The Kennel Club's Puppy Farming Campaign

Stop the Suffering, STOP Puppy Farming

Puppy farming is a cruel and abhorrent trade. Puppy farmers can be defined as volume breeders who have little regard or consideration for the basic needs and care for their breeding bitches and puppies.

Puppy farmers will often:

  • Breed over and again from their breeding bitches, damaging their health and will often kill or abandon them when they are ‘no longer of use’
  • Separate puppies from their mothers too early
  • Ignore guidelines about the maximum frequency of litters
  • Sell puppies at ‘neutral’ locations instead of from their own homes
  • Keep the puppies in poor and unhealthy conditions
  • Keep puppies in poor conditions where they have no access to day to day sights and sounds and fail to become properly socialised
  • Fail to follow recommended breed specific health schemes
  • Transport puppies away from where they were reared in unsuitable conditions
  • Sell puppies through dealers, pet shops or other third parties whose only motive is making a quick profit

Recent Kennel Club research has shown that as many as one in three puppy buyers may have bought from a puppy farm, going to outlets such as pet shops, the internet and free ads, frequently used by puppy farmers.

This is even more worrying when coupled with the knowledge that more than half of puppy owners didn’t see the puppy in its breeding environment, receive a contract of sale, or health test certificates for the puppy’s parents – all steps that the most responsible breeders will insist upon.

Sign the Kennel Club's online petition to help abolish puppy farming

To see the Kennel Club’s release click here (coming shortly) and to find out more about the perils of puppy farming and how to avoid these rogue breeders please watch the short film below.

How big is the Puppy Farming problem?

Puppy farming is a growing problem as unscrupulous breeders cash in on the demand for the likes of fashionable designer cross breeds, 'handbag' dogs and other popular breeds and take advantage of the fact that they can hide behind the anonymity of the internet. They tend to operate under the radar so it is impossible to know the exact scale of the trade. But the signs are that an increasingly large proportion of puppy buyers have bought from puppy farms without even knowing it.

A recent survey by the Kennel Club showed:

  • As many as one in four people could potentially be buying their puppies from puppy farms. 29 percent of people have bought their puppy from the internet, a pet shop or a newspaper advert, all outlets that are used for selling puppy farmed puppies.
  • Too many people were not buying from breeders that had taken the steps that would be expected of a reputable breeder:
  • Three in five people admit that they did not see their puppy with its mother
  • More than half did not see it in its breeding environment before they brought it home
  • 66 percent of owners were never given the parents’ health certificates, a good indicator of the likely health of the puppy, potentially costing them dearly in vet bills further down the line
  • 8 percent were sold a puppy before it was 8 weeks old
  • 66 percent of people said that they would buy a puppy sold at a lower than average price. The Kennel Club is concerned that puppy farmers, who cut corners in order to sell pups at knock down prices, will do more trade during tough financial times, even though it will cost the owners heavily in veterinary bills later.

Where do puppy farmers sell their pups?

  • They will often advertise their puppies on the internet/via newspaper ads.
  • They may sell direct from their breeding farm, and rely on the fact that once there people will feel the need to ‘rescue’ the puppy but more often than not they will do all they can to keep people away from the premises where the pups were born and bred.
  • From pet shops
  • Via middle men or dealers at neutral locations such as motorway service stations and pubs
  • From the house of a dealer
  • Directly from the internet, where the pup is delivered straight to the buyer's door

Why does Puppy Farming continue?

The law does little to help prevent puppy farming. Every breeder who breeds five or more litters in a year will usually be required to obtain a breeding licence from their local authority. Local authorities are responsible for checking that the breeder’s premises are adequate and that they are adhering to suitable welfare standards.

The quality of the checks Local Authorities carry out vary as many are under-resourced and officials may lack the necessary training to carry out this role. As a result too many breeders are continuing to breed without licences, as they slip under the radar or may have a licence despite conditions being totally inadequate.

Furthermore too many people purport to know of a puppy farmer but do not know what to do with the information or feel that there is nobody that they can turn to who will stop them in their tracks.

Ultimately puppy farming only continues because puppy buyers, knowingly or not, are fuelling the trade.

How can you help to stop puppy farming?

The Kennel Club is launching its STOP a Puppy Farmer campaign. It is asking people to:

Spot the signs of a puppy farmer
Tell the relevant authorities if you suspect a Puppy Farmer
Opt for a puppy from a Kennel Club Assured Breeder or breed rescue centre instead
Please, spread the word!

