Dogs Trust Statement: Channel 5 puppy farming report

The following statement is in response to the first part of the ongoing Channel 5 report into puppy farming.

Dogs Trust was really disturbed by the special report about puppy farming on Channel Five last night, but sadly not shocked. We believe a more accurate term for this type of ‘business’ is battery farmed dogs – something that is completely unacceptable in 2009.

The charity is actively campaigning in a number of ways to help to prevent dogs being bred for profit with no regard for their welfare:

• Dogs Trust is focused on making members of the public aware of where they should and shouldn’t buy a puppy from. Through our ‘Stop Puppy Harming’ literature we explain the issues of buying a dog from a pet store or a classified advert. Unfortunately some dog lovers still feel they are ‘rescuing a puppy’ by buying it from a puppy farm or a squalid pet store – we are working hard on explaining that they are only fuelling demand for further puppy farmed dogs
• We apply pressure on licensing councils to explain their inspection and licensing processes and advise them appropriately
• We are lobbying MPs and AMs to change the existing pet vending legislation which allows puppies to be sold in pet stores
• We are in regular dialogue with MPs and the Animal Welfare minster about the compulsory microchipping of all dogs which would allow puppies bred on puppy farms to be traced to their source. As many of these puppies suffer from infectious disease or inherited defects, the tracing of such puppies is essential to enable Trading Standard officers to act under the Sale of Goods Act
• We work with other welfare organisations such as the RSPCA and support prosecutions of any puppy farm found to be acting illegally
• Dogs Trust is a member of the Pet Advertising Advisory Group which is promoting the responsible sale of pets through classified advertising both online and in print