From the ACT Office of Regulatory Services ‘Scam Alert’ service:

The Acting Commissioner for Fair Trading, Danielle Krajina, is warning consumers to be wary of a scam found on-line or in the classified column, that has resurfaced in Canberra. The scam targets animal lovers by advertising puppies and kittens that will be delivered to a home address, at a low cost, in a short space of time.

“The Office of Regulatory Services has received a number of complaints recently. I am also aware that the NSW Office of Fair Trading has issued a warning as some consumers have been taken in by the scam,” Mrs Krajina said.

“In early 2007 the Office of Regulatory Services warned Canberra dog lovers about a scam that tried to persuade potential buyers to pay to have a puppy delivered to their home. Payment is made via money transfer but the puppy is never delivered and the scammers pocket the money. Recent advertisements are often accompanied by pictures of cute puppies and kittens but the pictures are fake as the animals do not actually exist.

Some puppies purchased on-line may come from a puppy mill. These mills are breeding facilities created to mass produce puppies for profit. Some pups may be ill when they arrive, have a genetic disorder or may even be a different breed to the one the consumer was promised.

“It is important to do your research as you will have little recourse after you have received your new pet. If possible, meet the breeder in person, ask for and check references and contact the breeder’s vet. These are just some of the precautions you should take before you make a decision,” Mrs Krajina concluded.

A timely reminder to us all that puppy farmers just love hiding behind an email address and a website featuring romping dogs and lovely green rolling fields… Puppy farm awareness day 19th September.

Debra Tranter, angel of Australian puppy farm dogs, has had the case brought against her by ACA Breeders Kennels dismissed;

An Animal Liberation Victoria activist has vowed to continue her campaign against puppy farms, after several charges against her were dismissed in court yesterday.

Deborah Tranter, 43, was part of a raid on the ACA Breeders Kennel Farm, at Stradbroke, last April.

The prosecution alleged that Ms Tranter had driven into one of the owners, Matthew Hams, after a confrontation.

She was charged with assault with a weapon, reckless conduct endangering life, and causing injury.

But magistrate Mornane dismissed the charges, saying it was impossible to rule that Mr Hams was standing in front of the vehicle, or that Miss Tranter meant to run into him.

Miss Tranter pleaded guilty to trespass, and received a two-year good behaviour bond without conviction, preventing her from entering the farm again.

More than 30 supporters of the Hams family and Ms Tranter packed the Sale Magistrates Court. ref

It’s hard to imagine how such a tiny woman finds the strength to keep standing up to these mouthbreathers, but we all owe her an enormous debt of gratitude for having the courage and conviction to keep working to expose the truth.


Congratulations Debra!

 From the great xmas themed article today from the Sydney Morning Herald’s, Nick Galvin; A grim end for Christmas puppies;

 Wendy West, a veterinary nurse, is the owner of a Victorian business called ACA Breeders Kennels. Each week she supplies between 50 and 100 puppies to pet shops around the country as well as selling them through her own shop in Melbourne. The dogs come from up to 40 different breeders of all sizes. She rejects completely the critics of commercial breeders.

“You can do everything right but there are always groups with their own agenda that will give you grief. We have a great commitment to health and wellbeing and to helping people get the right pet.”

ACA Breeders Kennels breeds a range of crosses, often called designer dogs and given exotic names such as groodle (golden retriever/poodle) and pugalier (pug/cavalier King Charles spaniel). Ms West said there was a great demand for these types of dogs, and because of this they rarely add to the growing numbers of dumped or surrendered dogs.

A response from rescue;

Monika Biernacki with some of the 100 dogs she cares for at Doggie Rescue in Ingleside.

“People get rid of their dogs before Christmas”

And Where Do Puppies Come From? gets a feature;

It would be a hard heart that could resist the sight of puppies tumbling over one another in a pet shop window.

But behind this heart-warming scene a venomous debate is raging about the way puppies are bred and sold. Opponents claim it is a profit-driven, inhumane business that indirectly causes the destruction of more than 60,000 unwanted dogs a year. But to the dog industry these critics are reckless extremists who will do and say anything to further their agenda.

Vickie Davy is a dog trainer, campaigner and creator of the website Where Do Puppies Come From?

She and other campaigners claim many of the thousands of puppies required to supply pet shops come from so-called “puppy farms”.

“It’s quite a veiled industry in Australia,” she said. “A lot of people don’t realise where puppies do come from.”

