What is a puppy farmer?

• A puppy farmer is somebody who breeds puppies purely for profit and without regard for their health and welfare. People often associate puppy farmers with volume breeding and this can be true, but it is not always the case.  The defining characteristic of a puppy farmer is that they will not invest the time and the money into breeding their dogs responsibly, and will cut corners wherever possible in order to ensure that they make a healthy profit – at the expense of the health of the puppies and the mothers.
• A puppy farmer will generally keep breeding bitches in cramped and filthy conditions. They are usually kept in cages or small pens, where they rarely see daylight or touch grass, and they are mated on every heat - just being fed enough to keep them producing pups, with little or no veterinary care at all.
• A puppy farmer’s puppies will often start their young lives in the same cramped conditions and are not given veterinary care, vaccinations, adequate food, or any training, which is so essential in the early days of their lives. As a result the puppies are often not socialised and commonly suffer from fatal health problems including pneumonia, parvovirus, as well as dangerous infestations of fleas and worms, often requiring hundreds of pounds of veterinary or behavioural treatment to fix.
• Puppy farmers separate puppy and mother when the puppies are still not mature enough to be taken.
• A puppy farmer will often be equally unhappy to offer advice or to take the puppy back, if there are subsequent problems with the puppy.

What can I do to ensure I don’t buy from a puppy farm?

If you were to see a puppy farmer’s premises you would probably find it quite easy to see that the conditions are not adequate or acceptable, particularly if you asked to see their kennelling conditions. However, most puppy farmers will transport their puppies across the country to dealers, who then sell them from the internet, pet shops, free newspapers or even motorway service stations and this makes it a lot more difficult to identify where the puppy originated from. But there are some simple steps you can follow, to help you ensure you do not help fuel this cruel trade:

DO

• Ask to see the puppy’s mother, which should be present.
• See the puppy in its breeding environment and ask to look at the kenneling 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.
• For a pedigree puppy always contact the Kennel Club first for their list of reliable and reputable Kennel Club Accredited Breeders.
• 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 more than one (maximum two) breeds, unless you are sure of their credentials.
• Consider alternatives to buying a pedigree puppy like getting a rescue dog or pup, and remember that every breed of dog has its own breed rescue society.

DON’T

• Buy a puppy from a pet shop – these have often come from puppy farms.
• Pick your puppy up from a ‘neutral location’ such as a car park or motorway service station. This is a common tactic used by puppy farm dealers.
• Buy a puppy because you feel like you’re rescuing it. You’ll only be making space available for another poorly pup to fill.
• Be fooled by a Kennel Club pedigree certificate. These are often faked by puppy farmers who are already operating illegally and have no qualms about forging paperwork. The majority of puppy farmers will not really register their litters with the Kennel Club.

Even if the certificate is genuine, this is not a guarantee about the conditions the puppy has been raised in, but a registration of the puppy’s birth and parentage. It shows that if you buy a Boxer dog, for example, you are buying a genuine Boxer. The Kennel Club will not have checked the standards that the breeder operates to; the Kennel Club is not granted any statutory powers as a law enforcement agency, this remit lies with the Local Authorities, who can investigate and prosecute those whose breeding standards are not satisfactory (and the Kennel Club will act accordingly, on the basis of a relevant court prosecution). But this system is not always effective and there are breeders that will slip through the net.

In order to help ensure that the breeder you buy from is following quality breeding practice, buy from a Kennel Club Accredited Breeder.

Preventing Puppy Farming

What is the Kennel Club Doing?

The Kennel Club is very concerned that puppies continue to suffer unnecessarily at the hands of irresponsible breeders, or puppy farmers, who are more interested in making profits than in caring for their puppies’ health and welfare. As the secretariat and instigator of the Puppy Farming Study Group, which comprises representatives of the Kennel Club, animal welfare organisations across the whole of the UK, LACORS and government, the Kennel Club is at the forefront of moves to try to end the complex and obscure world of puppy farming. Some of our most important actions at the moment are:

