The Dog House |
The Dog House offers general guidance. If you have any concerns regarding your own dog you should always seek professional advice.
The Dog House - February 2012
With the New Year in full swing, Christmas seems a distant memory. However, with my Christmas visitors all departed, I have had an influx of new visitors; four legged and uninvited....rats! Rats as we know are a part of everyday life, drawn by our excessive lifestyles and in my case the warmth of my loft. It was Zippy that alerted me to their presence as he stood whining, ears alert and looking up at the ceiling in our single story extension. I called a pest control company whilst the rats practised their clog dancing in my loft. However after a couple of visits the problem was sorted and luckily before any damage had been done to my wiring.
One invited New Year visitor was my friend Rose who had received a Border collie puppy, Lily, from her son for Christmas. Having put Ben and Zippy in the utility room, Rose bought Lilly into the kitchen. Far from a bouncing, wriggly, excited puppy, Lily sat between her legs, shaking with fear. I found an old blanket and a chew and Lily settled down on the blanket. Rose said that Lily’s behaviour had improved since she arrived, but acknowledged she has a long way to go.
Rose’s son James had bought Lily through an advert in an online newspaper. The puppies were in Yorkshire but the cheque for the deposit went to an address in Wales. When James collected Lily he was told he could not see her mother or litter brothers and sisters and was appalled by the condition of the kennels.
Once home Lily attended the vet for a health check and vaccinations, Rose was told that Lily was not 8 weeks old but most probably only 6 weeks. In addition she had not been wormed, was underweight and full of fleas. The vet reached the conclusion that Lily had come from a puppy farm.
Puppy Farms are large scale breeding establishments, where many different breeds of dog are raised in appalling conditions. Breeding bitches do not receive veterinary care or the nutrition they need and they are bred from continually, until they are worn out. Once the puppies are born, it is survival of the fittest as no vets visit and routine worming is not carried out. Puppies, leaving for their new homes, often have not seen daylight and are completely unfamiliar and unsocialised to everyday life.
The RSPCA estimates that at least 50,000 puppies a year come from puppy farms. Whilst relevant legislation will help to put a stop to Puppy farms, it is us, the general public, who could make the biggest impact. If we stopped buying puppies form puppy farms the breeding would stop.
I think this is a very difficult area. If I saw a small puppy living in dreadful conditions, could I walk away because I knew it was from a puppy farm? I think until I was in that position, it would be hard to give a definitive answer. Better not to be in this position at all and to have either bought a puppy through a Kennel club approved breeder or to have adopted a puppy through a rescue centre that will have background information and carried out health checks on their puppies.
Ben and Zippy having completed their early morning patrol of the garden ask to come indoors, Ben makes for his bed for a snooze and Zippy crawls under my desk, pulling out the lead for the printer as he goes and sits with his head on my lap, a sure indication that I need to stop typing and play ball.
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