An open letter to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal

To whom it may concern, I was very disappointed to hear of your decision to allow the proposed puppy farm in Moorabool Shire. I find that puppy farms, no matter how "state of the art", are inhumane and unnecessary. There are many reasons that I believe this. First, the parents are often kept in sub-standard conditions. At best, they are treated as money makers and are not afforded the simple pleasure of spending their day with a human even though this is what dogs have been bred for over thousands of years. At worst the conditions can include over-breeding, lack of clean surroundings, lack of veterinary care, lack of fresh water, and lack of exercise. The lack of exercise and stimulation can literally drive a dog crazy to the point where it will lick itself until sores develop or will spin in circles for hours. It can also cause the dog to bark continually, and with 50 dogs on a property this would create quite a noise, even with the proposed tree buffer. Second, the puppies in puppy farms also lack the care that they require. A puppy has a socialization window up until it is about 12 weeks old. If it has not seen enough different sights and met enough different people and dogs by that age, it can be frightened for life. Being raised in a small kennel with little human contact and only contact of the mother and littermates is not condusive to raising well balanced puppies. Additionally, a large scale breeder has very little ability to ensure that the puppies end up in appropriate homes. Often they will sell the puppy on the internet or directly to a pet shop. In these cases, the new owner is often not taught what their role will be, which can cause undue strain and cost to the government and society as the puppies grow up to become biters, incessant barkers, or roaming dogs. These dogs and any of their subsequent puppies will then end up in the government run dog pounds and will cost taxpayer money to feed and, if no suitable new home is found, to be put down. The third reason that mass breeding kennels are inhumane is that there are so many unwanted animals in Australia already. At the RSPCA in Townsville QLD where I live, roughly 6 dogs and cats are put down each day for lack of homes. These unwanted animals at the RSPCAs and shelters across Australia should be given homes before anybody breeds more dogs on this large scale. Assuming that the recently proposed breeding kennel bred its 40 females only once every 18 months as the law requires, and that each litter had only 4 pups (which is a low estimate), this breeder alone would be breeding over 100 puppies per year, the equivalent of giving the unwanted animals in my town homes for over two weeks. Patterns of homeless animals are similar all over Australia and I would like to emphasize again the strain that this homeless animal problem causes on the government and on society. As you can see, eradicating puppy factories is truly an important issue and I thank you for taking the time to read my points and reconsider your stand on allowing the Attard puppy farm or any other consequent puppy farms from being built. Sincerely, Jacinta Hello! Is Vertigo here! Would like for to all people to also write to VCAT to say NO! So many puppies born into horrible life and to be sold into pet shops, is not the way!! If would like to support poor mummy and daddy doggies who do not get nice life with family, please give polite disapproval to: feedback@vcat.vic.gov.au Is not all bad! Moorabool shire say, NO! Do not want dogs to be taken advantage of in this way! But mean VCAT say yes instead. If would like to congratulate Moorabool councilators, please follow link here to get all e-mails. WOULD LIKE FOR TO HAVE OSCAR'S LAW PLEASE! For more info, please feel free to visit this Geelong Advertiser article, or this blog post written by Debra Tranter.