Progress: NSW Takes Steps to Limit Puppy Farming
Australia continues to take steps towards shutting down commercial dog breeders. The New South Wales parliament has passed legislation to restrict puppy farms!
Puppy farms are cruel and should have no place in Australia. Thankfully, they are on their way out. Similar laws have already been introduced in Victoria, Western Australia, and Queensland, and a bill in South Australia is currently making its way through the parliamentary process. Puppy farms use mother dogs as breeding machines until their bodies break down, confine them without socialisation or adequate veterinary care, and churn out hundreds of thousands of puppies every year into a world already bursting at the seams with homeless animals.
When NSW commenced its consultation on the issue in 2022, PETA rallied our supporters to help point out how the current framework regulating dog breeders in the state is clearly not sufficient to protect animals. While the government didn’t adopt all of PETA’s suggestions, the new rules will mandate some minimum standards for all dog breeders, including mandatory breeder identification, lifetime breeding limits, staff-to-dog carer ratios, a mandatory code of practice, advertising rules, and penalties.
This is progress. As pointed out by the Animal Justice Party, up until now it has been legal to set up a breeding facility in NSW with hundreds of dogs and force mother dogs to pump out litter after litter.
There’s still a long way to go. Breeders will be able to have a maximum of 20 female adult dogs per facility, and there are some exemptions for current puppy farms. With so many unwanted dogs in animal shelters, the breeding and selling of any animals for the pet trade is grossly irresponsible. The best way to help suffering dogs is to adopt through a local animal shelter or a rescue group.
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