Council Inspection reports - Dog breeders. What do they tell us?

Carmarthenshire yearly inspection reports make interesting reading.  Under FOI and data protection Councils now remove the names of the breeders and premises and the inspecting officer/s or vet if it is a new application. 

Well what do the inspection reports tell us?  It is possible to be made aware of how many dog breeders sell their puppies to dealers and pet shops, how many sell to both and how many sell privately.  Dog breeders were asked if a vet visits the premises.  How dog breeders remove waste created from running a dog breeding establishment. How many breeding bitches, stud dogs, other dogs and litters are seen on the day of inspection.  The basic conditions for the dogs offered by the dog breeder such as food, water supply, heating and cleanliness.  The type of construction of the units and numbers of units on the premises including isolation unit.  Fire extinguisher and main entrance notice and licence displayed.  Records of breeding bitches records of puppies and who sold. Identification of puppies if sold to dealer or pet shop. On the face of it reading the inspection reports the uninitiated may think, not too bad over all, boxes are ticked and on some the word good is written often.

But what are the facts behind the written word and what do they tell us?  Well, from the 84 dog breeders inspection reports from February 2010 until March 2011 it is clear that 35 dog breeders sell litters of puppies to dealers, 20 dog breeders sell to both dealers and private purchasers and only 25 sell only to private purchasers often using free ads and the Internet. So roughly three quarter of all breeders in Carmarthenshire are supplying dealers and pet shops with litters of puppies.

How many dogs live on licensed dog breeding establishments in Carmarthenshire?  At this count there were 2,418 breeding bitches, 476 stud dogs, 422 other dogs and 354 litters of puppies seen on the day of inspection.

It appeared that 41 dog breeders when asked could name a veterinary practice that they could use, it did not indicate they were registered with a local vet but some did say to check the puppies before sold and in some cases to vaccinate but only a few mentioned their breeding bitches or stud dogs.  What of the other 44 dog breeders are we to presume they just have not answered the question or the inspector failed to complete the form or in the worse scenario which is the most likely to use the services of a vet is highly unlikely.

With so many licensed dog breeders in one County (this does not count the unlicensed ones which is thought to equally as many again) owning and rearing so many litters of puppies, how do they dispose of the waste created by dog breeding?  From the information it appears they use varios methods, some are illegal due to the classification of some waste from dog breeding premises as hazardous.

Industrial/Trade Waste 4, Farm Waste, 16, Slurry Pit, 20, Farm Muck/Dung Heap 19 (one said ploughed into the land) Cess Pit 3, Septic Tank, Incinerator (some Defra Approved) 6, Burnt 5, Composted/recycled and some Inspectors left the question blank. 

 So who is advising the dog breeders of the correct methods to use and more to the point who is ensuring they do so before we have another environmental catastrophe.  Is the Environment Agency not active in ensuring this hazard does not reach the watercourses within Carmarthenshire?  Has Carmarthenshire Public Protection who are responsible for licensing dog breeders ever discussed this issue with the Environment Agency?  This is important as we wait the decision of Carmarthenshire Planning on the change of use from agriculture to dogs breeding on one licensed premises that has 196 dogs!  This dog breeders reply to the question of methods used for waste disposal was pit, taken to mean slurry pit?

I will continue with this later .......
       
   

Dog Breeding Licences

Have read with interest the Blog by Safe Pets UK on the subject of dog breeding licences and the numbers of dogs a person should be allowed to be licensed for.  They asked, shouldn't there be a ceiling on the number of dogs a person can be licensed for, and the suggested figure was 50 breeding bitches.  Why the figure of  50 should be redeemed acceptable I cannot imagine, as a person with 50 breeding bitches would still be considered a commercial breeder, possibly selling puppies to dealers and pets shops as they do now.  If commercial dog breeding is to be better regulated as it must, then the main purpose behind the owning of a large number of dogs for breeding must be banned.  Most breeders (but not all) that own a large number of dogs for breeding do so to to supply puppies to dealers and pet shops.  Therefore us, as campaigners must persistently provide Governments with good, factual, sound evidence that animal welfare is seriously compromised by allowing the puppy trade to continue.

A statement written by the blogger of Safe Pets UK blog said the following and I quote:

'We are just finishing  Freedom of Information enquiries regarding the issue of dog breeding licences by various councils around the country.  It has long been thought that the majority of the puppy farmers are in Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion, Wales and thousands of sick, fearful and aggressive puppies are sold from there all over the UK.  Our study aims to prove for the first time that the problem in those areas is real.   End of quote

My goodness, 'Our study aims to prove for the first time that the problem in those areas is real' this information is not news and to say it is the first time is incorrect, those of us that have campaigned for years as far back as 1991 with Puppy Watch and in recent times the Dogs Trust, RSPCA, Puppy Love Campaigns, Hope UK, Spec, Animal Aid, Nature Watch, the  Kennel Club, Puppy Farming Aware and Puppy Alert have all sang from the same hymn sheet and saying that Wales is the centre of the puppy farming supply trade of irresponsibly bred puppies followed by Eire.  Puppy Alert and Puppy Love Campaigns have for years received information under FOI confirming this fact and have written about it often.  But unfortunately whilst Governments and MPs, AMs place their heads in the sand and quote the Breeding and Sale of Dogs (Welfare) Act 1999, the Pet Animals Act 1951/91 and Animal Welfare Act as being adequate to control the excesses of dog breeding and the selling of puppies from pet shops, rather than accepting the visual and factual evidence supplied by campaigning groups both large and small as proof nothing will change.

We all have a voice  including Safe Pets UK who hopefully will continue to highlight the puppy trade.  We must all work with one aim in mind to prevent the sale of puppies from dealers and pet shops thus reducing the need for large commercial breeding establishments to operate.