Australia's Puppy Export Shame

[BoxerB]

IT IS being called "Australia's new live export scandal".

Australian puppy farmers are making thousands of dollars selling dogs to pet shops in Singapore, where they are forced to live in squalor and confinement, a CLEO Magazine investigation has found.

Animal welfare group Oscar's Law recently travelled to Singapore to witness the shocking treatment of Australian puppies, some of which are just eight weeks old.

Debra Tranter, the group's founder, explained how the lucrative puppy trade works.

"The puppies sitting in Singapore pet shops have started their lives in a puppy factory in Australia," Ms Tranter said.

"At a very young age they are taken from their mother and transported for hours, sometimes days, and when they're finally removed from their transport crate they are put on display in a glass box or cage and their price tag is $4000-$8000."

Singaporeans are told the puppies are from "top bloodlines in Australia". The dogs can sit in these cages for months, and if they aren't sold, they are eventually placed in Singaporean puppy factories where conditions, Ms Tranter says, are "simply atrocious".

"We caught glimpses inside these factories - wire floor cages stacked on top of one another where the sound of dogs is deafening - dogs spinning in circles as a cage, either in Australia or Singapore, is all they have ever known," she said.

Australian puppy factories are often no better. CLEO writer Rosie Squires investigated the puppy trade in Australia, visiting a housing commission property in western Sydney with the Animal Welfare League.

"We arrived at a house overrun with dogs," Ms Squires said. "The woman told us she was going to sell at least 10 puppies online for $650 each."

The Australian puppy trade is woefully underregulated. As long as a breeder offers dogs access to food, water and shelter, they fit regulation, Animal Welfare League officer Ian Hughes told CLEO.

Local breeders, like the woman in western Sydney, are selling puppies to members of the Australian public on websites like Gumtree and pups4sale.

"The problem is, more and more people are looking to make money selling dogs online," Ms Squires said.

"An unsuspecting customer has no idea what conditions the cute puppy from the website is actually living in."

Whether puppies are being sold to Australians or Singaporeans, the customers don't realise where they have come from, Ms Tranter argues.

"The industry relies on the cute appearance of puppies to make a sale and they don't want the public to see the reality of how they are bred," Ms Tranter said.

"The entire trade is based on consumer fraud, cruelty and lies, from the Australian puppy factories, the broker, the pet shops, the online trading sites, the transport companies who send puppies in bulk weekly around Australia or to overseas pet shops," she said.

"A blind eye is turned every step of the way, the trade in puppies is business and there's plenty of money to be made."

Read the full story in the October issue of CLEO Magazine, hitting stands today.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/national-news/australian-puppy-farmers-making-thousands-selling-puppies-to-squalid-pet-shops-in-singapore/story-fncynjr2-1226719828869#ixzz2f15J2xlN

[Aphra]

A Cleo magazine investigation? Really?

[Pjrt]

A Cleo magazine investigation? Really?

I thought that too! .....but it may highlight the issue to a whole new bunch of people, so maybe not entirely without merit!

[BoxerB]

I don't get it? If the article is correct and is highlighting a problem, why does it matter where it came from?

Or are you guys saying that the article is wrong?

[minimax]

Oscars Law are spending their donations well, I see, with overseas trips.

[Aphra]

CLEO aren't known for their investigative reporting, unless it's a comparison of willy size.

Australian puppy farms do export puppies overseas and there are puppy farms in Singapore, both of those things have been known for a long time. What Oscar's Law intends to do about it, or why they're raising the issue now in particular I have no idea about.

I don't get it? If the article is correct and is highlighting a problem, why does it matter where it came from?

Or are you guys saying that the article is wrong?

[SkySoaringMagpie]

A Cleo magazine investigation? Really?

I thought that too! .....but it may highlight the issue to a whole new bunch of people, so maybe not entirely without merit!

I would not be surprised if the demographic who buy Cleo are also buying these sorts of puppy farmed dogs. So perhaps not so much an investigation by Cleo and more a targeted supply of material by Oscar's Law et al to Cleo to try and open a few eyes about where their handbag dogs come from?

