First of all I apologise profusely for these harsh images above, and urge that if you are sensitive to the sight of animal cruelty then you don’t click on them (though they are large enough to shock anyway, so again I’m sorry), but I do urge that you read ahead. I’ve taken the following excerpts from my friend known as The Internet, as it explains it a lot better than I possibly could. I’m not expecting ‘notes’ on it, and I don’t have many followers, and I feel a little dumb going on a big rant, but it’s just something I’m truly passionate about so even if one of you read it and it makes you think, I’d be pretty stoked.
A puppy farm/factory/mill is defined as:
an intensive dog breeding facility that is operated under inadequate conditions that fail to meet the dogs’ behavioural, social and/or physiological needs. Puppy farms are usually large-scale commercial operations, but inadequate conditions may also exist in small volume breeding establishments which may or may not be run for profit.
Puppy farming is a major animal welfare issue in Australia. The main welfare problems associated with puppy farms include but are not limited to:
- Extreme confinement - in some cases breeding animals may never be allowed out of their cage to exercise, play, socialise, have companionship or to even urinate or defaceate.
- Inadequate veterinary care and general care (grooming and parasite control)
- Unhygienic living conditions
- Inadequate and overcrowded housing conditions
- Breeding dogs and puppies born in puppy farms often have long-term health and/or behavioural problems as a result of the poor conditions they are bred in and a lack of adequate socialisation
Many dogs slowly go insane. They spin in circles or pace back and forth in their cells, some never see daylight, and the outside world is a foreign place to them. Should any dogs be lucky enough to be rescued once outside in the open they still circle and pace as if they are still incarcerated. They shy away from human hands as they have never known kindness. The dogs are deprived of even their basic needs as the current law is only concerned with food shelter and water. The dog’s psychological and social needs are ignored on factory farms.
Breeding dogs are kept in dirt pens surrounded by electric fencing to stop escape. Some keep dogs hidden away from the public in hot tin sheds with rows of concrete stalls. Others are kept in tin sheds in rows of raised wire floor cages, just like battery hens. Puppy farms and backyard breeders can have 30-40 dogs and some have been reported to have up to 700. The dogs are kept in these horrific conditions for their entire lives and are constantly bred to supply pet shops and internet sites with puppies. Once the breeding dogs are no longer profitable, and after years of confinement and continual pregnancy they are taken out of their cages, pens and sheds and they are killed, and a surviving female puppy takes over the role.
Some puppy farm breeders have been caught using a separate home as a ‘shopfront’ to look like a happy family selling puppies from a life-long and well loved pet, and so many of us are falling for it.
Out of my own interest on so many different occasions, I have looked up several of my favourite breed dogs on rescue sites around New South Wales, where I am from, and have always found a loving dog available waiting for a home to live and be loved for the rest of their life. Luckily for them, when I have gone back online to check on them, they have no longer been there and are now in a home where they belong. I have also looked through the gorgeous mix breed dogs, who are now, although it is hard to specify, a favourite ‘breed’ of mine and are all beautiful. So if you are looking for a puppy, a grown dog, a small or a large dog, of a particular breed or a cute mix of who knows what, it’s so important to adopt.
Click here to sign the online petition to end puppy farming, buy some merch or donate.