• The Kennel Club Accredited Breeder Scheme  - This Scheme was set up in order to raise breeding standards and to give puppy buyers a clear choice between those who are breeding responsibly and those who may not be. All members of the Kennel Club Accredited Breeder Scheme abide by a code of practice that guarantees that they put their puppies health and welfare first and foremost. They follow steps such as giving their dogs the required health tests for their breed, following KC requirements about the standard of breeding and agreeing to allow a KC breeder advisor access to their premises.
• Lobbying the government for legislative change - The Kennel Club does not believe that responsible dog breeding should be a choice - it should be a requirement, and we are lobbying the government to make the standards and principles of the Kennel Club Accredited Breeder Scheme mandatory throughout the country, for all breeders of all dogs, whether pedigree or cross breed.
  The Kennel Club is also lobbying the government to introduce secondary legislation on pet vending, under the Animal Welfare Act, which would prohibit the sale of puppies in pet shops. This would prohibit the sale of puppies through one of the key outlets that puppy farmers and their dealers use to do trade.
• Education - A public education campaign is crucial and needs to compliment new legislation. The Kennel Club has many effective platforms from which to educate the public, such as Discover Dogs and DFS Crufts, and uses and will continue to use these to maximum advantage, so that puppy buyers will know how to distinguish clearly between responsible and irresponsible breeders.

What can puppy buyers and dog lovers do?

• Don’t buy from a puppy farmer - The easiest way to prevent puppy farming is to hit them where it hurts – in their pockets, and not to buy from a puppy farmer or one of their dealers. Puppy buyers should familiarise themselves with the Dos and Don’ts on this page, to ensure that they do not continue to fuel this trade.
• Buy from a responsible and reputable breeder - Puppy buyers should always buy from a Kennel Club Accredited Breeder if they are looking for a purebred puppy.  You can contact the Kennel Club for a list on 020 7518 6870 or email information@thekennelclub.org.uk. Alternatively, if you are searching for a puppy on the Kennel Club’s Find a Puppy website they are easily identifiable, by the purple Accredited Breeder badge that appears next to their name.
• Sign the Kennel Club petition - Dog lovers can sign the Kennel Club petition which asks the government to introduce a set of standards that all breeders can follow based on those already followed by its Kennel Club Accredited Breeders. The wording of the petition is as follows: "We, the undersigned, call on the government to apply the basic principles embodied in the Kennel Club's Accredited Breeder Scheme to the breeding of all dogs in the UK.”
• Write to your local MP – Writing to your local MP is a very effective way of getting your voice heard. You should write requesting that the government introduces secondary legislation on pet vending, under the Animal Welfare Act, which would prohibit the sale of puppies in pet shops. To find your local MP you can visit www.findyourmp.parliament.uk. To get more information on writing to you MP visit www.thekennelclub.org.uk/kccampaigns or phone the Kennel Club Public Affairs Department on 020 7518 1020.

What can the government do?

• The Breeding of Dogs Act 1973 (as amended by the Breeding and Sale of Dogs (Welfare) Act 1999) applies in Scotland, England and Wales and 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 Kennel Club will continue to work with Local Authorities to help them to gain the information necessary for a prosecution against somebody who is breaking the rules and is working to ensure that Local Authorities are fully informed about the resources available to them.
• The Kennel Club believes that the Breeding and Sale of Dogs (Welfare) Act 1999 needs to be reviewed, that the principles of the KCABS should be mandatory for anybody breeding dogs and that secondary legislation should be introduced on pet vending under the Animal Welfare Act which would prohibit the sale of puppies in pet shops. The Kennel Club is lobbying to achieve this.

The Kennel Club, as the secretariat of the Puppy Farming Study Group, is at the forefront of moves to try and end the complex and harmful business of puppy farming.

Puppy Farming Study Group Contacts:

Defra
Tel: 08459 33 55 77
email: helpline@defra.gsi.gov.uk

Battersea Dogs and Cats Home
Contact: Jan Barlow
Tel: 020 7627 9224
email: j.Barlow@dogshome.org

Dogs Trust
Contact: Chris Laurence/Clarissa Baldwin
Tel: 020 7833 7662/020 7833 7617

Dublin SPCA
Contact: Jimmy Cahill
Tel 00353 493 5502

Irish SPCA
Tel: 00353 432 5029

The Kennel Club
Contact: Bill Lambert/Laura Vallance
Tel: 0844 463 3980
email: info@thekennelclub.org.uk

LACORS
Please contact your own local Council in the first instance. This is likely to be the Council that you pay your Council Tax to. Check their website for details.
Alternatively, please contact Gemma Cantelo on 020 7665 3866

RSPCA
Contact: John Rolls
Tel: 0870 754 0148

The Scottish Kennel Club
Contact: Jean Fairlie
Tel: 01436 820 478

Scottish SPCA
Tel: 0131 338 5611

For more information on other Kennel Club campaigns click here

Click here to read the Kennel Club's press releases on puppy farming

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KC Dog and Dog Law, Kennel Club Issue Statements, Kennel Club 

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