 See also; You are an activist

Ever told someone you know about the problems with pet shops? If you’re a regular reader of this blog, then I suspect you probably have. What say you, then to the claim that this makes you an activist with the efficiency of PETA and that you’re trying to wipe out companion animals?

In December’s PIAA CEO report, Joanne Sillince urges her members to take action against activists who are deliberately ignoring facts, using simplistic analogies and are trying to take away people’s right to own pets . Too many of their potential clients they fear are so weak-minded as to ‘believe everything they read on the internet’.

Considering it’s in the top five on Australian google searches for ‘puppy mills’ and has recently featured on ninemsn, one of the activist organisations referenced is most certainly our site ‘Where do puppies come from?’ Joanne claims activists like us are trying to keep people from getting a pet these holidays.

We are prepared for the likelihood that the activists will use the Christmas quiet news period to ramp up activity – to try and make people ashamed to own a puppy or a kitten. What a way to celebrate the Christmas season! ref

Ouch!

Seems our efforts to give people the full range of information about the issue of puppy farming, our highly researched website, our panel of experts and our dozens of case studies… not to mention our concurrent campaign to find 1,000 homes for 1,000 homeless pets for the holidays… is us simply being anti-pet.

Now in my view obviously, websites like ‘Where do puppies come from?’ aren’t the enemy to pet ownership. Rather the problem is a lack of responsible information from the pet industry on what environment is required to produce a well socialised and behaviourally healthy pet. ’Where do puppies come from?’ wouldn’t exist if the pet industry was diligently addressing the issues surrounding dog farming with science-based information, available from any of the many studies into the effects of the first 12 weeks of a dogs upbringing on its later personality. Any dog behaviouralist worth his salt knows that puppies raised in farms and displayed in windows are likely to have issues. See this quote from Karin Bridge, President, the Association of Pet Dog Trainers Australia;

“Puppies should never be raised as ‘livestock’. Their role is that of a companion animal for people and they are able to fulfill that role best when they are born into a family home and raised amongst the noise and chaos of the human family. Puppy mills and pet shop windows cannot replicate a home environment.

“Puppies who fail to receive adequate early exposure and socialisation are sometimes never able to cope with modern, urban living. Training can then become a constant uphill battle. Typical problems resulting from a lack of early socialisation include shyness, sound sensitivity and fear aggression. For ex-breeding stock who may have spent years in an impoverished environment the problems may be so severe as to make life as a normal family pet impossible.”

The new wave of community and web-based campaigns against pet shops are simply a symptom of the pet industries failure to put animal welfare first and educate their clients themselves. People are researching puppy mills on the internet, but this isn’t because they’re in anyway gullible or caught in hype – it’s simply because they are interested in ethical pet acquisition and want to make the best pet choice for their family.

Information websites shouldn’t be considered the enemy – we should be glad people are asking questions and getting educated before they get a pet. Without a doubt the enemy to pet ownership is profit motivated breeders raising pets in a way that make it difficult for them to be good companions; they’re the ones causing enormous amounts of suffering, for pets and their owners alike.

For us here in Oz trying to turn the tide of consumer behaviour and get puppies and kittens out of stores, the idea that one day customer compassion would stretch to ‘pocket pets’ seems too good to be true. But proving it’s not only good for pets, but good for business is PETCO’s announcement this month that it will it will stop selling rabbits by early 2009 in favour of working with adoption groups.

“Moving to an all-adoption approach with rabbits is the right thing to do. We believe it’s good for the animals, good for our business and is consistent with our Think Adoption First philosophy in which we encourage prospective pet parents to consider adopting an animal rather than purchasing one,” PETCO CEO Jim Myers said. “Rabbits are great companion animals, and we believe PETCO can play a pivotal role in partnering with animal-welfare groups to connect responsible pet parents with happy, healthy neutered rabbits through in-store adoptions nationwide.”

PETCO is the second-largest specialty pet supplies retailer in the US and with rabbits *ahem* breeding like rabbits, it’s vital that people have access to desexed family pets. This new initiative sees only sterilised bunnies offered for adoption.


Please watch the video about the launch here;

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfTxKd_URuo&eurl=http://www.thenokillnation.com/?p=153&feature=player_embedded]

Source: No Kill Nation blog

Sometimes a question rolls around and around in your head and you just can’t seem to crack it. This is how I’ve felt about pet shop purchases; why on earth in today’s information age, with all the recommendations from dog behaviour experts and more dog behaviour experts and even more dog behaviour experts do people still fall prey to the ‘puppy in the window’?


