3 men accused of illegally selling puppies from their cars in NYC are Philly crooks who call themselves ‘celebrity breeders’

Three men who have been accused of illegally selling puppies out of the trunk of their car in the Diamond District are crooks from Philadelphia who call themselves “celebrity breeders” and claim to have sold a dog to Cardi B, The Post has learned.

For the past year, shady dog dealers have been hawking tiny designer dogs out of a Mercedes SUV for as much as $4,500 each.

The Post has identified Brandon Rone, Tyshawn Walker and Dasheim Harris as three of the four men spotted plying their trade in broad daylight on West 47th Street as recently as July, after a tip came into the newsroom.

Brandon Rone is one of the men behind the mobile puppy mill operation. bran100grand__/Instagram

Rone, 34, Walker, 31, and Harris, 29, who all live in Philadelphia, according to public records, call themselves “celebrity breeders” on their Instagram pages, where they also flash their Rolex watches, Louis Vuitton bags and stacks of hundred-dollar bills.

They claim to have sold a pooch to Cardi B — proudly sharing a snap of the 33-year-old singer in April in the backseat of a car holding a shaggy red-headed dog. The Post has reached out to the star singer.

Rone’s business, “Pups R Us,” advertises weeks-old toy poodles, cavapoos, cockapoos, goldendoodles and Pomeranians on Instagram that he claims will weigh as little as 5 to 8 pounds fully grown. Walker peddles the pups under his outfit, “FUReverhome.”

It’s unclear where the dogs are actually bred. Rone purports they’re “home raised,” but the photos he posted only show dogs crammed into cars or are tightly cropped shots. He lives in a semi-detached three-bedroom house in north Philadelphia with a small front yard open onto the street and no backyard.

Tyshawn Walker was charged for illegally selling dogs in Philly in 2024, along with Rone. Instagram / tyshawn_imdifferent

Rone and Walker were nabbed by cops in November 2024 for illegally “selling, bartering or trading” dogs in a Walmart parking lot on the outskirts of Philly. Rone pleaded guilty and got off only paying a $400 fine. Walker also pleaded guilty to the charges against him, but it was not immediately clear if he faced any fines.

Meanwhile, Harris has a rap sheet that includes a 2021 gun bust in the City of Brotherly Love, but there is no record of a conviction.

The former high school football player and self-described “vibe creator” has other lucrative hustles besides selling designer dogs — regularly promoting events on Instagram like a recent “Wet n’ Wild” pool party in New Jersey.

Dasheim Harris has been identified as one of the other men behind the mobile puppy mill. dasheim.harris/Facebook

NYPD never busted the guys, telling The Post last month they fled by the time police responded to 911 calls in Midtown.

The men have been spotted at least five times in Manhattan in the past year, and Rone even posted social media video of his illegal activity in the Big Apple this summer to a since-deleted Instagram account.

Walker added the caption, “not for sale,” to photos of pups on his Instagram page — which features images of his neon-green corvette and a vacation to the Maldives — on July 27, just two days after the last Post story ran. He also posted the shushing face emoji to the captions.

Rone showed off a large pile of cash on TikTok around the time he was spotted selling pups on W 47th St last month. pups_r_us__/tiktok
Rone, here on West 47th St in NYC’s Diamond District in July, is one of the ringleaders of the operation. Helayne Seidman for the NY Post

Animal rights groups and law enforcement in Philadelphia have been investigating the men.

“We’ve been getting calls about these guys for years,” Sarah Barnett, executive director of the Animal Care and Control Team of Philadelphia, told The Post. She said they were known to sell pups in a Walmart parking lot.

“They even had the balls to stand outside an animal rescue center and sell the puppies.”

When confronted with the illegality of the operation by a Post reporter on the phone, Rone repeated his outlandish claim that he simply offers free puppy yoga before trying to deny that he was the man reached.

“We do puppy yoga . . . that wasn’t me,” he said, before hanging up when called out over the fact he had been reached at the phone number advertised on an Instagram page offering dogs for sale.

Harris and Walker could not be reached for comment.

The men advertise tiny puppies for sale on their Instagram pages. pupsrus__/instagram
Four men were spotted last month in the Diamon District, selling a dozen toy poodles for four figures a pop. Helayne Seidman for the NY Post

“These puppies are being treated like disposable toys — with sellers pocketing a pretty penny off animals who are often sick, stressed and traumatized before they’ve even had a real chance at life,” blasted Mian Osumi, Policy and Advocacy Manager at Voters for Animal Rights

“Nobody should trust the breeding practices of someone running a black-market puppy operation out of their vehicle. There’s no vet oversight, no health guarantees, no accountability — just a business model built on volume and how fast they can disappear before police arrive.”

NYC law prohibits selling pets at a location that’s not licensed for that purpose — and since 2024 when the Empire State’s Puppy Mill Pipeline Act, even pet shops are no longer allowed to sell them. Since then, New Yorkers can only buy dogs directly from a responsible breeder – or adopt from a shelter.

The Manhattan District Attorney, which enforces the law, didn’t return The Post’s request for comment.

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