Puppy farming - is NZ
developing a problem?

• Should New Zealand generate laws to stop puppy farming before it becomes established?
• How easy do you think it would be to evade such laws?
• How would our animal control officers know litters have been produced if, for argument's sake, all the progeny are not registered in NZ but sent to Asia?
• What should we be doing to prevent such situations developing?
• Breeders of pedigree dogs could be monitored quite simply, but what of the backyard random breeder?

IN the middle of 1999 the UK passed a Bill that would put an end to puppy farming. It was the Breeding and Sales of Dogs (Welfare) Bill, designed to put stringent controls on English breeders, and it was supported and sponsored by 11 organisations including the British Veterinary Association and the Kennel Club.

The Bill states that breeders must hold a local authority license if they produce more than four litters a year in total, and that premises will be subject to stringent inspections. An individual bitch will not be permitted to be bred at under one year of age and will be able to have no more than six litters in a lifetime. She will not be permitted to give birth within a year of her previous litter.

Finally, licensed breeders will be required to keep accurate records and will be permitted to sell puppies only to private individuals or licensed pet shops.

Is it time New Zealand adopted a similar type of legislation (instead of the childish and petty type of dog legislation that has been creeping in) or do you think that our present laws hold enough protection?

We found out just how helpless our Kennel Club really was recently with reports of an Asian group buying dogs and puppies of all types for 'friends in Asia' but only one or two, if any, ever left the country.

The Kennel Club is actually required by law to do nothing to jeopardise the sale of an animal ... if it tried to prevent the transfer of a puppy it could lose its license. This of course is a safety rule that assures the Kennel Club remains neutral in matters involving individual breeders unless they breach Kennel Club rules.

But it is not at Kennel Club level that we should expect to act on knowledge - if such people as the Asian group knew that they would be inspected at random, that their records would be regularly inspected and pedigrees matched, and that animals would not be allowed to be sold but would be confiscated if they came from a bitch that did not comply with the laws, then they would not be so interested in puppy farming here - it would not be profitable.

Is it time that something was done to eliminate puppy farming before it gets established here? You have your say ... write with your opinion to the editor and let your voice be heard.