Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee Written evidence submitted by Puppy Love Campaigns
We have been campaigning against puppy farming since 2007. We work with TV companies to expose the trade in pups and conduct our own investigations when we receive complaints from members of the public about sick pups they have purchased. Puppy farming is a much neglected area of animal welfare and without doubt the biggest animal welfare scandal of our time. Reports written by Sir Patrick Bateson, RSPCA and others have confirmed this. Every day in the UK a dog is killed every hour in council run pounds. We, the tax payer, are paying local Government to kill healthy dogs, dogs who just need a home. Meanwhile, local councils are issuing more and more licenses to puppy factory farmers to breed more and more dogs. Councils are failing to properly inspect these puppy factories or enforce their license conditions or the animal welfare act. Our investigations show dogs suffering with hunger and thirst, living in filthy overcrowded conditions and some dogs needing urgent veterinary help.
Our response is limited to the factory farming of dogs/puppies.
1. The fact that puppies can be sold in pet shops and by vendors trading through the internet and newspaper advertisements is the reason that puppy farms exist. Every major independent organisation involved in animal welfare opposes the principle of puppies being sold as a retail commodity and recommends that puppies should only be purchased direct from a responsible breeder. Local authorities also license private residential premises to sell pups, in almost every town you will find someone selling pups from a shed in their garden or a room in the house. These vendors obtain pups from Wales or Ireland on weekly basis and sell on to the public at highly inflated prices. Pups are very often sick, weak and in some cases die within hours of purchase. Most of the profit made by these vendors is not declared income.
The legislation which governs the retail sale of pet animals was introduced 60 years ago and has had only minor amendments since then. When it was introduced there was no internet, no mobile phone network and less than 50% of households had a landline telephone. Five years ago, the Animal Welfare Act 2006 was passed and hailed by Defra as a major step forward which would raise standards in every area. It made the process of introducing secondary legislation to address specific issues relatively straightforward. One of the issues which were supposed to be addressed in this way within five years, at least in England, was the outdated Pet Animals Act 1951.
The lack of progress on this matter was highlighted as a concern in the Post Legislative Assessment of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 prepared for the Commons Select Committee overseeing Defra in December 2010.
When we approach DEFRA they placate us with the excuse that the Dog Advisory Council is looking into puppy farming. The DAC can only make recommendations, they have no powers, it’s up to DEFRA to eliminate this wicked trade. DEFRA have done so little for companion animals, they ignore the issue in the hope it will go away.
1.(a) We would like to see puppy factory farming issues dealt with separately from dog control problems These are two quite separate issues involving dogs, one involves irresponsible owners, the other involves a huge multi million pound mostly, unregulated industry where breeding dogs are treated worse than animals bred for the food chain. This is fact, we have witnessed it many times in England, Scotland and Wales. The Welsh Assembly Government have drawn up proposals to end the poor welfare practices of puppy farms and we would like to see their detailed proposals adopted by the national Government. We find it very telling that the national Government has not taken the lead on this but leaves it to the devolved assemblies to act first. This implies animal welfare, and in particular dog breeding, is very low on our Governments list of priorities. A shameful fact when we are meant to be a nation of dog lovers.
2. Puppy farms are large-scale breeding premises. The aim of puppy farms is to make money, no matter the cost to the dogs, who are kept in cramped and cruel conditions. The puppies are sold through pet shops, internet and newspaper ads.
Puppy farms in the UK have been found to have as many as 200 breeding dogs, most kept locked inside 24 hours a day, often in complete or semi darkness. Dog to staff ratio is totally inadequate. The dogs are forced to eat, sleep and give birth in the same area they urinate and defecate; something they would never do given the choice. In some cases they are treated worse than animals bred for the food chain. The general public keep up the demand for pups and so the cruelty continues, day after miserable day. Dogs on puppy farms are often neglected; matted coats, infected eyes and ears and rotten teeth are just a few of the painful conditions the dog suffer. When breeding dogs become too old and exhausted to continue producing puppies they are killed or a lucky few are given to rescues. The puppies also often have behavioral and psychological problems, such as aggression and fearfulness, because they are not exposed to the outside world at an early age.
2.(a) Breeders have an important responsibility to provide socialisation and richness of experience for puppies in their care, the learning stage begins from three weeks of age. Now imagine a puppy in a puppy farm, he is one of many, his mother maybe one of a hundred bitches with pups on the premises. The first thing pup will feel is fear and misery, his mother is fearful of humans, she is most likely worn out from giving birth on every season. She will try to teach him as best she can but he will be whipped away from her far too early so he is ill equipped to deal with the world outside his concrete cell. He will be driven hundreds of miles to pet shop or dealer and be sold on as quickly as possible. He has never met children, heard TV or telephone, he is likely to cower in a corner and tremble. His future is uncertain, his new family may have time and patience to deal with his problems, or they may not, and he may end up in one of the thousands of voluntary rescues across the UK that pick up the pieces if this vile trade. Worse still he maybe ill treated, dumped at the roadside or taken to council pound to be destroyed. And so the cycle of abuse continues, it must end.
We urge the EFRA Select Committee to require DEFRA to take a more proactive role in this issue instead of sitting back and waiting for the Dog Advisory Council, with its very limited scope, to do all the work. How much longer will this scale of suffering be allowed to continue in our nation of animal lovers? Our country is awash with unwanted dogs, someone has to call a halt to the problem of overbreeding of dogs.
June 2012