Early January 2010 ALV’s Openrescue team investigated a puppy farm near Lancefield Victoria. A number of dogs who required urgent veterinary attention were rescued.
The list of ailments the dogs suffered was extensive, including:
Severe matting
Ear infections
Gum disease
Rotten teeth
Grass seed abscesses
Dogs so severely malnourished their irritated skin was like paper
Grossly underweight
Days later approximately 10 police raided Debra Tranters house. They had a search warrant. They seized Oscar (one of the rescued dogs) and returned him to his abusers.
For almost 20 years ALV has gathered evidence of the cruelty, suffering and neglect occurring on hundreds of puppy farms spread throughout this country. All evidence we have collected has been sent to RSPCA, Local Government, State Government and the Police and we wait and wait and wait for action that never happens.
Time and time again puppy farm dogs have been abandoned and let down by the Australian authorities responsible for their welfare. The authorities have funds and resources to expose this cruelty, yet there is no justice for these dogs and it’s left to the small groups of concerned campaigners like ALV to inform the public and get help for these defenceless and neglected dogs.
Case Two
ACA Puppy Farm (currently called Banksia Park Puppies) – has been violating the mandatory Code of Practice since 1994. Wellington Council has failed to enforce the Code. When the ALV open rescue team provided the RSPCA with evidence of dogs being confined with electric fencing wire in September 2009, this was their response:
“Farmers use electric fencing all the time to control stock....”
ACA/Banksia Park puppy farm supply 18 pets shops around Australia and sell online.
The electric fences are still up. The video below shows the dogs at ACA/Banksia Park Puppies confined with fear of electric shock.
Case Three
KKK puppy farm in South Gippsland. This puppy farm keeps dogs in raised wire cages inside a tin shed. Dogs are forced to give birth straight onto the wire floor of the cage. ALV open rescue team gave video evidence to the authorities and pleaded to get the dogs out of the cages. This case ended up at VCAT where all parties argued about the size of the cages, not the dog’s welfare. The court ruled that it was acceptable to keep dogs in raised wire cages as long as the cages were deemed the correct size.
The dogs are still in the cages. Kelly Kesper owner of KKK puppy farm is still selling puppies on line. Watch the video (below) that ALV's Openrescue team took at KKK puppy farm.
Case Four
Rutland Manor puppy farm. This puppy farm has also been violating the Code of Practice for the last 16 years. Dogs are bred every season without rest, dogs are purchased from the pound and Trading Post newspaper and given false pedigrees. Their puppies are sold to an unsuspecting public for thousands of dollars. They are exported to 23 countries. Recently all the dogs on the property were illegally debarked. ALV provided all the necessary evidence to the authorities.
They failed to take action. Rutland Manor is still exporting dogs all over the world. FInd out more about the shocking cruelty at Ruland Manor at Debra Tranter's blog Prisoners For Profit.
Case Five
Strathbogie puppy farm. The dogs on this puppy farm were so neglected that Strathbogie Council paid a vet to kill 17 dogs. The vet deemed the remaining 100 dogs were “unfit for breeding” they were severely malnourished and underweight, they had skin infections and lesions, infected ears, fleas and worms. Council allowed the puppy farmers to continue breeding with these dogs and took no action because
“I do not want to stimulate a huge emotional and public outcry in the community” Stuart Lansley Strathbogie Shire, Manager of Compliance.
The cruelty was covered up by Council, the puppy farmers were never charged, the law was never enforced.
A Dogs Life on a Puppy Farm
The smell of a puppy farm is unforgettable, an overwhelming stench of urine and faeces. The simultaneous barking of hundreds of dogs creates a wall of sound that makes it hard to think, let alone converse.
Puppy farm dogs get no veterinary intervention when they need respite from their pain and suffering. They live in filth, sometimes without food or water. Their coats are often matted with faeces. Ear infections and ear mite infestations are common as is painful dental and gum disease.
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.
This is cruelty on a very large scale that takes place day after miserable day in the name of commerce. Puppy farmers, pet shops, advertisers and even the Government all take their blood money from this horrendous cruelty.
The puppy buying public are misled at every turn thinking when they purchase a pup in a pet shop or over the internet that all is well and good at the source - when nothing could be further from the truth.
Be a Voice for Puppy Farm Dogs in 2010!
In this Victorian Government election year we are asking you to spend 5 minutes a day lobbying both the Liberal and Labour parties.
How much tax payer’s money is being spent on the operation of council run pounds where thousands of dogs are killed every year, simply because they cannot find homes for them?
Every day in Australia a dog is killed every 4 minutes in Council run pounds. We, the tax payer, are paying local Government to kill healthy dogs. Meanwhile Local Government is issuing more and more permits to puppy farmers to breed more and more dogs. Local Government are failing to properly inspect these puppy farms or enforce the mandatory Code of Practice.
How much money are Local Governments collecting by issuing permits to puppy farmers?
Local Government receive money for each annual renewal of puppy farming permits plus the registration of dogs on these puppy farms.
How much money is the State Government and Local Government collecting from annual pet registration fees. What are they doing with this money?
Every pet owner in Victoria is required to pay local Government an annual dog/cat registration fee. This money is meant to provide among other things “Council monitoring of pet shops, boarding kennels, catteries, pounds, shelters, and pet breeding and training businesses. This ensures they meet basic animal welfare standards required by law”.
This is misuse of public funds as local and state Governments have failed to use this money to enforce the law at puppy farms and back yard breeders and the breeding dogs are suffering.
How responsible is it to allow the mass production and then the mass killing of companion animals? How effective is the Governments Responsible Pet Program which is financed by the tax payer and pet owner?
Enough is enough, Oscar should never have been returned to his abusers. Thousands of dogs are suffering a lifetime of confinement, neglect and suffering.
We need all of you to SPEND 5 MINUTES A DAY to lobby both the Liberal and Labour parties and call for an inquiry into the factory farming of dogs. We want Oscar’s Law. The current legislation is not working, it has never worked since it was introduced in 1994.
THE SOLUTION – Oscar’s Law
Abolish the mass production of dogs. Make factory farming of dogs illegal
Ban the sale of animals from pet shops, online and in print media
Encourage people to adopt animals from shelters, pounds and rescue organisations
Work on increasing the re-homing rate in pounds and shelters and introduce the no-kill philosophy which has proven to work in USA. http://www.nokilladvocacycenter.org/
Commence running a REAL campaign about true and responsible companion animal care
Email, write, phone, fax the Premier of Victoria John Brumby
For almost 20 years ALV has gathered evidence of the cruelty, suffering and neglect occurring on hundreds of puppy farms spread throughout this country. All evidence we have collected has been sent to RSPCA, Local Government, State Government and the Police and we wait and wait and wait for action that never happens. 