Vets against Puppy Farms

RE: Vets against Puppy Farms

Martin Atkinson — Tue, 25 Aug 2015 10:18:35 GMT

[quote user="Cat Henstridge"]It isn't our job to decide how much they should or shouldn't pay but it IS our job to protect the welfare of these animals and give our clients and potential clients good advice.[/quote]It isn't our job but we have a moral responsibility to protect them from their own naivety and make them aware that they are being ripped off. Of course I will do my best to protect the welfare of these animals but if they cannot see the error of their ways they are IME also likely to be the sort of people who don't want to listen to veterinary advice anyway. There is a difference between people who have a cross-breed and just want to give it a name based on the crosses and those who go out of their way to buy one as a trendy fashion accessory.

RE: Vets against Puppy Farms

Mark Hedberg — Mon, 24 Aug 2015 14:36:56 GMT

[quote user="Bob Russell"]

My very wise Grandfather had a dog "Puff" and he totally convinced all around him (except us grandchildren!) that the dog was a very rare Lergnom Terrier. Cost him nothing from the local dog pound!

(Mongrel backwards)

A fool and his money ..........

[/quote]

My dad had an exotic Dam d'if Aigno (Damned if I know) :) (Alternate spelling: Damnedifiknow)

RE: Vets against Puppy Farms

Bob Russell — Mon, 24 Aug 2015 13:27:46 GMT

We have a Greek import rescue. Very professional but keep bombarding owners with pressure to keep Leishmania testing going on and on, based on a positive titre in Greece. We test a couple of times and just flag it on the records!

A good charity so I am not going to knock them too much but UK rescues are sinking under the weight of staffie x's.

Dogs Trust was involved in the Irish import 'trade' not that long ago!

Smuggled and underage puppies are pretty much the same thing. Paperwork and vaccination, by definition are more than dodgy.

The idea that someone can import a cuddly toy as a live pet, relying on fake papers and a chip stuck to the roof of the carrier is more than a joke. It is a disgrace!

RE: Vets against Puppy Farms

Richard Carter — Sun, 23 Aug 2015 11:21:09 GMT

For some reason we have a group of well intentioned people in Louth who are convinced that 'rescuing' Romanian and Spanish dogs is the way forward - don't know if they share a pub or a club or Facebook but I have been direct to the point of rude about this and only dissuaded one family out of about 3 or 4 from getting a dog with confirmed Leishmania after explaining just what they would be in for in the long term re costs of medication.

The others turn up with castration wounds and pet passports and who knows what else.

We have 3 dedicated rescue kennels in the area all struggling to survive both financially and with numbers of abandoned pets - makes you wonder what the advertising pull has been to trust one over the other?

RE: Vets against Puppy Farms

Hannah Wynne Richards — Sun, 23 Aug 2015 10:19:25 GMT

It's not just the smuggled puppies, it's also the "legally" imported ones - under age and with dodgy paperwork.

Wynne

RE: Vets against Puppy Farms

ruths — Sun, 23 Aug 2015 08:50:44 GMT

that is interesting, Cat.

I think the dogs trust are pretty interested in smuggled puppies. They did a really good report on it last yr and recently they showed how flawed the port control of dogs is https://www.dogstrust.org.uk/whats-happening/issues-campaigns/puppy-smuggling

it is really worrying

good luck -))

RE: Vets against Puppy Farms

Cat Henstridge — Sun, 23 Aug 2015 08:23:52 GMT

[quote user="ruths"]

Hi cat,

I agree with your motives and wish you luck.

can you explain what is the difference between this and the pupaid campaign?

[/quote]

Actually, I was asked to start this by the people who run pupaid, after writing a couple of blogs on the subject and them pointing out that the veterinary profession appeared to have no opinions or voice in the debate.

However, having looked into it. although they concentrate on home bred puppies I think the issue of imported animals is potentially larger and certainly a bigger health risk to the country as a whole.

This is to try to add our opinions (which carry a lot of weight!) to the debate. Please join in!

RE: Vets against Puppy Farms

ruths — Sat, 22 Aug 2015 23:44:35 GMT

Hi cat,

I agree with your motives and wish you luck.

can you explain what is the difference between this and the pupaid campaign?

RE: Vets against Puppy Farms

Cat Henstridge — Sat, 22 Aug 2015 13:59:53 GMT

[quote user="Martin Atkinson"]Well my rather cynical take on this is that if you're such an idiot that you think that buying a mongrel re-designated as a designer breed is smart then you deserve all you get![/quote]

[quote user="Bob Russell"]Paying £500+ extra based on the idea that your dog has a silly name is as daft as the people paying the money. Our record is £1500 for a bulldog cross! Any advance on that?[/quote]

People are always going to buy these dogs now they are available. It isn't our job to decide how much they should or shouldn't pay but it IS our job to protect the welfare of these animals and give our clients and potential clients good advice.

Maybe attitudes like this are discouraging people to talk to their vet and go straight to the internet and the dodgy breeders instead.

RE: Vets against Puppy Farms

Martin Atkinson — Fri, 21 Aug 2015 19:00:35 GMT

[quote user="Hannah Wynne Richards"] I hope the poor thing wasn't found abandoned in a skip.[/quote]I have a cat called Bramble I found under a blackberry bush!

RE: Vets against Puppy Farms

Hannah Wynne Richards — Fri, 21 Aug 2015 18:32:58 GMT

I hope the poor thing wasn't found abandoned in a skip.

Wynne

RE: Vets against Puppy Farms

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Fri, 21 Aug 2015 17:55:44 GMT

[quote user="Hannah Wynne Richards"]

Pembrokeshire spaniel - actually the result of an accidental mating between a spriger and a Pemb farm corgi - and a very nice dog.

