At long last we are starting our newsletters again. We are starting with an important issue that we need to share with you. Puppy Mills and Pet Shops. Radio Jacaranda has been busy on the animal welfare front. They helped close down a puppy farmer who had about 300 breeding dogs. We are trying to re-home nearly 100 of his puppies as well as their mothers and there are photos of all of them on our website www.petlink-up.com on the dogs needing homes page. (There are labradors, cocker spaniels, great danes, malteses, daschunds, chinese cresteds, pug x daschunds, and little terrier crosses. We also have Boerboel puppies and a german shepherd puppy not from him!) We hope that Radio Jacaranda is not going to stop here. There are puppy farmers far worse than this one. One has more than 400 dogs in small cement kennels. It is far worse for dogs to live like this than to live in dirty conditions. Dogs need love and companionship and space to run around and things to do. To be kept in isolation in a small space for years is almost as cruel as being kept as an experimental laboratory animal. The important message to the public here is that IT IS THE PUBLIC WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR KEEPING MASS-BREEDERS IN BUSINESS. All these puppy farmers sell their puppies through pet shops, so as long as people buy them from pet shops the wheel will keep turning. It is hard to leave a puppy there who has caught your eye, and wonder what will happen to him if you DON'T take him (which raises the question what DOES happen to puppies not sold) but sometimes it really is a matter of being cruel to be kind. If no-one buys puppies from pet shops the puppy mills will close down. Go to rescue groups and save the dogs there instead of paying puppy farmers. Or buy from breeders who keep their dogs in their homes and care about them. You need to SEE where the puppies are being bred to check on whether the breeder is doing a good job or not. If someone doesn't allow you to come to their house to see the puppies then don't buy from them. There shouldn't be anything to hide from the public. KUSA (Kennel Union of Southern Africa) is South Africa's official dog registration body, and in its constitution it forbids its members from selling puppies through pet shops. If they do, then they will lose their membership and not be allowed to register puppies. KUSA knows that selling puppies at pet shops promotes puppy mills. Puppies sent to pet shops are also at huge risk of being contaminated with deadly diseases from other puppies or passers by who put their fingers in the puppies? mouths after touching another contaminated dog (who usually doesn't show symptoms himself). Puppy farmers often either don't vaccinate or use expired vaccines, and so their puppies have no immunity. In any case a puppy needs to be almost 4 months old and have had his last vaccine 3-4 weeks before that to be immune to these deadly diseases. So, even if you took properly vaccinated puppies 6-12 weeks old to a pet shop they could die if exposed to disease. Puppy farmers typically sell their puppies at 4 weeks -too young to be vaccinated and still needing mother's milk. We know of many people who have bought puppies at pet shops and then spent thousands of rands on vet's bills because the puppies have been ill - typically having parvo virus or distemper. Many have lost the puppies despite the bills. So now you may understand why so many people in animal welfare are against pet shops selling puppies (and kittens). Voice against Pet Shops being sued. http://www.mylistmanager.co.za/ulscommon/F840/say_no.jpghttp://www.mylistmanager.co.za/ulscommon/F840/say_no_2.jpg One lady is being sued by a pet shop for spreading stickers saying ' SAY "NO" TO ANIMALS IN PET SHOPS'. The case is going to court on 6th April. Legally the pet shop has no case (freedom of speech etc.) but we are going to use this to highlight the problem of pet shops selling animals. Here is what we say about it on our website www.petlink-up.com . Come and join the fun if you have a chance. CALL TO ACTION! On 6th April (next Monday) from 8.30am onwards in front of the Johannesburg Magistrates court - corner Fox and Miriam Makeba streets - there will be a protest held. Julie and I from Pet Link-up are going to be there, with other animal welfare groups, to support our friend Paula Spagnoletti. She is being sued by a PET SHOP just because she is spreading stickers saying 'Say "No" to Animals in Pet shops'. Please stop by for a few minutes to give support. We are going to wield posters saying "sue us too: we also say "No" to animals in pet shops!". And "sue Charlize Theron too, because she also says "no". See a video clip of her saying this for PETA on http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/Prefs.asp?video=charlize-theron-pupply-mill And "sue KUSA (the Kennel Union of Southern Africa) because they also say "no". Their constitution forbids members from selling puppies through pet shops. Are drug companies going to sue people for saying "no" to drugs? In the 1980s a fur shop sued Beauty without Cruelty for saying "no" to fur. They did not succeed for the obvious reason that we have freedom of speech. Why do we say "no" to pet shops? The biggest reason is the one Charlize Theron gives on the video clip, and that is that puppy mills sell their puppies through pet shops, so buying puppies there keeps the wheel turning. Where there is a demand there will be a supply. And each puppy mill supplies THOUSANDS of puppies a year. Just take a look at the number of puppy photos we have on our dogs needing homes page. All but one litter (the boerboels) are from one puppy farmer and these are not the only litters that he had at one time - other rescue groups took several others. We alone are trying to find homes for 96 of his puppies -all born within 2 weeks of each other. These puppies are from 15 bitches. He had about 300 bitches all having puppies twice a year. This is a potential total of 4000 puppies a year! There is a puppy mill with 400 bitches that we know of. They also sell through pet shops. There are PLENTY of other puppy mills here. Help us to put an end to puppy mills. Start by saying "no" to animals in pet shops.
