Unfortunately I am not happy with what has happened. While the pup in question may have been saved, even that is not clear. If the breeder was willing to let one of his fur babies go to a home through an auction without any concern of the appropriateness of the adoption, he will probably place the pup somewhere else with the same lack of concern.
Several years ago I was faced with an even worse situation. Ducks Unlimited, a hunters organization with a conservation agenda, approached me about donating a Newfoundland puppy for their fundraising lottery. To say I was horrified would be the greatest understatement of the century. Unlike an auction, the winner of such a prize may have been trying to get one of the other prizes such as a particularly deluxe shotgun or may just have bought a lottery ticket to support the organization. At least in an auction the bidder actually wants the pup even though it might not be an ideal match.
My response was private and very polite. Even though Ducks Unlimited had raffled off retrievers in the past which was somewhat more appropriate than a Newfoundland, when I explained that having a dog of any type become a member of a human family was not something that should be left to "chance", they accepted this. What was different was that there was no public embarrassment and the need for a defensive stand on their part. I actually got a chance to educate which is almost impossible in a hostile public embarrassment campaign.
The high school has stopped the auction of this Bernese Mountain Dog puppy under duress but does not accept that this might not be a correct thing to do and may still do something of this sort in future. There was not only no education but a rebuttal that they were attacked by animal activists.
