Irresponsible pet breeding is rising & supply now outweighs demand
Animal welfare charity Blue Cross writes following an appearance this week before the Environment Committee discussing domestic pet welfare.
Unscrupulous and overbreeding is putting pressure on animal welfare charities' services and we need something to be done urgently.
The pet market is already saturated. The number of irresponsible breeders is growing and supply is far outweighing demand.
Currently, the threshold for licensing litters is set to five or more a year. Defra has suggested it would be keen to lower the threshold to three, but we believe restrictions need to go much further.
Unlicensed breeders are a particular problem in Britain. Blue Cross would like to see a registration system for anyone breeding a dog, from large scale commercial operations to much smaller scale back street breeders.
We believe this would help to drive up standards and promote a more responsible culture at a time when breeding to produce extra income is becoming an increasing attractive prospect.
Online sales
No matter what we want to buy, the first port of call for most of us these days is the internet. We can buy everything we want at the click of a mouse and pets are no exception. Research shows that a new dog is listed for sale online at least every 30 seconds.
The Pet Animals Act 1951, which governs the sale of pets, was written long before the advent of the internet and it fails to make direct reference to online sales.
While the government has announced it is looking to amend this legislation, we believe it should be absolutely clear that anyone selling animals online should fall under the same regulatory regime as dog breeders and those selling from pet shops.
We helped introduce the PAAG minimum standards for the sale of pets on classified websites in 2013, and during the moderation period, over 100,000 illegal or unethical adverts were removed from the sites that signed up.
Although the standards have made a difference in their current form they are voluntary and are therefore limited in their effectiveness. We would like to see legislation to ensure that the PAAG minimum standards have to be applied by all websites. Currently we have concerns that the bad adverts moving off of the engaged sites are going onto the non-engaged sites.
We would like to see greater transparency from sellers and would recommend that a registration system is established for anyone wishing to sell an animal with a number that can be displayed on an online advert. This would give the consumer greater access to information on the seller and provide some traceability.
Keeping track
We believe that there needs to be a centralised database which holds details of all premises both online and offline in the business of selling animals. This would allow for greater collaboration between local authorities and would also provide more transparency and allow for intelligence sharing which could improve consistency nationally.
Any centralised database would have to be developed in partnership with all stakeholders and with local authorities to ensure it is fit for purpose, and Defra would be best placed to manage this.
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