SPOT the signs

DO

  • Always go to a reliable and reputable Kennel Club Assured Breeder.
  • Ask to see the puppy’s mother.
  • See the puppy in its breeding environment and ask to look at the kennelling conditions if they were not raised within the breeder’s house. If you suspect the conditions are not right, then do not buy the puppy.
  • Ask to see the relevant health test certificates for the puppy’s parents
  • Be prepared to be put on a waiting list – a healthy puppy is well-worth waiting for.
  • Ask if you can return the puppy if things don’t work out. Responsible and reputable breeders will always say yes.
  • Be suspicious of a breeder selling several different breeds, unless you are sure of their credentials.
  • Consider alternatives to buying a puppy like getting a rescue dog or pup. Click here to find a breed rescue puppy.
  • Report your concerns to the relevant authority if you suspect the breeder is a puppy farmer

DON’T

  • Buy a puppy from a pet shop.
  • Pick your puppy up from a ‘neutral location’ such as a car park or motorway service station.
  • Buy a puppy because you feel like you’re rescuing it. You’ll only be making space available for another poorly pup to fill and condemning further puppies to a miserable life

TELL the relevant authorities
Local Councils, animal health officers and the police have the power to enforce the law. If you suspect somebody is a puppy farmer report them to the RSPCA, the police, or your Local Authority.
 
If somebody who you also suspect of being a puppy farmer, is registering their dogs with the Kennel Club, then ensure that you tell the Kennel Club about your suspicions. The Kennel Club would never knowingly register puppies from a puppy farmer and will tell the relevant authorities to try and ensure that the person is brought to book.

OPT for a Puppy from a Kennel Club Assured Breeder or rescue centre
The Kennel Club Assured Breeder Scheme was developed in 2004, to help puppy buyers to identity responsible breeders and separate them from those who are not.

The scheme is voluntary and all members who sign up to it agree to follow Kennel Club rules regarding the breeding of their dogs. This includes ensuring that their puppies and breeding bitches are kept in comfortable and safe breeding conditions, are socialised, permanently identified by microchip or tattoo and that the parents are given the relevant health tests before they are bred from, to help maximise the chances of them producing healthy puppies.

All members agree to allow a Kennel Club inspector access to their premises and the Kennel Club ensures that everybody who has registered more than 2  litters in the previous year is visited before they are allowed to join the scheme. All other breeders can be visited at random and if we have concerns about any breeders they are visited as a priority. Those who don’t meet the scheme’s standards are removed.

Alternatively, there are thousands of dogs that need re-homing. The Kennel Club runs a Breed Rescue Directory for the hundreds of Kennel Club Breed Rescue organisations throughout the country.  More general rescue homes include Battersea, Dogs Trust and Wood Green.

PLEASE, spread the word
We can only stop puppy farmers if puppy buyers know to avoid them – before they buy, not once it is too late. If you know prospective puppy buyers tell them about this campaign to make sure that they make the right choices. You can help to spread the word to our politicians by signing the Kennel Club petition to end puppy farming here. You can also write to your local political representative.

What the Kennel Club is doing

Giving puppy buyers access to good breeders
Many charities have been active in telling people who not to buy from, such as the RSPCA, but there has never been any guidance about where people should go to buy a puppy. The Kennel Club Assured Breeder Scheme was established to help people identify good breeders, whose credentials they can trust.

Helping to catch puppy farmers
In addition to running the Assured Breeder Scheme the Kennel Club also registers puppies, meaning that it has the country’s largest database of dog family trees.

Despite the fact that the Kennel Club wants to keep as full a record as possible about important information, including the health of dogs in this country to enable the development of health tests, it does not want to register puppies from puppy farmers.

The Kennel Club wants to ensure that everybody who breeds five or more litters a year is subject to an inspection. That is why the Kennel Club requires breeders to provide a copy of the breeding licence that is issued by their Local Authority. If they cannot produce it, without very good reason, they will not be allowed on the Kennel Club’s books. The Kennel Club is fully aware that even licensed breeders can be given licences when they do not deserve them. That is why it urges those who suspect a puppy farmer to let the Kennel Club know, as they will be able to alert the Local Authority and help set the processes in place to stop their trade. That is also why it urges people to always buy from Kennel Club Assured Breeders, who follow strict rules and whose premises the Kennel Club is entitled to inspect.

The Kennel Club cooperates with the police in any investigations and reports complaints about those who register their puppies with it to the relevant Local Authorities.

Educating
The single most effective way to end the puppy farming trade is to help people to spot the signs of a puppy farmer so that they no longer buy from them. The Kennel Club ran the first Puppy Farm Awareness Week in 2011, and provides information about puppy farming and Kennel Club Assured Breeders throughout the year, at events such as Discover Dogs and Crufts.

