for their rights and have faith that they can make things right.”
Co-counsel Christopher Berry, managing attorney for the Animal Legal Defense Fund, said, “The court’s decision sends a powerful message that people engaged in the sale of animals will be held accountable for engaging in animal neglect and fraud. Unfortunately, this is a rampant problem, whether it’s in pet stores or online sales.”
The breeding and puppy sales of the Kenneys — Trina, husband Rick, son Elijah and daughter Jezrial — have been under scrutiny for more than a decade. In 2012, the Humane Society of San Bernardino received complaints that the Kenneys were violating state law by selling dogs younger than eight weeks old.
Humane Society Officer Francisco Padilla, in a 2020 interview, said the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute the Kenneys for fraudulently selling sick puppies because of a lack of evidence.
In 2011, Trina Kenney was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison and was ordered to pay $272,609 in restitution to 88 victims after she pleaded guilty to selling sick and abused horses and misrepresenting their physical characteristics, abilities, temperaments, breeds and pedigrees, according to the FBI.
In the puppies case, the Kenneys said they did sell young dogs, but not to the six families who sued, attorney Don Reid said Wednesday, Nov. 15. Reid represented all but Rick Kenney, who had his own attorney.
Reid said the victims based their testimony that the Kenneys sold them the puppies on online comments written by others “accusing (the Kenneys) of terrible things. … I would call (the Kenneys) victims.”
San Bernardino County Animal Control investigated reports of puppies being sold that quickly died and did not identify the Kenneys as the perpetrators, Reid said. He added that he plans to appeal the verdict but declined to say on what grounds.
The judge, in her ruling, considered whether the online criticism of the Kenneys colored the six families’ testimony but was satisfied that their identifications of the sellers they met in parking lots in Pomona, West Covina, Diamond Bar and Glendora were accurate. The sellers were usually seen getting out of a Mercedes-Benz SUV with no license plates that at least once was traced to the Kenneys, the ruling said.
That was the case in February 2019, when Winnie was delivered to the Swigarts along with what the judge determined was a bogus vaccination record.
The puppy became ill almost immediately, the judge’s ruling said. (Reid said the puppy didn’t get sick for two weeks.) The Swigarts spent thousands of dollars trying to save her, but the dog died in March. Before then, the brownish color in the fur washed out.
The Swigarts said Jezriel Kenney and her husband delivered the puppy.
In 2018, the Loy family of La Habra bought what they thought was a reddish-brown male mini golden doodle puppy with a vaccination record for $1,200. Soon, the thrill wore off, when the fur color also wore off in the bath and the dog, Penny, got sick. A veterinarian told the Loys that not only was Penny seriously ill, but that she was a he.
The Loys could not afford medical care for the renamed Bear, and he was euthanized.
Four other families experienced similar ordeals. Some of the puppies survived.
Tracking down the Kenneys proved difficult and getting them to acknowledge selling the puppies was even more so. The judge’s ruling said the phone numbers in the Craigslist ads were difficult to trace and that the Kenneys used burner phones and phones that could randomly generate a phone number for a text message to communicate.
“Of the six sellers who testified, five reported receiving threatening communications after they complained to or about the seller of the puppies,” Judge Scheper wrote.
Brittany Swigart is an interior designer. The ruling said a seller sent the Swigarts a message that read, “You’re such a good designer, aren’t you? Hope you get lots of future business. I’d hate to see your name smeared all over the internet.”
The sellers also accused another victim of being “a child molester,” the ruling said.
A search of the Kenneys’ property in 2018 by the Humane Society found sub-standard conditions, including “a litter of small puppies in a tub in the garage with no food or water, older dogs caged in kennels that were unsanitary and water bowls with green water,” the ruling said.
Searchers, who had a warrant, could not find puppy food, vaccines or syringes.
The Kenneys themselves were difficult to pin down, the judge wrote.
Trina Kenney said she bought and sold puppies and vaccinated them, yet she had no records.
The Kenneys owned a home worth $425,000 and expensive cars, and a boat was registered to one of Rick Kenney’s enterprises, yet it was unclear how they earned enough money to make those purchases.
Rick Kenney testified that he worked in construction and that his wife was “self-supporting,” but that he didn’t know how she earned money. The daughter, Jezriel, said she didn’t know what her parents did for a living. When asked what high school she attended, Jezriel took the Fifth.
“Many of their answers were utterly ridiculous,” Judge Scheper wrote. “The Court found the defendants utterly lacking in credibility. None of the defendants presented any proof of income yet they live on a spacious property and drive luxury vehicles.”
Brandon Swigart said the ruling and judgment gave him “an overwhelming feeling of relief.”
He and his wife later found a reliable breeder in Montecito and purchased two golden doodles, Brixton, now age 5, and Willow, now 3.
“They are so fun,” Brittany Swigart said. “We’re pretty emotional about them. I can’t even explain how they’ve impacted our lives. They’ve helped us heal after Winnie.”
