Victoria New Laws

[Steve]

I love my animals.They are my life and ensuring Im covering it all for them is my motivation for almost every thing I do. I believe they depend on me to make informed decisions to help keep them healthy and have a great quality of life. I would not stop breeding dogs because of it getting harder or more expensive for me and I begrudgingly would comply with much I don't agree with if I have to in order to breed them but I will never agree to compromise the health of my animals in order to be able to comply with things I know will make them less healthy and less happy than they are now. I simply will not do many of the things that a breeder is being ordered to do in that code because first and foremost the welfare of my dogs - not just now but for their whole lives is my priority. I will not put poisons into my dogs which will impact on their health and the health of their puppies and grand puppies. Its not even a consideration. Puppy farmers don't care past now - they see their animals as stock, if their quality of life or longevity is compromised after their breeding life is done so what? Well so what for me is a bloody big deal and I will not put my dogs in that position and how can they justify making us compromise on the health of our dogs in case some idiot somewhere who has a couple of hundred dogs never vaccinates them or drags in dead cows!

[Steve]

So every breeding animal in the state of Victoria may be impacted by these proposals - every breeder dictated to in how they manage their animals yet the only reference they cite regarding max 5 litters etc is not scientific research at all as is stated in the document and is not even peer reviewed. the paper actually says

"There is little literature to support many of the recommendations made by veterinarians regarding management of breeding dogs. This limits our ability to guide legislators uniformly and may result in inappropriate legislation or legal findings."

Kustritz - the author of the paper they have referenced specifically says that they do not recommend that the review be used in guiding legislation. How can they justify using this paper to add weight to their recommendations? It clearly demonstrates their bias and in ability to be taken seriously.

Edited May 11, 2013 by Steve

[espinay2]

Vaccination of puppies with c5? Have they even READ the guidelines from the WSAVA? Which incidentally informed the AVA policy on vaccines. Something else they obviously haven't read. http://www.wsava.org/guidelines/vaccination-guidelines

[espinay2]

The enforcement of an age past which you can not use a stud dog: so this means those dogs where there is excellent proof of longevity and health may be potentially removed from a breeding program .....

I would note that given the potential impact of the Vic proposals (and this goes for the NSW ones too) that EVERYONE and not just people living in Vic should respond. If you have ever or ever think you may want to purchase a pup from that state, or use a stud dog from that state or have any involvement with dogs from that state then it will affect you!

Edited May 11, 2013 by espinay2

[WreckitWhippet]

The enforcement of an age past which you can not use a stud dog: so this means those dogs where there is excellent proof of longevity and health may be potentially removed from a breeding program .....

I would note that given the potential impact of the Vic proposals (and this goes for the NSW ones too) that EVERYONE and not just people living in Vic should respond. If you have ever or ever think you may want to purchase a pup from that state, or use a stud dog from that state or have any involvement with dogs from that state then it will affect you!

I don't get that at all. I just cannot get my head around why you would put age restrictions on studs.

So will the Victorians who have enough entire bitches that now class them as a "business" be stuck with frozen semen that they cannot use, or is frozen semen going to be the way around this ridiculous proposal ?

[Sheridan]

Grumpy's sire was around 13. All that litter lived until they were past 15.

[RubyBlue]

I tried to reply to this in the online comments but couldnt then sent them an email explaining the error message i got and asking for advice. They have not yet replied.

[Sheridan]

I tried to reply to this in the online comments but couldnt then sent them an email explaining the error message i got and asking for advice. They have not yet replied.

Funny how both the NSW and Vic online consultations don't work very well.

[JRzipper]

I tried to reply to this in the online comments but couldnt then sent them an email explaining the error message i got and asking for advice. They have not yet replied.

Hi Rubyblue,

I had the same problem but worked out that it won't accept grammatical characters like apostrophes. Try taking those out and see if it will accept your text. It's very annoying as I try to be grammatically correct and had to change lots of sentences around to make it read properly with no grammatical devices LOL...

JK

[Rebanne]

I tried to reply to this in the online comments but couldnt then sent them an email explaining the error message i got and asking for advice. They have not yet replied.

Funny how both the NSW and Vic online consultations don't work very well.

I had no problem with either

[mita]

I would note that given the potential impact of the Vic proposals (and this goes for the NSW ones too) that EVERYONE and not just people living in Vic should respond. If you have ever or ever think you may want to purchase a pup from that state, or use a stud dog from that state or have any involvement with dogs from that state then it will affect you!

Exactly. I gave feedback to the NSW Companion Animal TaskForce... and said my interest was as a Q'ld consumer who'd researched the best source to get pet companion dogs.

And it led me to directly get purebreds from NSW registered breeders who followed evidence-based ways of breeding, raising & managing their dogs so they develop suitably as companions alongside people. .

However, I pointed out, their NSW TaskForce paper doesn't deal with that socialisation at all. A serious deficiency, given their own title was 'Companion Animals'.

If NSW & Victorian registered breeders are unable to continue their work, it will affect how informed people from within & outside those states can obtain well-socialised purebreds.

Edited May 12, 2013 by mita

[mita]

II will not put my dogs in that position and how can they justify making us compromise on the health of our dogs in case some idiot somewhere who has a couple of hundred dogs never vaccinates them or drags in dead cows!

I could be wrong, but my reading of the Victorian Code is that it's trying to make 'respectable', & control, commercially farmed puppies and dogs. They have to be kept in large numbers to make it financially viable. It's not for nothing that the word 'business' is repeated constantly.

Which explains the emphasis on regimentation of stuff like dishes & bones & toys... but none on socialisation which requires close & daily interaction with humans. Can't do that with such huge numbers.

That is, farmed dogs not socialised companion dogs. So lots of regimentation... which knowledgeable, experienced registered breeders do not need.

Pity they didn't read one of their own References that pointed out what happens if mother dogs & puppies are not suitably socialised. Aggression & timidity problems. As so often seen in 'puppy-farmed' dogs.

Edited May 12, 2013 by mita

[Steve]

Now they have a staff to dog ratio when one litter equals one dog and a crap breakdown of how each staff member would divide their time to work an 8 hour day. They want staff to have increased training and burdensome record keeping , vetting and medicating but calculate their wages at gross $30,000

None of which takes into account breed or litter sizes or what happens if their is an injury or emergency etc. It assumes that its a well run compact facility where staff don't have to walk to get to the exercise areas or whelping areas food storage areas etc.

So if we leave it as it is you have to have adequate staffing to cover it all but under these changes if someone has 25 dogs per one staff member this means they could possibly have 10 litters at a time - especially considering dogs come on heat together and most often get pregnant around the same time. That means that the business could literally have 100 dogs per one person to look after them if its a large breed with large litters. Ridiculous. How will this help the dogs?

[Jed]

Re age of stud dogs. Recommendations from England were that Cavs not be used for breeding until 5 years to give the best chance possible of them not having syringomyelia. + lots of show people will not stand their dogs until they have attained some show benchmark - so the dog will not be standing as a young dog.