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| Stop
Puppy Farming
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Harrods has stopped using a Wales puppy
farm to stock its pet shop after it was exposed as part of a joint
undercover investigation by the BBC and Dogs Trust, the UK’s
largest dog welfare charity. The investigation highlighted once
again the problem of puppy farming across the country.
The investigation was instigated following a tip-off from a former
Harrods employee who was concerned at the large numbers of dogs
being supplied to the store from Windy Rise Farm.
Catherine Gillie, former veterinary nurse and Dogs Trust Assistant
Field Director, managed to get inside the farm in Wales as part
of the investigation. She says “Conditions inside this
puppy farm were absolutely horrific. Both puppies and their mothers
displayed obvious signs of neglect, starved of affection and proper
care, and were in kept in appalling conditions, with no proper bedding,
no access to the outside world, and unable to even see over the
top of their pens.”
For more information on the Harrods puppy farm story, visit http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/4133278.stm
Dogs Trust fears this is just the tip of the iceberg of what could
be an illegal multi-million pound industry across the UK, and is
strengthening its campaign to stamp out puppy farming.
Clarissa Baldwin, Dogs Trust Chief Executive
says “Dogs Trust has been campaigning for many years to
put an end to the appalling and inhumane practice of puppy farming.
Sadly, the puppy farm shown in this broadcast is just one of many
across the country.” |
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Dogs Trust has launched a campaign condemning puppy
farming. The charity urges the public to help, and is appealing
for you to show your support by displaying its ‘Stop Puppy
Farming’ car sticker. |
Dogs Trust has also issued full guidelines
on how to make sure you don’t buy a puppy from an illegal
breeder and advises anyone thinking of buying a puppy to make sure
that a puppy is always seen with its mother, preferably in its home
environment.
The full guidelines and the special car sticker are available by
emailing puppyfarming@dogstrust.org.uk
or by phoning 020 7837 0006.
Clarissa Baldwin says “Puppies bought from the adverts
in local newspapers, or the pet shop on the high street, could so
easily come from a puppy farm. Even a pedigree certificate or registration
is not necessarily proof the puppy has been properly reared or bred.
As a nation of animal lovers, we urge people to carefully consider
where they get their dog from.”
There is no legal definition for the term ‘puppy farming’
but it is generally accepted as referring to dog breeders who breed
indiscriminately, mass-producing puppies from their bitches and
sell their puppies onto a third party.
The dogs at puppy farms are quite simply there to churn out litter
after litter of pups. They are not given adequate care, are often
fed poor quality diets, lack veterinary attention, are under socialised
and under stimulated. On top of all this, the puppies produced are
often in-bred and suffer the medical consequences that this brings.
Puppy farm dogs are treated like battery hens, cooped up, devoid
of contact and only useful when they come on heat the next litter
can be produced. The health and living conditions of the dogs is
not important because the puppy farm owner can count on the fact
that the bitch and the ‘home’ environment will never
be viewed.
Anyone even tempted by a cheap farmed pup
should think twice, if only for the sake of their future expenditure.
The pup is cheap because the breeder has cut corners, compromising
the pup’s long term physical and mental health. This could
cost the new pup’s owner dearly. Your ‘bargain’
pup could prove a sickly, costly, nervous wreck and your purchase
has helped perpetrate the suffering of puppy farmed dogs.
Put simply, if no one purchased from these places then they would
cease to exist. No punters equals no business.
If you know of a puppy farm, lobby your MP
and generally do everything legally within your powers to expose
the farm and the people who own it.
Exposing puppy farming and doing all you can
to eradicate this barbaric practice is definitely worth your while. |
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