This press release arrived today and I think it's a great campaign to get behind and support. Puppy farms must be stamped out - for dogs' sake and for dog lovers' sake too. Please read and support this campaign:
C.A.R.I.A.D - The campaign to end puppy farming in Wales
Following the recent and much publicised protests in Carmarthen about a retrospective planning application being granted for the largest puppy farm in Wales, a united campaign has been launched by a coalition of welfare charities, rescue shelters and animal rights campaigners in Wales including:
• Puppy Love Wales
• Lizzie’s Barn
• Friends of the Animals RCT
• Freshfields Rescue
• Greyhound Welfare
• South Wales RGT
• Hope Rescue
• North Clwyd Animal Rescue
• Boxer Rescue
• Puppy Alert
• Walkies Dogs Charity
• Happy Days Animal Rescue
• Four Paws Animal Rescue (South Wales)
• A.R.C.
• West Wales RGT
• All Creatures Great And Small
• The Guardian Campaign
The campaign to end puppy farming in Wales is called C.A.R.I.A.D., a Welsh word meaning ‘beloved’. It stands for Care And Respect Includes All Dogs.
It has been timed to coincide with Puppy Farm Awareness Day on 18th September. The campaign’s launch anticipates the First Minister’s proposed new dog breeding legislation designed to combat a problem that has reached epidemic proportions and is damaging to the reputation of Wales.
The C.A.R.I.A.D. campaign will be running various events – including a stand at Burns Dogs Day Out – petitions, fundraising and awareness drives across Wales to ensure that the First Minister is left in no doubt that the majority of people living in Wales do not support puppy farming. And, that the proposed new dog breeding legislation should be approved without any amendments that would dilute its efficacy.
The campaign’s objectives are to:
1. Raise awareness of the indiscriminate breeding of puppies and the
poor conditions breeding bitches and stud dogs often endure.
2. To make the public aware of the distribution networks of these
puppies, starting from the roadside dealers to the large-scale operators who sell puppies to pet shops, in press advertisements and on the Internet.
3. Anti-puppy-farming groups have seen first hand the atrocious
conditions companion animals are being forced to endure. Dogs being kept, often over many years, in garages, home-made sheds, agricultural barns, cramped cages, cellars, disused lorries, or barren kennels:
• Dogs being left without adequate food and access to water.
• Lack of lighting or ventilation and, in winter, often no heating.
• Lack of opportunities to exercise.
• Minimal or no socialisation with humans or other dogs.
• Confinement in pens where dogs are forced to lie without bedding on
concrete floors, often covered in their own faeces and urine.
• Bitches left with infections, open wounds or tumours, without
veterinary treatment.
• Long haired breeds that are never groomed, leading to their coats
becoming painfully matted against their skin, to the point where many are unable to walk.
• Litters being removed from their mothers at just 6 weeks old.
• And of late, the clinical cruelty of automated facilities, in large
scale farms, where dogs are kept in confinement with food automatically dispensed, and cleaning automated, without the ‘need’ for any human contact.
• Dying dogs or those no longer able to produce sufficient quantities
of puppies, frequently shot, drowned or dumped to fend for themselves.
• Carcasses of dead dogs sometimes being left to rot and spread
disease.
4. Highlight the heartbreak of those who have either willingly or
inadvertently supported the puppy farming industry by purchasing puppies that have started life in puppy farms in Wales. These people often discover, to their cost, that their new puppy is sick, or has genetic abnormalities which may lead to death, only weeks after being purchased. Or, if treatable, the unwary owners are left with large veterinary bills for the duration of their dog’s life.
5. Highlight the impact of puppy farm breeding on the overpopulation of
dogs in the UK. The shelters running at maximum capacity that can’t take in any more dogs. The unwanted dogs sitting in cages on death row in pounds. Emphasising the need for those considering taking on a dog or puppy to take great care in where they obtain it, and the value of considering rescued animals.
The C.A.R.I.A.D. Campaign is the first time that so many animal charities, campaigners and welfare organisations have united to work together with one voice and with a common goal. This combination of strength in numbers, and wide representation of interested groups, should ensure that this campaign will have a major impact on puppy farming in Wales.
Sian Edwards from Dogs Trust commented: “Dogs Trust will be continuing its long standing political plan to engage with WAG. This is well underway, and with the new Minister and with all this work from welfare organisations, let’s look forward to some robust regulations soon with welfare of the dogs and enforcement of these laws as the top priorities. We wish the C.A.R.I.A.D. campaign luck - great that WAG will be hearing from so many people on the same issue."
Victoria Brown from The Kennel Club has also sent a message of support to the campaign.
For more information about this Press Release or the C.A.R.I.A.D.
campaign please contact:
hello@guardiancampaign.co.uk
For more information about puppy farming in the UK please contact:
admin@puppylovecampaigns.org
For more information about C.A.R.I.A.D. campaign events please contact:
cariadevents2011-campaign@yahoo.co.uk