BY KENJI SATO
NSW puppy farms are responsible for the high rates of animal cruelty, impoundment and euthanasia across the state, according to a report released by the NSW Parliament on August 27.
The report is the culmination of a three and a half month parliamentary inquiry into profit-driven, unlicensed dog breeding facilities.
The inquiry was sparked after Fairfax media coverage uncovered dogs living in “inhumane and abhorrent” conditions in puppy farms.
State Minister for Primary Industries, Niall Blair, said he wanted to see this type of behaviour eliminated.
“The mistreatment of puppies for the sake of people making a few quick dollars cannot go on. It’s disgraceful and I want to see this type of behaviour eliminated,” Mr Blair said.
“We need to find a solution that doesn’t jeopardise the industry and punish those breeders who are doing the right thing.”
Claire Garth, spokesperson for the Sydney Dogs and Cats Home, told City Hub that she often sees abandoned farmed puppies.
“When there are unlicensed breeders and there’s no regulation around how they breed and who they sell to, we end up with a lot of those animals on our doorstep,” Ms Garth said.
“You can have breeders that sell, for instance, a puppy that’s supposed to be a purebred Labrador, which grows to be more of a mastiff, which is a much bigger dog,” she said.
“People have come to us and said that the dog they bought became bigger than they thought it was going to be, and they realise they don’t have the facility to care for that. Either their backyard is not big enough, or they don’t have an active enough lifestyle. That animal invariable ends up in the pound system looking for another home.”
When impounded dogs are unable to find a new home, they are euthanised. The parliamentary report revealed that 12,000 dogs were euthanised in NSW local council areas in the 2011-12 reporting period. But the report was unable to determine where these dogs were being bought, since local councils were not keeping records.
For the same reason, the report was unable to determine where pet stores were sourcing their dogs. But ongoing media reports have revealed that many pet stores source their dogs from puppy farms.
Ms Garth warned the danger of purchasing dogs from pet shops.
“There’s no reputable breeder in Australia that will sell a litter of puppies to a pet shop, so if you’re buying a puppy from a pet shop, odds are it’s not from a reputable breeder,” she said.
The report considered whether NSW should ban retail pet stores entirely, but found that a ban on pet stores would cause more people to buy dogs from untrustworthy sources.
Instead, the report called for new laws that would require pet shops to keep detailed records on where they buy their dogs.
The NSW Companion Animals Taskforce estimated that 15 per cent of cat and dog sales are from pet shops, with the remaining 85 per cent occurring through word of mouth, newspapers, council pounds, animal welfare and rescue organisations and, increasingly, over the internet.
The most commonly used websites were Gumtree and Trading Post.
Ian Hughes, Chief Inspector of the Animal Welfare League NSW, told the inquiry that breeders should be required to quote a license number in online advertisements.
“If you look on Gumtree and Trading Post there are many hundreds of advertisements on there at any one time. None of those are regulated. Most of them we do not know about. Most of them are just a phone number as a contact point,” Mr Hughes said.
“If there was a requirement for a breeder licensing scheme to trace back, these people would either have to comply or they would not be able to advertise,” he said.
The report’s major conclusion was that the pet industry was largely unregulated and unmonitored.
Dogs NSW, one of few licensed and approved pet breeding organisations, told the inquiry that all breeders should be regulated and monitored by Dogs NSW, and made to follow their ethical guidelines.
Spokesperson for Dogs NSW, Brian Crump, said that registered breeders are a safer option for pet buyers.
“Our prime concern at Dogs NSW is the health and welfare of the dogs. We would hope that all organisations would share that same, very serious concern,” Mr Crump said.
“If you get a dog from a Dogs NSW licensed and registered breeder, what you’re getting is a guarantee of pedigree, so you know the breeding of the dog going back many generations. You can check the parentage and you can also check for health issues. That’s a safer way for customers to go or the public to go than buying something which is of unknown parentage.”