I am no fan of Oscar's Law or their methods but we can't defend a trade in misery either. There are other ways to make money and it doesn't just stop at Asia, a good proportion of unwanted dogs in the Middle East come from Asian puppy farms or Asian puppy farm stock - this poor dog for instance (warning - graphic content):

https://www.facebook.com/HuskyTeddyWantsToSurviveBahrain

Please not I am not saying "don't sell to Asian people" I am saying that trading in farmed companion animals to Asia is a shitty thing to be involved in.

[mita]

Australian puppy farms do export puppies overseas and there are puppy farms in Singapore, both of those things have been known for a long time. What Oscar's Law intends to do about it, or why they're raising the issue now in particular I have no idea about.

I looked at the Singapore end. Seems their pet shops have to be licensed & there's regulations. Mentions fact that some pets will have been imported... and the regulations require documents to be kept citing source, medical history etc. And that information is to be available to buyers:

Not saying that makes export of puppies fine.

http://www.ava.gov.sg/NR/rdonlyres/06750190-5386-4241-A289-B7F5ABB61D4E/23377/1DogsCats_2013.pdf

Bit of trivia.... seems Staffies are among the breeds that can't be sold.

Edited September 16, 2013 by mita

[Ranger00]

A Cleo magazine investigation? Really?

I thought that too! .....but it may highlight the issue to a whole new bunch of people, so maybe not entirely without merit!

I would not be surprised if the demographic who buy Cleo are also buying these sorts of puppy farmed dogs. So perhaps not so much an investigation by Cleo and more a targeted supply of material by Oscar's Law et al to Cleo to try and open a few eyes about where their handbag dogs come from?

I am no fan of Oscar's Law or their methods but we can't defend a trade in misery either. There are other ways to make money and it doesn't just stop at Asia, a good proportion of unwanted dogs in the Middle East come from Asian puppy farms or Asian puppy farm stock - this poor dog for instance (warning - graphic content):

https://www.facebook.com/HuskyTeddyWantsToSurviveBahrain

Please not I am not saying "don't sell to Asian people" I am saying that trading in farmed companion animals to Asia is a shitty thing to be involved in.

Hi - excuse my ignorance, but may I ask why you aren't a fan of Oscars Law? Genuinely interested. I really don't know that much about them (I guess that's why I don't know why you aren't a fan! :) ) but I thought essentially they were a group against backyard breeders/puppy farms/pet shops selling puppies & kittens etc?

[Linda K]

OL may say that publicly, but they have no clear law they have in mind, just they want an "end to puppy farms" without any real definition of what exactly is a puppy farm, and seem to spend more time sensationalising things, such as this article shows. Tranter also doesn't mention that the dog she now exploits as her main publicity machine (Oscar, who gets dragged everywhere), was in fact stolen by her initially. What they really mean is that just like the laws being agitated for in the US< groups like her are not actually against puppy or kitten sales online or in pet shops, what they are in fact quite OK with is if these puppies or kittens are from "rescues", but no one else is allowed to sell through these resources. Just look at how they plug going to petrescue.com. an online site for rescue groups to advertise pets for sae, yet they are not OK with breeders using their own online sales as a means of selling?

Clever marketing by OL to try to get even further into the pysche without ever actually defining what is their law

[mita]

This news article about the OL investigation in Singapore, has the heading 'squalid pet shops'. No pics are given showing squalid conditions. Only refers to 'glass'. Nothing is said about the comprehensive regulations required of Singapore pet stores (previous post). Singapore tends to be strict on any laws, so I don't see how their pet stores could be 'squalid'.

But one thing mentioned by OL, is that puppies left unsold in the Singapore pet stores, go into poor conditions in puppy 'farms'.

Given Singapore is an island, there'd be not much space. I searched & couldn't find any laws/regulations about the breeding of dogs in Singapore (maybe there are, but can't find them).

