Environment Minister Dick Roche announced today that the government will bring in legislation laying down guidelines for running dog breeding establishments and kennel operations and targetting puppy farms in particular. This will give new power to the police and SPCAs to shut down operations not meeting minimal standards and to take dogs seized into protection. As almost no legal protection is currently available under animal welfare laws to enable this, this is very important news.
The announcement notes that the government plans to implement the recommendations of the Report from the Working Group on Dog Breeding Establishments headed by Kildare vet Finbar Heslin, who did stellar work on this. The public face pushing for the government to act was TV3 vet Pete Wedderburn in particular, joined by many other individuals and groups. Tara and Lisa from this board organised a demonstration at the Irish parliament last November that got picked up on the main evening newscast and some of the papers. Many here signed the online petition or wrote letters to the Minister on this issue. So many, many people have made contributions that have led to this happening.
I'll post some more info and links when I have their press release and so forth.
This is a very significant development for the welfare of cavaliers as they are one of the breeds most widely 'farmed' and then shipped to the UK and US.
:rah: :rah: :rah:
:w**h**: :w**h**:
The announcement notes that the government plans to implement the recommendations of the Report from the Working Group on Dog Breeding Establishments headed by Kildare vet Finbar Heslin, who did stellar work on this. The public face pushing for the government to act was TV3 vet Pete Wedderburn in particular, joined by many other individuals and groups. Tara and Lisa from this board organised a demonstration at the Irish parliament last November that got picked up on the main evening newscast and some of the papers. Many here signed the online petition or wrote letters to the Minister on this issue. So many, many people have made contributions that have led to this happening.
I'll post some more info and links when I have their press release and so forth.
This is a very significant development for the welfare of cavaliers as they are one of the breeds most widely 'farmed' and then shipped to the UK and US.
:rah: :rah: :rah:
:w**h**: :w**h**:
Few cavaliers are more than two generations away from an English or Irish forebear. English and Irish cavaliers are also as excellent in quality as US cavaliers -- you will find many of the best US breeders and Canadian breeders have lines based on Irish or more particularly, UK imports from good breeders (there are far more breeders in the Uk than Ireland, which has less than a tenth the UK's population and a very small show scene compared to the UK). The issue is never where a dog came from geographically, but whether they came from brokers or puppy farms/puppy mills. The US has a HUGE puppy mill problem -- far more poorly bred cavaliers come out of US puppy mills than are ever produced in Ireland or the UK in any given year. There are enormous operations all through the midwest in particular as well as in Amish areas (sadly); just ONE of these operations may produce thousands of puppies every year. Most of the US market for cavaliers is filled by backyard-bred or these puppy mill cavaliers bred in the US -- not from Ireland or the UK. Many of the sites that look like they are small breeders are actually fronts for puppy farmers -- I've done searches on some of those that say they are offering just cavaliers and maybe one other breed, supposedly health tested etc, and Google turned up a dozen other sites for the same people, each offering a different 2 or 3 additional breeds, so I'd got 28 breeds altogether in 10 minutes of searching, from one supposedly good cavalier breeder who 'raises the dogs with her family'.