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Shocking story of Ireland's unregulated puppy farms
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By Pete Wedderburn Animal Doctor
Wednesday October 26 2011
ATV3 documentary, Animal A&E Investigates: The Truth About Ireland's Puppy
Farms, was broadcast this week. The programme told a shocking story. Ireland
is still Europe's ' puppy farm capital'.
Puppy farms continue to thrive, with dogs being treated like hens in battery
cages in the lucrative trade of puppy production. There is no regulation of
any kind on the activities of puppy farmers. As long as they do not starve
their animals or inflict physical injury on them, there is nothing that the
law can do to stop them.
Dogs may be kept in cramped conditions, with no access to light, food or
clean water. They may be covered in fleas, with dirty, matted coats.
Sometimes, farmed dogs are kept in containers so small that they cannot even
stand up, forcing them into a permanent crouched position. Their nails may
be overgrown because of the constant inactivity. For the past decade, animal
welfare groups have been urging successive governments to take action to
stop this abuse of animals, but, astonishingly, in 2011, there is nothing
illegal about keeping dogs in these conditions. Even when such puppy farms
are identified, there is nothing that anyone can do to stop the proprietors
from continuing in business.
Most people in this country probably thought that the puppy farm problem had
been solved. Back in July 2010, anti-puppy farm legislation titled The
Breeding Establishment Bill 2011 was passed by the Dáil. This was welcomed
by all of those working in the animal welfare area, and there was a
collective sigh of relief when the bill was voted through. All that had to
happen next was for the Minister for the Environment to sign off on the
legislation. Normally, you'd expect that this would happen in a timely
fashion. After all, the country, via the Dáil, has expressed its democratic
opinion. Surely the Minister has a duty to sign off on the Dáil's decisions?
There have been three Ministers for the Environment since the vote was
passed: one Green, one Fianna Fáil, and one Fine Gael. Yet the Breeding
Establishments Bill remains unsigned, and puppy farmers are allowed to
continue as before. What's going on?
There is a reason for the delay, but it's still difficult to understand.
It's to do with what might be described as choreography, or diplomacy, or to
be less kind, concession to a powerful lobby. Greyhound owners and breeders
were worried that their activities would be stifled by legislation that was
primarily aimed at the breeding of pet pedigree dogs.
When the puppy farm legislation was being debated, a compromise was
negotiated to satisfy the greyhound industry. It was agreed that greyhounds
would be excluded from the new Breeding Establishments Bill, on the
condition that the welfare and breeding of greyhounds would be adequately
protected via another new piece of legislation – the Welfare of Greyhounds
Bill. This other new bill has to be passed by the Dáil before the puppy farm
legislation is signed on the dotted line. The plan is that the two pieces of
legislation will then come into effect at exactly the same time.
The new Greyhounds Bill was meant to be introduced in early 2011, but the
collapse of the Fianna Fáil/Green coalition at that time meant that
everything fell by the wayside. It's only now, as we reach the end of 2011,
that the Greyhound Bill is moving through the senate. It's hoped that it
will be passed rapidly through the Dáil after that, and the Minister for the
Environment will then finally be in a position to sign off on both piece of
legislation. Only at that stage will dogs – greyhounds as well as pet dogs –
will be given the protection that they deserve.
I know what many people may be thinking: with the country in economic chaos,
why worry about puppies? I've had this argument many times, and my answer is
that if we live in a so-called civilised country, we need to continue to do
whatever it takes to remain civilised. It's not as if every government
employee is fully occupied dealing with the economy: the state employs many
thousands of civil servants, and most of them are involved in the normal
day-to-day running of this country. Why shouldn't they deal with issues
relating to animal welfare, just as they deal with many other details of our
daily lives?
I suspect that last night's television footage was enough to convince many
people of the pressing need for action. Dogs are intelligent, social
creatures, and they suffer when they are confined to concrete pens, kept in
darkness, with scant attention paid to their welfare needs.
Puppies are valuable commodities; large amounts of money can be made by
producing high numbers of them, and in Ireland, this can still be done with
no regulation whatsoever. Puppy farmers can still just do exactly what they
want, behind closed doors.
The government needs to be encouraged to continue rapidly along the path of
enacting the legislation that's in the pipeline. And when both of the new
Bills are in place, there will be another challenge: making sure that the
new legislation is enforced. It will be up to local authorities to ensure
that puppy farms are registered and inspected, and that action is taken to
close down those establishments that fail to meet the required standards.
I'd love to say that this TV3 programme programme was the last time that I
saw puppy farms on Irish television, but I'm not feeling optimistic.
Visit Pete's website at
www.petethevet.com
- Pete Wedderburn Animal Doctor