But then someone just comes along and spells it out.


An absolutely brilliant post by Raised by Wolves profiles the customers keeping the wheels turning and the puppies churning.

The retail puppymill industry depends on two rather different kinds of consumers to keep the misery factory’s gears greased. Without both, it will not survive. Without understanding both, advocates for animals — shelter and rescue workers, ethical breeders, trainers, vets, and other professionals — can’t combat the retail puppymill’s marketing strategies.

She goes on to say that there are two types of pet shop buyers; the impulse control poor, ’see – want – buy consumer’ and the self-indulgent ‘puppy saviour’. Both types of purchaser lag behind, but for very different reasons; and the article is absolutely essential reading for anyone working to combat pet shop sales.

I must have it

The ’see – want – buy consumer’ is unaware that he is paying way more than market price for the animal, is easily duped by claims of ‘rare’ and ‘great family breed’ and knows little about dog genetics, health or behaviour. He purchases based on breed generalisations or popular opinion.

One wrinkle on this kind of buyer is the customer who has been conditioned by relentless consumptionist propaganda to equate breed with brand. After all — if I buy a new Honda-brand model of automobile, it’s going to be cosmetically and functionally identical to any other new Honda-brand same-model automobile.

This is not true of dogs. There is no German shepherd brand dog. There is no poodle brand dog.

These are lazy, unconsidered decisions. And the customer relies heavily on cues from the complicit pet store to help them feel secure in their purchasing decision.

The traditional storefront impulse buyer is ignorant about the puppymill industry. He may have vaguely heard of such things and even remember them being associated with pet stores just like the one he’s standing in now. But the sign says that the puppies come from “USDA-licensed breeders.” That’s good, right? This puppy has a government stamp of approval, like a steak. And Tammi and Cindee, the super-kyoot clerks, seem to just looove the puppies, and it’s all clean glass and chrome, with this thing on the wall that squirts cinnamon scent into the air every two minutes.

So how do we keep these people from making bad decisions? We simply share the truth;

we combat the traditional pet-shop purchaser’s big mistake by filling the gaps in his knowledge, in the not-unreasonable hopes that it will lead to impulse control when he’s confronted by the puppy in the window — and possibly the wails of the children. I don’t care whether he’s moved by an appeal to his humanity, or because he takes umbrage at being robbed, or because he (rightly) fears that the shivering little pup in the back corner of the cage will become a Big Liability in terms of vet bills, a decade of carpet-cleaning, or emergency room visits for the kiddies. I just wanna keep the Mastercard under wraps and stop the production line back in Missouri (Iowa, Holmes County, Lancaster, basement in Brooklyn).

Next, ‘the saviour’…

But he’s so helpless

An asinine and repeat purchaser ‘the saviour’ gets suckered by emotion and the feeling that ‘if she doesn’t rescue the poor puppy, no one will’. The more messed up the resulting dog the better, as it confirms her feeling that she is needed and the only one who cares.

Because she is going to walk into Petland (”Just to get goldfish food.”), see the most miserable, wretched, defective little product in the deli case, and ask to hold her.

And then she’s going to start the rationalization process that she will later present to her incensed husband, her eye-rolling vet, her disapproving sister, the trainer whose head is cracking repeatedly against the wall, the neighbor who volunteers fifteen hours a week at the shelter: “I had to save her from that place. I couldn’t leave her there. We bonded instantly.”

Indeed, in the past five years or so, this category of puppymill customer may have become the dominant one, and further, they have become perversely empowered; while previously a woman would answer my question about “Where did you get the puppy?” with a simpering “I know it was wrong, but …” preface to the story about the impulse buy at the mall, now it is more and more common to get a self-congratulatory “We rescued her from Petland!”

Pet shops prey on these people’s need to act as an animal saviours and worse – play on their emotions to keep buying time after time.

And the final thing that Petland marketers know about these Martyr Mommies: They are recidivist buyers. While an ignorant buyer will only return for a second pet-store puppy if he is extremely lucky (gets that really good ‘un the first time – and they do exist) and/or exceedingly dull, callous, and incurious (Paris Hilton, say), the buyer with the well-developed Savior Complex will do it again, no matter how much heartbreak she bought the first (second, third) time. It’s not the dog she’s buying — it’s her self-perception as a wonderful human who helps poor little animals (and just happens to help poor little animals that are currently trendy and exactly the color she likes best).

