Dogworld Article on amendments to puppy Farming legislation

Dogworld carry an article online about proposed amendments to the Dog farming legislation in Ireland which is due to be passed into law in the coming year.
Have a read of this.
I guessed this was going to happen.It appears the rural backbenchers have decided to put local politics before the greater picture of animal welfare.The Dogfarmers were on TV a fortnight ago wondering why they weren't being given subsidies and grants by the government on account of their valuable contribution to the economy.
I predict that the government will milk the legislation to harvest revenue from the farmers.
If this was a serious bill to improve the welfare of animals,they could surely have tried to impose a limit on the number of breeding bitches a farmer can keep.
As it stands,if the amendments go through,it's nothing more than indirect taxation and another cynical revenue gathering opportunity.
*very disappointed*
Sins

It makes you feel as though you are knocking your head up against a brick wall :bang:

Here's a hint: don't believe what you read in Dogworld! What the large scale dog breeders are trying to change, and what the government and minister are likely to change, can be worlds apart. The dog breeders association is very good at PR and backbench rural senators and TDs may make a fuss: but they are not the minister nor the government nor the full voting house.

I would encourage every single Irish member of the board to phone their TDs and senators and make VERY CLEAR you want this bill to go through as is and your vote and that of many others is tied to such an outcome.

If people want a limit on breeding bitches: then be sure to say this to the minister and to your reps. The bill is still in play. Some of us are and will remain very hard at work on this behind the scenes but all involved need there to be OBVIOUS PUBLIC SUPPORT (of which there has been little! be sen and heard!) and the public reps and minister and dog organisations need to hear your voices. Please remember YOU speak for the dogs -- they cannot speak for themselves.

SOME of the provisions in the Irish legislation to regulate puppy farms are to be amended following representations by government backbenchers, mainly from rural constituencies.

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This in particular is absolute and utter bullsh!t. They would like to PROPOSE these amendments. That is very different from saying the bill is AMENDED. Someone doing their reporting needs to get their facts right. Later in the story the same report notes that this is ONLY what this feeble lot of backbenchers are proposing.

15 TDs may be a quarter of the FF parliamentary party but they are doodly-squat as far as a voting percentage -- there are 166 members. I do know the Greens feel very strongly about this bill and it is a Green minister's department. The dog breeders and rural TDs are trying to spin this.

Have a query in the government press office but they said the bill isn't even far enough along in the debate stage to have had amendments accepted (it isn't even out of the Seanad yet as far as I know). Will post the response as soon as they check and confirm.

Even cavaliers get a mention during the reading of the second stage in the seanad.

The transcript of the Seanad Debate on 26 th January is available on http://www.kildarestreet.com/sendebates/?id=2010-01-26.82.0

During the debate Senator O'Toole raised the following

It is worthwhile recognising that even the best willed intention on the implementation of the legislation would not get over the difficulty the BBC had when it refused to broadcast Crufts for the simple reason that it believed that the breeding of dogs for show purposes can be as bad for the breed as anything else. We have seen that certain breeds of dog such as King Charles spaniels suffer from weak hearts due to generations of in-breeding as lap-dogs that are not allowed to exercise. One can do the same with almost every single breed of dog. I do not expect the Minister to introduce legislation to deal with that issue.

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Minister Gormley replied:

Senator O’Toole is giving me plenty of ideas.

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Sins

Some of us have put in some recommendations on considering breeding as part of animal welfare. There is ndeed a companion animal welfare bill in the offing; one major frustration for many with the dog breeding bill is that there are no provisions for what constitutes cruelty and inadequate care, presumably to be in the welfare bill. So this is very annoying as is the lack of a definition of how large a breeding establishment may be and what the ratio of kennel carers to dogs should be, some of which was in the original working group recommendation.

It is actually very hard to adequately legislate against puppy farmers -- it really requires stern oversight and inspection and it remains to be seen if councils have a will to do this. As is, some do an appalling job of running pounds, some og which have an over 95% kill rate. But I know the bill as is will push a lot of people out of the deplorable 'business' -- most are not up to anything remotely like an adequate kennel standard.

Senator O'Toole is a bit off the mark there though as cavaliers are hardly bred NOT to get exercise... :lol: The problem on that front is more couch potato owners who never walk their dogs! Jaspar and Leo had no problems with 10 miles of hillwalking in wales during the summer when my partner and I were on holiday. We retired to the local pub in exhaustion ourselves... But his intentions are right even if he has the malady and its cause a bit backwards.

My concerns with the puppy farm bill are more on enforcement by local councils. :-|

It isn't the greatest legislation but we now have (after the Gov signs) some help for the puppy mill victims here in Iowa. We are third in the US for mills and that is shameful. It does help to write your rep's and tell them how you feel about the subject-I enclosed a pic of one of Lucky Star's rescues that I had pulled from a mill. The US is waking up a bit about the need to protect these innocents. Don't give up wherever you are.

http://wcco.com/wireapnewsia/Iowa.Senate.passes.2.1512021.html