A PIAA approved puppy farm (Courtesy Prisoners for Profit)
Does walking in the MPW help puppy farm dogs?
A Channel Seven news report last night, showed that puppy farmers are still doing a roaring trade in Australia. Seems we’re still happy to get our pups cheap, young and conveniently purchased from a pet store, or a sweats-wearing guy in a carpark.
The RSPCA Victoria’s CEO Maria Mercurio had this to say;
“… no reputable breeder is going to sell his (or her) puppies in a pet shop…”
and
“If you define puppy farms broadly as intensive breeding facilities, those are the facilities we would be absolutely 100 per cent against.”
Absolutely and 100 per cent correct. “If you define puppy farms…” as a place where puppies are farmed en-masse with little opportunity for normal and appropriate socialisation, and offering a genuinely rubbish existence for the parent dogs – then the RSPCA should absolutely be against this practice. That all pet shops sales of mass-produced puppies are inherently cruel, I always believed to be a no-brainer.
Except dear reader, this statement – EXACTLY the same one I made last year – landed me a threat by the RSPCA to sue…
The RSPCA plays language games – fails pets
The RSPCA national position is that a ‘puppy farm’ is somewhere bad.
Somewhere good is a Pet Industry Association of Australia (PIAA) approved ‘breeding establishment’ and pet shop chain.
The two may seem exactly the same to you or I, but they are definitely different. Because one pays the RSPCA cash money, and the other doesn’t.
Pointing out the shady nature of this contradiction, landed me in the (puppy) shit.
The puppies bred in Victoria are shipped all over the country. The RSPCA knows this. However, the story ‘breaking’ just days before the Million Paws Walk has made for an excellent fundraising opportunity;
If you are one of the 100,000 people nationally who have signed to the ‘Close Puppy Factories’ website, and you want to actually ‘fight puppy factories’ – ask the RSPCA why they are taking money directly from the puppy farmers in return for a stamp of approval. Then take your Million Paws Walk money and give it to an organisation who helps and rehabs these animals without being BFF with the people who abuse them.
Steve Austin (PIAA Representative), Steve Coleman (RSPCA NSW) & Dr Harry
See also: The great betrayal
Puppy farms get RSPCA approval
The RSPCA & puppy farmers get cozy
