The RSPCA is seeking submissions to its discussion paper on ‘Puppy Farms’;
Puppy breeding establishments take many forms and can be seen to be on a continuum from extremely bad (puppy farms, exploitative hoarders) through to excellent (dog enthusiasts who put the animal’s health and welfare as the first priority). This paper focuses on the problems associated with the lower end of this continuum: puppy farms.
But while it claims to be targeting just the baddies it asks, should “all breeders be required to obtain a government licence to breed dogs – whether they are breeding purebred, cross-bred or mixed-bred dogs, and whether they breed commercially or as a hobby?”
Meanwhile in Queensland;
Gold Coast pet owners will need a licence if they want their dog or cat to have a litter, under proposed new regulations slammed by pet shop owners as ‘mandatory desexing by stealth’.
The City Council intends to introduce permits to target backyard breeders and cut the number of unwanted kittens and puppies.
The State Government-backed pilot program could be adopted statewide.
So should we have a permit system for breeders to eliminate puppy farmers and backyard breeders?
As always, it’s not as simple as it sounds.
A person who treats dogs appallingly, neglects them, lets them live in covered in shit, overbreeds and finally kills them without vet assistance – is already breaking the law. So by that definition the evil abusive puppy farms we all hear about are perfectly able to be prosecuted under existing animal welfare legislation. A permit system neither adds to nor subtracts from these powers from a welfare perspective.
Whereas someone who has an clean, regularly inspected bulk kennels, with all the required permits, hundreds of breeding dogs and absolutely no regard for where their pups end up – can never be eliminated, unless we decide as a community that treating pets as livestock is unacceptable and stop buying.
Like it or not, in Australia it’s ok to use animals for human use. People who farm dogs, are able to claim the same rights as any other farmer. Licencing schemes can’t and won’t change that.
Surely a permit system would help reduce the number of BYB though?
Think about it.
We’ve seen that overwhelmingly, the owned population of cats are desexed. Luckily (or unluckily) for cat-kind, there is very little money in kittens; when a shelter can’t move an animal, desexed and vaccinated for $100 and free kittens are coming out everyone’s ears, why would anyone breed their cat?
Certainly, dogs are different. There is, in all theory, value in puppies.
But is there puppy overpopulation? We know there’s kitten overpopulation as kittens die in shelters by the hundreds each day. But puppies are continuing to sell; they get adopted from shelters, they’re sold in pet shops, they fill newspaper classifieds each and every weekend. It seems there’s no shortage of people who want to buy puppies.
So the problem isn’t too many puppies. What is it?
Animal welfare groups like to say ‘there’s too many puppies; dogs are abandoned because they’re easily replaced’; which is frankly oversimplifying the issue for dramatic effect.
The truth is more like ‘there’s exactly as many puppies as the public will consume; dogs are abandoned because people have unrealistic expectations of pet ownership, they don’t know how or where to seek help for dog behaviour problems, they are inherently more lazy than they think they are, they choose the wrong type of dog, they have transient, busy lives which mean they genuinely don’t know where they’ll be in 10 years, they can’t find accommodation, their relationships fail, they get sick, they lose their jobs and sometimes…. they are just simply crap.’
None of which has anything to do with there being too many puppies.
A permit system for breeders is an expensive navel gazing exercise that will do nothing to help pets or pet owners, but will tie up valuable resources in its administration. Puppy farming ain’t illegal. No permit system in the world is going to benefit the animals of an industry that trades, with the communities support, on the emotional misery of companion animals. Hobbiests who breed from home, despite popular opinion, are only contributing to the market exactly the number of animals that that market will bear.
So if the benefits are limited, what’s the cost?
Rolling out a permit system incorporating everyone from large-scale puppy farmers, right down to the individual breeding in their loungeroom has a huge and very real cost to our animal management system.
Imagine for one moment, everyone that kept household chickens were treated in the same manner as someone who had thousands and produced supermarket eggs for a living. Licensing, reporting, legislation, enforcement; what would that even cost?
And could we be using this money in a way that was more beneficial to the community, like a large scale education program on how to choose a great dog? Or outreach desexing for pets of at risk communities? Maybe programs that make it easier to be a pet owner like off-leash parks or free in-home dog training for owners who have pet issues? You know, things that keep owned pets safe.
Again by taking an adversarial and draconian approach to managing pets, animal welfare groups have missed the point on why the community desire so strongly to have and keep pets in their lives. By steadfastly targeting the ‘greedy evil breeders’ they’re slowly forcing us into a future of absurd and emotive ’solutions’ that, in the long term do little to target the true causes of pet homelessness.
It’s only when we stop with the ‘our way or the highway’ approach, can we start using our powers for what they should truly be used for – support services which help and coach pet lovers to make good decisions for the whole of their pet’s life.
Boof is a bullmastiff-cross whose owner allegedly left him to die in summer heat with a 30kg chain wrapped around his neck after beating him with a steel bar, punching him and trying to break his legs.
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