It seems this might be the basic beef that OL has with a possible fate of Australian puppies. Finishing up in puppy 'farms' that are cramped & not regulated. Fair to say, more information is required about that.

http://www.news.com.au/national-news/australian-puppy-farmers-making-thousands-selling-puppies-to-squalid-pet-shops-in-singapore/story-fncynjr2-1226719828869

Edited September 16, 2013 by mita

[mita]

Found some additional information about puppy 'mills' in Singapore. Seems there's a campaign against such places, by Singaporeans themselves. Info on link. Gives news that an operator of such a place was fined. Also mentions that the Singapore AVA is introducing some controls.

http://www.catwelfare.org/node/3973

So, even tho' there may well be a problem facing unsold puppies from Australia, it's not fair to write Singapore off, entirely, as a place with 'squalid' pet shops.... nor where the people & the authorities don't care.

[SkySoaringMagpie]

Hi - excuse my ignorance, but may I ask why you aren't a fan of Oscars Law? Genuinely interested. I really don't know that much about them (I guess that's why I don't know why you aren't a fan! :) ) but I thought essentially they were a group against backyard breeders/puppy farms/pet shops selling puppies & kittens etc?

Aphra posted this in the thread about the Victorian Collie breeder, and it sums up perfectly what my issue is with them:

http://www.dolforums.com.au/topic/251252-long-wait-80-charges/page__view__findpost__p__6277641

They talk about a law for Oscar, but they are not very hot on obeying existing laws around theft and trespass

[Steve]

Where are the export stats to back this up? Last time we looked at this only a couple of thousand dogs were exported per annum to all countries and that includes people who take them overseas to their new homes and Singapore dont let them in at 8 weeks anyway do they? Ive a friend who is sending a pup to Singapore this week and it wasn't able to travel until it had two vaccinations and was over 12 weeks. Seriously who is going to pay at least a couple of thousand dollars Aus to get a puppy over there - just the flight is over a thousand dollars and then treat it as if its worthless? Not very good business managers that's for sure.

[mita]

I've been trying to find documented numbers. Herald-Sun report in 2011 stated they'd got numbers from Singapore's AVA & that more than 1,300 dogs were imported from Australia in the past year. I don't know if and how that number breaks down. Like, into direct private purchases, or pedigree dogs to be registered with the Singapore Kennel Club.

Does seem quite a number, tho'. And Singaporeans themselves (& their AVA) are concerned about puppy their own puppy farms. Reasonable to investigate if there's any connection with imported Australian puppies . Also seems the issue's been raised before.... & in relation to other countries in Asia or the Indian sub-continent:

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/fury-at-fate-of-export-pups/story-e6frf7jo-1226093380757

[Steve]

So if they are sending puppies that dont sell to puppy farms to make more puppies why do they need to buy ours? Surely by now they would have their own supply?

[mita]

I said it's reasonable to investigate if there's any connections between unsold Australian-imported puppies & Singaporean puppy farms. In other words, provide some evidence if it's so. Can't just say there is.

The Singaporean authorities certainly have comprehensive and stringent conditions around the importing of puppies. As you said, Steve. The AVA has one page on Pets- Personal. There's another on Pets -Commercial.

http://www.ava.gov.sg/AnimalsPetSector/ImportExportTransOfAnimalRelatedPrd/PetsPersonal/

Edited September 16, 2013 by mita

[Steve]

Many of those dogs going to Singapore would be via registered breeders being placed with families or show homes and those moving there. Ive never sold one to Singapore but we have about half a dozen who have come in from Singapore as smart Dog Owner club members over the last 6 months as puppy buyers from our Aussie members - without exception all of their dogs are desexed. We have gotten to know them and they send us news and updates and They are every bit as into loving their dogs and treating them like children as any Aussie.

Fact is it may be a problem - it wouldn't be the first time an overseas pet shop exported Aussie puppies en Masse' [McDougall Hawaii] but Id want independent info rather than believe anything OL is involved in.

[Steve]

I said it's reasonable to investigate if there's any connections between unsold Australian-imported puppies & Singaporean puppy farms. In other words, provide some evidence if it's so. Can't just say there is.

The Singaporean authorities certainly have comprehensive and stringent conditions around the importing of puppies. As you said, Steve. The AVA has one page on Pets- Personal. There's another on Pets -Commercial.

http://www.ava.gov.s...d/PetsPersonal/

Yes I can see what you said now I didnt before I posted - thanks

[WreckitWhippet]

I stopped reading when I got to the Oscar's Law bit, as anything written by, investigated or sanctioned by them is bullturd