Wynne

Cockerpoo always reduces me to a thirteen year old giggler

[/quote]

My best dog ever was a Ci Scip Cymraeg.

RE: Vets against Puppy Farms

Hannah Wynne Richards — Fri, 21 Aug 2015 16:13:08 GMT

Pembrokeshire spaniel - actually the result of an accidental mating between a spriger and a Pemb farm corgi - and a very nice dog.

Wynne

Cockerpoo always reduces me to a thirteen year old giggler

RE: Vets against Puppy Farms

Bob Russell — Fri, 21 Aug 2015 14:57:47 GMT

Paying £500+ extra based on the idea that your dog has a silly name is as daft as the people paying the money. Our record is £1500 for a bulldog cross! Any advance on that?

Sadly some of the pedigree breeds are under real threat because demand has dropped partly because of the twits buying overpriced mongrels.

My very wise Grandfather had a dog "Puff" and he totally convinced all around him (except us grandchildren!) that the dog was a very rare Lergnom Terrier. Cost him nothing from the local dog pound!

(Mongrel backwards)

A fool and his money ..........

RE: Vets against Puppy Farms

Martin Atkinson — Fri, 21 Aug 2015 13:30:27 GMT

[quote user="Joyce Whitehead"]The problem with this is that if you want a cockerpoo, or a schnoodle, or cavachon, or other overpriced "designer" crossbreed, there are no registered breeders. [/quote]Well my rather cynical take on this is that if you're such an idiot that you think that buying a mongrel re-designated as a designer breed is smart then you deserve all you get! CF my local dealer dishing out the same puppies under different 'breed' names.

RE: Vets against Puppy Farms

Joyce Whitehead — Fri, 21 Aug 2015 13:24:48 GMT

[quote user="Martin Atkinson"]

[quote user="Cat Henstridge"]Which is the message we have to start spreading to our clients.[/quote]My message is to be wary as suggested of these new tactics but also to call the Kennel Club and only deal with registered breeders. We know there's plenty of dodgy ones amongst them but at least its a better start.

[/quote]

The problem with this is that if you want a cockerpoo, or a schnoodle, or cavachon, or other overpriced "designer" crossbreed, there are no registered breeders. I always recommend the KC website to clients, and advise accredited breeders, and that system is by no means a failsafe, but for non pedigree breeds, there is no way of checking the pups and breeders out easily.

Googling the name of the seller may help if there is bad information out there, but there is nothing to stop the bad ones changing their names. There is nothing easy about this situation.

But well done Cat on raising the subject.

RE: Vets against Puppy Farms

Martin Atkinson — Fri, 21 Aug 2015 12:05:21 GMT

[quote user="Cat Henstridge"]

The public are wise to it

[/quote]Really? They're not in my area!

RE: Vets against Puppy Farms

Hannah Wynne Richards — Fri, 21 Aug 2015 08:38:56 GMT

That's going to make eradicating this evil trade even more difficult - and make it even more important that the Gto PC states unequivocally that it's professionally unethical for any veterinary surgeon who is aware of animals (of any species) kept in substandard conditions to fail to inform the proper authorities.

Wynne

RE: Vets against Puppy Farms

Cat Henstridge — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 22:23:13 GMT

[quote user="grumpyoldman"]

Some clients really do ask for it , buying bull dogs ,pugs, French bulldogs and assorted hybrids out of the back of white vans handing over upto £2000 to a complete stranger with no address and a mobile phone number ,no receipt , oh and the dogs on medication because its ill and its seen our vet and here are some drugs in a brown envelope . Its just got a chill while travelling !!!.

[/quote]

I think a big problem is is that this ISN'T happening much anymore. The public are wise to it so, and if you watch the video David Martin covers this, the traders are renting houses, furnishing them like family homes, bunging in a couple of dogs that look a bit like the pups to pass them off as the parents and selling from there.

Which even a well educated buyer could easily fall for.

Which is the message we have to start spreading to our clients.

RE: Vets against Puppy Farms

grumpyoldman — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 20:13:13 GMT

RE: Vets against Puppy Farms

Richard Carter — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 17:49:24 GMT

Just had email from Kennel Club - apparently 1st week of September is a campaign against puppy farms with various info leaflets and posters to download and display

www.kennelclub.org.uk/paw

RE: Vets against Puppy Farms

Martin Atkinson — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 09:31:43 GMT

[quote user="karen jones"]What really winds me up is the people "rescue" dogs from Spain, Greece Eastern Europe and souther Ireland[/quote]Never been known not to be controversial, my opinion on these people is that they have a personality defect and a need to care, the animals are often child substitutes and as you suggest they are misguidedly often doing more harm than good.

RE: Vets against Puppy Farms

karen jones — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 08:10:10 GMT

What really winds me up is the people "rescue" dogs from Spain, Greece Eastern Europe and souther Ireland and think they are doing a fantastic job. One lady has two dogs from Spain both of which arrived on treatment for leishmaniasis. Grrr. Our local rescue centre has lots of dogs but then greyhound rescue bring greyhounds in from Ireland to rehome .

RE: Vets against Puppy Farms

Cat Henstridge — Wed, 19 Aug 2015 17:19:19 GMT

Thanks Wynne!

RE: Vets against Puppy Farms

Martin Atkinson — Wed, 19 Aug 2015 14:39:34 GMT

[quote user="Cat Henstridge"].....does anyones practice website have any advice? [/quote]I missed this before and the answer is unequivocally yes. It even suggests printing off the page on the do's and don'ts of finding a pet to take with them as an aide memoir. My website is a treasure trove of information on pet keeping which outweighs the 'aren't we clever boys' stuff by 100:1.