Breeder Cleared Of Puppy Farm Allegations

[Boronia]

Interesting on both the pup-owners and breeders point of view.

The website and facebook pages are not complimentary

http://www.gympietim...ations/2271723/

Breeder cleared of puppy farm allegations

28th May 2014 6:00 AM

A GYMPIE dog breeder accused of running a puppy factory at Chatsworth has been cleared of any wrongdoing by the RSPCA and State Government, but told by Gympie Regional Council to reduce the number of dogs on his property.

Peter Dykstra, the owner of Sandown Alaskan Malamutes, said yesterday he had been the victim of a vicious campaign of lies and threats that had taken a heavy toll on him and his wife.

Once he had reduced the number of malamutes to comply with council approval, he would quit dog breeding, he said.

"They (the campaigners) are driving us crazy and my wife is at the point of a nervous breakdown."

Mr Dykstra has been accused of breeding genetically flawed dogs, of having too many dogs on his property and of not looking after them properly.

The campaign against him has been run by a small group of former customers, led by Andrew Urquhart, who has also lodged a complaint with the Ombudsman about the council's slow response to investigate the matter.

Mr Urquhart launched a website called End Sandown Puppy Farm and a Facebook page entitled Enforce Your Own Local Laws and Shut Down Sandown Puppy Farm, which has so far attracted more than 5130 signatures.

He says about 100 other owners of Sandown dogs have approached him since the start of his campaign, all with varying degrees of health problems.

Mr Dykstra has bred malamutes for 17 years and worked in animal husbandry for 50 years.

He is adamant that any health problems his dogs developed were caused by the owners not following his dietary instructions.

Mayor Ron Dyne said animal welfare and animal cruelty were not the jurisdiction of the council, but were "the responsibility of State Government departments or regulating bodies with jurisdiction to investigate these matters".

However, he said "this whole thing with the dogs does not sit easy with me" and he has asked his staff to keep a close eye on the issue.

Council officers inspected the Chatsworth property earlier this year and were welcomed by Mr Dykstra and allowed free access, Cr Dyne said.

They "found the kennels to be operating generally in accordance with the development approval with the exception of number of dogs housed," he said.

"The owner was issued a notice to show cause why an enforcement notice should not be issued as a means to rectify this point of non- compliance. Following consideration of the response to show cause notice council intends to issue the owner an enforcement notice to reduce the number of dogs to become compliant within six months and program monthly inspections to monitor."

RSPCA Queensland senior media advisor Michael Beatty said the RSPCA was "only too well aware of" the Sandown Malamutes issues.

"We have attended the facility and found no breaches of the Animal Care and Protection Act which covers such issues as overcrowding, shelter, feeding, adequate shade and water etc," Mr Beatty said. "Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry also attended and they came up with similar findings. However we're also aware that there is public concern over hereditary disease issues.

"I'm afraid that this does not come under our jurisdiction and there is nothing that we can do legally to address complaints of this nature."

Edited May 28, 2014 by Boronia

[*kirty*]

What were the health issues I wonder? Sounds like the care of the dogs was fine.

[*kirty*]

Most of the stories on the page are actually happy?

http://www.endsandown.com/

[DeltaCharlie]

Some of the main health issues people are talking about have no proven genetic link, or are caused by a variety of factors, environment included. I only scanned through and have no real opinion either way, but if there are this many unhappy people around, and people continue to buy dogs from him without researching and reading the complaints of others, then they have no right to complain themselves. Surely allowing the pups to leave at 6 weeks is a breach though, provided they are ANKC reg of course.

[Guest Ams]

Once he had reduced the number of malamutes to comply with council approval, he would quit dog breeding, he said.

Surely if he quit dog breeding now, the number of malamutes on his property would reduce quicker.

**disclaimer: I know nothing of this matter other than what I have read in this thread.**

[kelpiecuddles]

Surely if he quit dog breeding now, the number of malamutes on his property would reduce quicker.

Maybe he has bitch/es who are already pregnant or with pups on the ground

[Leah82]

Unfortunately many of the problems that people have reported were unlikely to be caused by illegal activity, it's not a legal requirement to do health testing or breed from genetically healthy parents (as far as I know).

As far as him saying the dog owners didn't follow the recommended diet, it's possible this is just a way for him to absolve himself of any responsibility. The 'recommended' diet could be worse that what most of the owners are feeding their dogs for all we know.

Here's hoping the rehomed breeders get desexed first.

[Guest Ams]

Surely if he quit dog breeding now, the number of malamutes on his property would reduce quicker.

Maybe he has bitch/es who are already pregnant or with pups on the ground

Good point. I didn't think of that.

[Lhok]

For a breeder not to have be a puppy farm that could continuely run an ad in the paper for weeks on months that stated that there were always pups available and transport wasn't an issue I would be wondering how that could be. This ad was in a Coffs Harbour newspaper and it was from the Gympie Sandown Mally breeder.

There has been people saying that they don't have purebred pups that their pups are actually mally x white shepherds and long lists of health problems. ABR have had run ins with them in the past too.

--Lhok

[Maddy]

What were the health issues I wonder? Sounds like the care of the dogs was fine.

Epilepsy came up frequently and from the number of dogs who suffered status epilepticus and died from it, I'd guess the epilepsy was fairly severe.

Epilepsy can be genetic and given the breeder was informed by numerous puppy buyers that it was coming up, he should have been doing something to prevent it, rather than just telling each puppy buyer that he'd never had an epileptic pup before.

[~Anne~]

Reading his comments in response to the FB page set up to 'expose' him, he seems very much in denial and blames epilepsy on vaccinations.

There certainly does seem to be an overepresentation of epilepsy and kidney issues if the stories are to be believed. Hopefully he looks in to the complaints with an open mind because he may have a problem in his breeding program. It can happen to anyone but if he is in denial, and there is an issue, that would be a worry.

Edited June 1, 2014 by ~Anne~

[Leah82]

So if he thinks epilepsy is cause by vaccinations does that mean he doesn't vaccinate his own dogs?!

Very concerning but still not illegal and there in-lies the the problem

Thankfully he's said he won't be breeding any more. Lets hope he sticks to his word and doesn't start back up again once the attention is off.

[Maddy]

Reading his comments in response to the FB page set up to 'expose' him, he seems very much in denial and blames epilepsy on vaccinations.

There certainly does seem to be an overepresentation of epilepsy and kidney issues if the stories are to be believed. Hopefully he looks in to the complaints with an open mind because he may have a problem in his breeding program. It can happen to anyone but if he is in denial, and there is an issue, that would be a worry.

What was the FB page called? I looked but couldn't find it.

[~Anne~]

This is the page that he commented on and that I made reference to above. I'm not sure that it is his page.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Giant-Alaskan-Malamute/133785840396

[Maddy]

This is the page that he commented on and that I made reference to above. I'm not sure that it is his page.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Giant-Alaskan-Malamute/133785840396

Thanks for that.

From reading his replies, it doesn't sound like he's accepting any blame.

I was curious so did a bit of googling and it seems the vet he's talking but (but whose name he got wrong) is quoted on a quacky homeopathy site as saying seizures post-vaccination (not epilepsy) were a rare to uncommon side effect of vaccination. Besides that, it seems they're focusing more on the rabies vaccine, which is not given as standard in Australia anyway.

Seems statistically unlikely that many of his dogs would just happen to have a rare or uncommon vaccine reaction. And a vaccine reaction is not the same thing as having epilepsy anyway.

I have absolutely zero sympathy for someone who would continue to knowing breed epileptic dogs. It's a horrible condition to live with