Sounds like he knew enough to be at the vet.
I'm of two minds on this, and they're seemingly in conflict. On one hand, I'm pretty picky about how dogs should be cared for. But on the other hand, I can't stand the elitist snobbery of purebred dog people (and you do this AAM) who think it takes a pedigree and a team of geneticists to find a good pet. If you want to compete with dogs or take part in certain sport, get a spendy purebred, if you want a pet, they might be just as happy with a mutt from the pound.
I'd be more concerned about where this dog was going than where it came from, and those who spend hundreds on charity auctions are probably not bad homes for a little lap dog. I'm not totally up in arms about it. And I was about a similar fundraiser trail ride that was giving away a foal. MUCH different, that.
I'm not talking about animals that come from the pound, and I do own show dogs. I'm not an elitist snob, just against online auctions.
The buyer has no way of knowing what they are getting, how it was raised and the health of the animal.
I don't think it takes a ten-generation pedigree to get a good pet. It does help though if you want to be reasonably sure of a good performance dog for competition. Since that's what I do, I'm concerned about pedigrees. And if somebody wants a dog for a particular purpose, it's a good idea to do some research and talk to a lot of people in that discipline before making a choice. You can get lucky -- the USDAA allows people to run non-pedigreed dogs in competition. You just register them with USDAA as "All American" - they either do well, or they don't, but as long as the dog is enjoying it everybody has a lot of fun (at least until you get to the higher levels of competition, where everybody gets deadly serious.)
But even with the pet dogs, there is something to be said for paying attention to pedigrees with regard to genetic deformities and diseases as well as temperament issues. If you're going out to get a "purebred", you have to watch out for puppy mill dogs and careless breedings. Cavalier King Charles Spaniels are fairly inbred and have some serious genetic defects in the bloodlines -- particularly mitral valve disease, serious eye defects causing blindness, dysplasia, deafness, spinal deformities, and something called hypertonic collapse. Up to 50 percent of all CKCS have spinal deformities.
A friend of mine bought a backyard-bred Golden and wound up spending over $6,000 for hip dysplasia surgery - which was unsuccessful. What a heartbreak for her family . . . if she had bought a dog from a breeder who tested for dysplasia her chances of a sound Golden would have been much better.
If you don't want to research the breeder and the pedigrees, you're probably better off with a chance-bred mutt with hybrid vigor than a poorly-bred pedigreed dog.
Some are and some aren't. There is NO screening process, the high bid gets the puppy. Even humane societies and shelters screen prospective homes.
Sorry you dislike us elitist snobs. Actually, no, it doesn't bother me all that much. It's your problem, not mine.
susie