STOP PUPPY FARM PLANNING APPLICATION

We, the undersigned, understand that planning application W/25841 has been made for a puppy farm with around 100 breeding female dogs.  We would urge you and even beg you to refuse this application. 
 
The reason this should be stopped are as follows.


  1.     The dogs are kept locked up in kennels all the time without adequate exercise or social stimulation.
 2.     The physical problems of repeated breeding and birth are often ignored in the drive to produce more puppies and make more profit.
 3.     Adequate veterinary care is very often lacking as it is costly and most breeders think they have the knowledge to recognise and deal with problems when they do not.
 4.     The mental problems and anguish caused to the breed bitches is immeasurable.  We may think they are “just dogs”, however recent research shows they have emotions, they feel happiness and sadness, and among other things, suffer loneliness and mourn the loss of friends and pups taken away too early.
 5.     Puppies from these “farms” in most cases have behavioural problems.  Research shows pups develop best if left with the mom until 9 to 10 weeks old.  Puppy farm pups will often end up in a pet shop window or offered for private sale at around 6 weeks.  These pups develop behaviour problems and many have to be euthanized due to poor socialisation, lack of social skills and fear aggression.
 6.     There are simply not enough homes for the dogs in the UK at present.  There is no room or need for more pups to be produced.
7. According to Welsh legislation on puppy installations there should be one person per 20 dogs - according to information there are only 2 part time staff and owner to deal with well over 100 dogs at this establishment, not counting the number of puppies bred.
 8    Finally, if the above reasons are not enough for you and your colleagues, please just take a few hours and phone every dog rescue within 100 miles of your location.  Ask them how many spaces they have to take in unwanted dogs.  Ask them how many dogs they have to destroy every week/month/year.  Ask they if in their experience and knowledge of rescue dogs they think a puppy farm is needed which will produce 600 dogs a year (100 bitches x 6 pups per litter average) into the public domain. 

We know that you only deal with objections on a planning issue but without access to the full application it is impossible to check if planning laws are being adhered to in this application considering the licence has been granted some years ago. The application on line only gives the site and description of proposal. As the description states "Retention of former Agricultural Outbuildings as Dog Breeding Kennels" it would appear that as no previous planning application was made the "kennels" would only be fit for agricultural means, in this case sheep. One would assume that building regulations would be different in both cases i.e. stricter regulations for dogs. 

Also the applicant gave misleading information when applying for the licence with regard to hazardous waste which needs to be disposed of correctly so it would follow that the "kennels" have NOT been modified to comply with building regulations. 

There is also a welfare problem from keeping breeding sheep with breeding dogs - as certain diseases can be transmitted from sheep to dogs especially if the dogs are housed where sheep had been  kept e.g. Pancreatitis which causes abortion. If there are only the two part-time employees and the owner to work the farm and kennels there is likely to be further health problems for humans and animals.
 
We know you must deal with many potentially more serious things in your duties.  However please take a moment to reflect on this particular application not only  the pain and suffering it will cause to the a) the breeding bitches kept in unsanitary and isolated conditions, b) the pups who will be transported and treated as a commodity, c) the future owners who have to see a loved animal be destroyed or rehomed due to behaviour problems and d) the rescue organisations who will have to pick up the pieces and destroy the animals but also on the planning and health issues. 

If the planning officers deem it appropriate to recommend the application to the committee we would ask the planning committee to defer this application until a later date so that all  the objection issues can be investigated.

Thank you for your time and consideration.