Campaigning
The Kennel Club is lobbying the government for changes to legislation that will help to ensure that the puppy farming trade ends across the UK. You can help by:

To find out more about the Kennel Club’s political campaigns to help end puppy farming across the UK read about what is happening in each country below or view our Campaign Briefing:

Stop Puppy Farming Campaign Briefing

 

England
The Kennel Club is campaigning for:

  • The standards and principles of the Kennel Club Assured Breeder Scheme (formerly the Accredited Breeder Scheme) to be mandatory throughout the country. Its Assured Breeder Scheme strives to raise breeding standards and indicate responsible breeders to potential puppy buyers. Assured Breeders undertake health tests, follow clearly defined good practice. and agree to allow KC Inspectors to have access to their premises for inspections.
  • A review of the Breeding and Sale of Dogs (Welfare) Act 1999, to prohibit the sale of puppies in pet shops under the Animal Welfare Act. The Breeding of Dogs Act 1973 (as amended by the Breeding and Sale of Dogs (Welfare) Act 1999) to be consistently enforced across all UK authorities.

Northern Ireland

  • The Kennel Club has welcomed the decision by the Assembly to re-evaluate the substandard legislation regarding the breeding of dogs in recognition that current regulations are outdated and no longer in line with welfare standards.
  • In its response to the recent consultation the Kennel Club has highlighted areas of concern within the regulations which it fears could unnecessarily penalise small scale breeders and actually encourage people to breed larger numbers in order to recoup their costs, leading to an influx of unwanted puppies, breeders taking less care in regards to where the puppies are sold and the suitability of the owners, and dogs being abandoned.
  • The Kennel Club will continue working with the Department to give help and advice in areas which it feels have been wrongly addressed, with the aim of achieving a sensible balance of encouraging responsible breeding and tackling puppy farming, whilst not penalising small scale breeders.

Scotland

  • The Breeding of Dogs Act 1973 (as amended by the Breeding and Sale of Dogs (Welfare) Act 1999) seeks to prohibit the worst aspects of puppy farming. However, the extent to which this is being enforced varies significantly from area to area. The Scottish Parliament has begun tackling these problems by introducing the Licensing of Animal Dealers (Young Cats and Young Dogs) (Scotland) Regulations 2009, however more needs to be done.The Kennel Club is lobbying to end the sale of puppies in pet shops through the introduction of secondary regulations on pet vending under the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006.

Wales

  • In 2009 the Welsh Assembly established a Dog Breeding Review Group tasked with looking at existing regulation and formulating recommendations to protect and improve the welfare of puppies, breeding bitches and stud dogs. Draft regulations were issued in October 2010 based on the recommendations made and a public consultation took place to gather views on the proposals. Following a significant number of responses and ongoing correspondence with interested parties including the Kennel Club, revised draft Animal Welfare (Breeding of Dogs) (Wales) Regulations 2012 were issued on 20 December 2011.
  • The Kennel Club greatly welcomes the changes made in the revised regulations and congratulates the Welsh Assembly Companion Animal Welfare Team for taking into consideration the comments made from the previous consultation. Following the elections in Wales and the appointment of a new Minister, the Kennel Club and Welsh Kennel Club have been engaging with the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs department to ensure that all breeders are adequately represented in the ongoing work to secure workable and improved regulations which strike a balance between encouraging responsible breeding and stamping out puppy farming.
  • Its main concern however is the possibility that increased legislation and subsequent increased costs will either force good breeders away from breeding altogether or encourage some to breed larger numbers, and feel pressured to take less care in the selection and the suitability of the owners in order to re-coup their costs. This will inevitably lead to the over production of puppies, and an increase in dogs being abandoned.

Useful links

PAAG button

Pet Advertising Advisory Group

The Kennel Club sits as part of the Pet Advertising Advisory Group (PAAG), a group made up of leading animal welfare organisations and the Government Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), working to improve the standards of and promote responsible pet advertising. Visit www.paag.org.uk if you are looking to buy a pet or if you have recently purchased an animal. The consumer advice pages cover a wide range of topics from “where to get a Labrador puppy” to “how to care for your rabbit”. Anyone who has bought an animal from a classified advert or website that has turned out to be a poorly or problem pet is advised to contact Consumer Direct on 08454 040506 or visit their website www.direct.gov.uk/en/Governmentcitizensandrights/Consumerrights/index.htm .

 

Article Information

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The Kennel Club
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