No more excuses


Because we bite our tongues and allow friends and family the excuse of ignorance, or the cover of being ‘too compassionate for their own good’, puppies continue to be churned through the system. These people are enablers and it has to stop.


Dogs Victoria chief executive Elizabeth White;

“We need to do more in educating people that there are social implications in the choice of dog and where they buy them,” she said. “I relate it to the Fairtrade coffee movement or the anti-sweatshop campaign.

As soon as the community says no, and it becomes morally repugnant and socially unacceptable to buy pets from stores, the market will dry up. But we don’t have to take to the streets in protest; we don’t have to campaign for new laws, and we don’t even have to have an organisation lobbying on our behalf.


All we have to do is have a quiet word to the people we know and love who purchase pets from stores;

You’re a sucker. I will never support your decision.
And you are absolutely to blame.

Yet another fantastic piece from Gina Spadafori at Pet Connection

I don’t know how many times and in how many ways we have to say this:

If you buy a puppy from a pet store, you are supporting a system of cruelty that has been well-documented again and again and again for more than 50 years. You, yes you, are making puppy mills possible.

Grow up. Take responsibility for your actions. And say NO to puppy mills by buying directly from a reputable, ethical breeder or adopting from a shelter or rescue group. There is no excuse for supporting cruelty with your puppy-mill retail outlet purchase.

This year’s first installment of No Christmas Puppies (click for all our past posts, going back for years), courtesy of MSNBC.com.

We write about this every year. Nothing will stop this sick and cruel mass-production of puppies except for customers to not support this industry. No reputable, ethical breeder sells through a third party. Not ever. And no reputable, ethical breeder ships from Internet sites to people who place an order with a few clicks and a credit card. Not ever.

So why is Gina so outraged? Because the HSUS have just announced that their 8-month investigation into America’s largest chain of puppy-selling pet stores found;

In the largest-ever puppy mill investigation, HSUS investigators visited 21 Petland stores—in Florida, Indiana, Minnesota, Nevada, Ohio and elsewhere—and traced the origins of about 17,000 puppies shipped to the stores. They also visited many of Petland’s breeders and suppliers. Our findings contradict assurances by staff at Petland stores and on Petland’s corporate website that the company deals only with breeders who have “the highest standards of pet care.”

Watch the video to see how gormless staff at these stores assure customers that their puppies come from ‘nothing but the best breeders’.

It happens in the US. And it’s happening in Australia too.

And as Gina put it so brilliantly;

People who run puppy mills are heartless bastards. And they wouldn’t be in business without buyers.

If you’re one of those buyers, shame on you.

The RSPCA now includes an information page advising of the dangers of puppy mills. From their site;

Many of the puppies are sold through pet shops, the internet, newspaper ads, or at the puppy farm itself. Some puppy farms actually operate the pet shops in addition to their farm where they then sell their puppies to an unsuspecting public.

The breeders and pet shops rely on the public “falling in love” with the cute little puppy in the window and buying it on a whim.

The RSPCA will continue to lobby government to amend laws to have these puppy farms banned. We also conduct campaigns to encourage the public not to purchase puppies or other pets from pet shops and instead consider adopting animals from animal shelters or responsible breeders.

To check out the full information visit the RSPCA ACT website.

It seems simple, but here’s the thing; consumer behaviour drives change far more effectively than lobbying for legislative solutions.


So when it comes to pet stores we have to remember these are businesses and profits matter. But while we boycott their stores, many are still unaware why they are losing customers. We have to spell it out.

Introducing the Where do puppies come from?
Pet store feedback card


Dozens of people dropping in feedback cards will speak volumes to the store owners about the wishes of their customers.


Drop it off politely directly to the store, or post it to them. Include as much or as little contact information as you’re comfortable with. We’ll be hitting the media over the next few days just asking people; if this is something you care about tell your local pet store directly.

They can take their cards and look for more information (get better educated on the issue), or they can go one step further – change their policies and be promoted via the Where do puppies come from? website. We’ll even help them reach their local media!

Encourage store owners to make the change and get pets out of stores – it’s good for business, it’s good for communities and
it’s very, very good for pets.