This is a subject about our own country which I think is completely appalling. It breaks my heart and its devastating that so many dogs suffer so much. That we allow this to happen is so wrong and it needs to stop. This is something I feel extremely strongly about and want to stop because it was save so much suffering for dogs, and save the heartbreak of so many children and dog lovers. Again I have held back the worst of the pictures which truly illustrate the suffering, but I have included some. These photos show the conditions and dogs who have suffered through puppy farms. For more pictures of what is really happening, go to the sites listed at the bottom or google puppy farming.
People might think that puppy farming doesn’t happen in this country, that its illegal and that we, as an animal loving nation, would never allow this to happen, especially on a vast scale. But they would be wrong. Puppy farming is rampant in this country, and there are many farms throughout the UK that hold these institutions of suffering for hundreds of dogs.
So that everyone understands what happens in a puppy farm, and why this needs to stop, lets go through the life of a dog born at a puppy farm.
The mother will give birth to a litter of puppies. This will be just one of many litters that she gives birth to. The puppies will be desperate for her love and attention, as well as her warmth and nutrition. But after so many litters and in such poor health she can barely lift her head up to see her new born pups, let alone care for them. She herself is cold, laying on the hard floor filled with filth and blood from the birth, and there is very little milk as she gets so little food herself. The puppies will try to cuddle close to her and each other, but on a cold, hard floor with so much filth around them and no comfort at all, its a hard start to life. Some puppies will not make it through lack of food and warmth.
The puppies that do survive will grow, but little will improve for them. Their mother will try and care for them, but she herself is exhausted and in so much pain. They will not go outside to play, not meet anyone to cuddle them or play with them. They will spend their first few weeks completely alone with each other in their cell, nothing breaking their monotony. As many dog lovers will know, these first few weeks of a puppies life are crucial as it can determine what kind of life they will have as dogs when they grow up, yet these puppies will know nothing of humans. All they will know is their breeder, who doesn’t care at all for their welfare and will not hesitate to shout, hit, kick and roughly handle these puppies and their mother. They will not have any medication and will be left in their own filth for weeks.
During this time they can contract a number of serious diseases, fleas, ticks, mites and infections from the number of other dogs surrounding them as well as the appalling state of their cell, through neglect from their breeder.
Puppies should not be separated from their mother before 6 weeks or more, as many people know, however breeders will take the first opportunity i.e. when the puppies have open eyes, can stand and look cute enough to put them up for sale. This can mean puppies as young as 3-4 weeks can be torn from their mothers and sold to fend for themselves in a new home.
Breeders will take the puppies, cover them in talcum power and every effort is made to make them look cute, without worrying about the puppies welfare. They will not be taken to a vet, nor any injuries or issues they have seen to. They will be photographed in an environment made to look like a family home and to look like they are loved and cared for. Breeders will rent out houses and spaces made to look like homes to fool people into thinking the puppies are from a loving home, instead of a cell with no human contact. This will be the first time the puppy will have left its cell and been without its mother, so the whole situation with the people, lights and environment is probably very scary for the little thing. Photos like the one above are then put up on websites to sell the puppies for massive profit, masking the true suffering the puppies are going through.
Once the photographs are taken, the puppies are taken back to their cell and thrown back in with their mother until they are sold. The puppies will then be transported to a car park or to a rented out house to look like a home where the unsuspecting new owners will collect their puppy. The mother will remain in her cell alone.
For those puppies sold on, some are lucky and can start again in their new homes. They can be loved and cared for and go on to lead loving lives with their new families, leaving the horrible start to life they had behind them. But, unfortunately, this is not the case for many puppies.
Many puppies will have suffered much as the puppy farming and will have contracted deadly diseases such as Parvo. The owners will take their puppy home and notice they are perhaps not as bouncy as they should be, and within 24 hours, perhaps more, they will notice very concerning signs. The puppy will be vomiting, have diarrhea, wont eat or drink, be bleeding or a number of other serious symptoms, which will prompt a visit to the vets.
The vets will then inform the owners of how sick and malnourished their puppy is, and many puppies will have to stay at the vets. Some puppies will die within 24 hours of being in their new home, others will linger on to suffer large amounts of pain as the vets try to save their lives. New owners will have to pay hundreds, if not thousands of pounds on their new puppy, let alone the extortionate price they paid to the breeder in the first place.
