Puppy farms

19 May

Panorama on Monday night; if you haven’t watched it yet, please do so on BBC iPlayer. Every dog lover, no, every animal lover should watch it. Their investigation into dog breeding/selling and puppy farms is a really nasty watch. It made me wonder where the Animal Rights lobby are hiding on this issue. They are certainly vocal when it comes to animal experiments for cosmetic use and medication use, or at least they were at one time. So I am now wondering why they are so quiet on this one.

The programme looked at two breeders, both in Ireland, one in Antrim, one in the Erie and two home-based sellers plus a large scale commercial outlet in Leeds and Manchester. All five are basically money-grubbers who care nothing for the animals they trade in. Bitches confined to small wooden boxes where they give birth and are left there for days on end; wire cages in large barn-type buildings where individual hundreds of dogs are left, one to a cage, with little or food or water, and in appropriate bedding; dogs pacing up and down the end of a cage showing clear signs of distress that I have seen in films of animals kept in poor zoos aboard or as pets in the Far East. And yet those breeders are licenced!

The sellers are driving to meet the breeders off the ferry from Belfast where the puppies are transferred. That same van driver is then off on his rounds meeting up with sellers all across the Borders region, putting in a long 20-hour day, too long for the driver, and certainly too long for the puppies he’s transporting. These days buyers are getting more wary when buying pups and are asking to see the pups mum. So now then a bitch of the same breed and looks as the puppies are passed over along with the puppies so that the seller can show a bitch as well. When the next litter is due, they go through the whole process again, returning bitch a and collecting bitch b to match the new litter.

And on it goes. The SSPCA had a call from someone about some dead puppies on the side of the road. There was four of them, dumped in a field after they had died in transit. Some of the illnesses listed by one of the ex-employee of the retail company mentioned, kept copies of the paperwork that accompanied the complaints when a sale goes wrong. One pup was half blind, another was too young, another had a heart murmur and on and on the list went. And remember, all these dogs had supposed to have passed a vet check before sale. One of the breeders that this company deals with is the self-same breeder that was suppling pups to home-based sellers.

The BBC asked all those involved for their comments about the what they had found, the only one to reply was the retail company who majored on the dis-gruntled ex-employee and didn’t say much about the issues raised. From the breeders and home-sellers, not a peep. The council has inspected the Antrim breeder since being contacted by the BBC and have refused to give a new licence to continue.

Come on folks! This in 2016, this should not be happening now. All these puppies are selling for £450+ and it seems that far too many of us are willing to hand over our cash without too many questions. The main reason, the only possible reason that this is happening is because there is a ready market for these puppies. Close that market and hopefully the illegal breeding will stop. Hopefully, the new law stating that all dogs must be micro-chipper will help. But don’t hold your breath folks, where there’s cash to be made, there are plenty of people, including vets apparently that will look the other way when it’s needed.              

Today’s photo …

Our little Cindy-pup, who is still missed even today.

No funny again today, after that show last night I just don’t feel like doing funny!