Some puppies will make it through, but their lives will forever be marred by their time at the puppy farming, suffering from long term illnesses and pain or only living to be a few years old before they cant carry on. Other puppies will die within a few weeks of being in their new owners care.
But what about the mother? She will continue to have litter after litter after litter. And the father? The stud dogs who are also held by the same breeder will be forced to mate with her again and again before being thrown back into a cell on their own. Both parents will contract diseases, be covered in fleas, ticks and mites, get infections, tumors and have rotten teeth. At no point in their cruel little lives will they be cared for in anyway.
Until the mother cannot give birth again. She will then be shot, or worse, and be thrown away like rubbish in a skip. She will never know love, joy, comfort or compassion, only a life instead that cell. One of her puppies will then take her place and continue on this legacy of neglect, pain and suffering.
The same will happen with the stud dogs.
These dogs and puppies suffer so very much in these horrific farms, where the breeders will sell puppies for anywhere between 300 to over 1,000 pounds. The breeders will make thousands of pounds off of the suffering of puppies and dogs, and they will never regard those dogs or puppies as anything other than assets to be sold, profit to be made. They do not care about the dogs, in any way. They see these dogs as less than cattle, crops to be churned out. Not as loving beings who need love, care and attention, it is always ALWAYS profit.
So I ask you, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE if you want a dog or puppy DO NOT buy one. You are paying for hundreds of dogs to live their lives in cells, depressed and suffering everyday. You are paying for puppies to die painful, premature deaths. You are paying for the heartbreak of yourself, your family, your children and other families. You are paying for cruel, evil people to make thousands and thousands of pounds a year from the pain and death of puppies and dogs.
And you cannot save a puppy from these horrible conditions. Breeders know that they can sell puppies in this well, as well as with pretending they are from loving homes, so please don’t be fooled into buying a puppy from them, for any reason.
There are so many wonderful dogs and puppies desperate for homes in shelters all over the UK, and the world! A shelter dog is killed every hour in the UK because there is so much over-crowding in shelters, and there is no room. If people stopped buying puppies and adopted dogs and puppies from shelters instead, thousands of dogs wouldn’t be put down every year. These dogs are so desperate to loved, to be given a forever home and be a part of a family. They are there through not fault of their own and just want to love someone.
Instead of paying for death and suffering, you can adopt and really save lives. Save the life of your dog, save the life of the dog who can then be homed in that shelter now there is a space. And if there was no trade to be had from puppy farms, people would stop, and the intense suffering of these dogs and puppies would stop.
If you have bought a puppy within the last five years, please consider filling out the below survey. Its completely anonymous, and will greatly help in the fight against puppy farming.
The Great British Puppy Survey
The RSPCA has this video which shows how puppies are kept at puppy farms. The video has no graphic content, it simply shows how the puppies are thought of.
RSPCA Video of Puppies in Large Buckets
They have a petition online to end puppy farming, please sign it to help end puppy farming.
RSPCA Petition to end Puppy Farming
For more information please visit these sites, and consider supporting them. These are the people that are closing down puppy farming and rescuing puppies like the one above. These are the organisation who rescues both parents and puppies and give them veterinary care as well as a forever home where they can be loved and cherished the way they should be. These are the people we should support;
Naturewatch; An absolutely fantastic team who are completely dedicated to ending the suffering of all animals, and to educate people about puppy farming. They do everything within their power to get people within power on the side of puppies and to bring about the end of puppy farming and dog suffering.
Puppy Love Campaigns; A truly great organisation who go to great lengths to expose the truth of puppy farming and the tragic lives of the dogs and pups trapped there.They have a lot of information and ways you can help.
Cariad; Another excellent organisation who do everything they can to end puppy farming, and help those dogs suffering at the hands of cruel breeders.
Pup Aid; Another amazing organisation dedicated to ending puppy farming through education, events and petitions. They do a lot to bring puppy farming to people attention and to bring in laws to end puppy farming.
Four Paws; A great animal welfare organisation who campaign for the welfare of all animals, and have great information on puppy farming.
Please consider supporting one of these organisations, who desperately need support to help these defenseless dogs.
Article from the BBC
Article from the Express
Article from the Independent
Article from the Mirror
Article from the Guardian
Article from the Daily Mail
Please consider the intense pain and suffering of these poor, innocent dogs. They don’t deserve this kind of treatment. They don’t deserve to die painfully. They don’t deserve to never know love, joy or comfort. Please help stop puppy farming.
For the paws xxxx
Cruelty Free 