Last year there was a report about an irish puppy farm which had an outbreak of brucellousis. Does anyone have any details or links for me please?

I typed into google "brucellosis outbreak in ireland"

It brings up a link to an article in dogmagazine.net

Unfortunately the link won't open.  There is a short bit you can read on the search though.  It would have made headlines because there is still brucellosis in cattle in ireland, whereas we have all but eradicated it in england.

It's why all animals from ireland are compulsory tested if being imported to england.

http://www.wormsandgermsblog.com/2009/05/articles/animals/dogs/canine-brucellosis-in-a-puppy-mill/

Is this it??

Is this the one ? http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0504/1224245893011.html

Dublin SPCA Supporters have a post about in on there facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=64625716296&ref=ts&_fb_noscript=1

Polly, there was something not kosher about the whole affair. It was John Boland again and the USPCA was involved which was dodgy enough as they have no jurisdiction here but the ISPCA distanced themselves from the DSPCA about it and there was lots of in-fighting. I spoke with several Department sources and was told all the test results came back negative.

I had heard there was in fighting, but I only really wanted to know how many breeding bitches were supposed to be there.

A guy who used to deliver dogfood there told me 700 breeding bitches last year August.

700, and reputable breeders are pilloried for perhaps breeding half  that many single pups in their lifetime (40 plus years) in dogs!

That's just Boland sr - I do not know how many Boland jr has.

I just saw this thread by chance and Googled John Boland...what I've read just makes me cry. How is it that a human being can't see that this is a moral and ethical crime on every level, and why can't legislators stop this?

John Bolland Senior and junior work out of the same place to the best of my knowledge. Polly, please contact me.

No, Pat, they don't ;).

> why can't legislators stop this?

One reason they come up with is that it is trade and there are laws against restricting trade! They do not consider it important enough to get worried about as in their eyes 'they are only dogs'.

It is a shame that our friend who joined last week has not been reading the posts this week - this matter is something that she and her friends should get their teeth into!

Hi Lokis Mum,

I wrote to her to tell her that she should come back and read this thread. So if she comes back redirect her please.

She admitted to me that she had had no idea about people like the Bolands, so I think it just goes to show people jump to conclusions, and not everyone actually researches things. They prefer to jump in with mis-information or not all the information.

Have just joined the Stop John Boland and Ireland's Largest Puppy Farm facebook group.How can anone get away with what he has done?
I expect most of you have seen this video-but for anyone who hasn't-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akKoolN44ZE

Hi Polly, I don't doubt what you are saying for a minute but if that what the legislators say that's patently ridiculous. This may be a stupid question, but of it's all about "free trade," what's stopping someone raising dogs for fur or meat and exporting them to markets around the world?

Hi, Can you please pm me with the two addresses as I only have the one of the outbreak of brucellosis which I thought that was in both their ownership and control. Thank you.

Sorry but I do not know who you are. Why do you want the address?

Dogs have to be bred somewhere that guy says, (on the RTE youtube video) yes in homes, so they are suited to go to other homes as family companions, not farmed, no matter how well looked after in livestock terms, they are not the same as farm livestock bred for the table or to live in a field, like he was farming before BSE.

> Dogs have to be bred somewhere that guy says, (on the RTE youtube video) yes in homes, so they are suited to go to other homes as family companions, not farmed, no matter how well looked after in livestock terms

ANY ANIMAL destined to be a household pet that will live in a home - whether rat, rabbit, hamster, mouse, dog, cat - which will be owned & handled & treasured & adored and hopefully live a long healthy life with a family - needs to have been born and raised on HOME PREMISES, not in a commercial breeding warehouse or large scale enterprise.

Animals are not products.

Sad to say this is the way it is going - even hamsters, rabbits rats etc are being 'farmed' to supply the demand of chain pet stores. Their social needs are no different to dogs & cats. All need socialisation of some kind... and all should come from a home based establishment. All need careful good breeding to exclude genetic issues and attention to temperament.

No surprise that the majority of small animals in rescue are not from caring private breeders or show breeders - but are mass-bred factory-farmed 'products' from mainstream outlets, or indiscriminately bred by back yarders. Anyone see a mirror there re types of dogs that come into rescue?

Anyone see a mirror there re types of dogs that come into rescue?

And that is one of my reservations about taking on another rescue dog :-( I wouldn't buy a puppy from a puppy farmer or BYB and taking on a rescue who originally came from one would be supporting those outlets. I currently have 2 rescue dogs but my next dog will not be another rescue.

> This may be a stupid question, but of it's all about "free trade," what's stopping someone raising dogs for fur or meat and exporting them to markets around the world?

Nothing. It could be done, but in the UK it would not be considered acceptable. So it would attract a lot of attention from animal rights activists and puppy farms want to carry on their nasty trade in peace, they don't want animal rights people stopping what is a very lucrative trade in sickly pups.

Animals rights folk target farms where animals are bred for laboratories, and never think of targetting puppy farms. The puppy farmers know this and prefer to keep a low profile. If they were breeding for fur or meat then they know they would attract the attention of the animals rights campaigners. Breeding for meat or fur would have stricter legulation so the dogs would while living be better cared for. Puppy farm dogs are not cared for in the same way their lives are lived out mostly in awful conditions and they have no life, no socialisation and when no longer able to breed the lucky ones find their way into rescue and the unlucky ones are as somebody else said on here bashed on the head until dead.

I thought fur production in the uk was banned around 2002ish?

Actually you are right. I had forgotten. My thoughts are elsewhere today.

But if the law changed back there would be nothing to stop them, but the main thrust of my point was that animals rights folk would not target puppy farms but they would target farms breeding for laboratories and I can't see why they do not target puppy farms as they have less restrictions than a farm breeding lab animals.

I wouldn't buy a puppy from a puppy farmer or BYB and taking on a rescue who originally came from one would be supporting those outlets.

I agree and understand you completely with my mind, but my heart says that these dogs do not deserve to be refused because of where they came from, they did not ask to be born. I would never buy directly from a puppy farm, but feel that the poor dogs born into this life still need all the love and TLC as much as a dog born with a reputable breeder. IMO it is not the dogs that should be penalised it is the puppy farmers that should be prosecuted

> IMO it is not the dogs that should be penalised it is the puppy farmers that should be prosecuted

I would agree, my daughters dog started life in a puppy farm and he is the sweetest little dog. He has had his health problems but he tries hard to please and has even been trained for work which he loves.

I agree and understand you completely with my mind, but my heart says that these dogs do not deserve to be refused because of where they came from, they did not ask to be born. I would never buy directly from a puppy farm, but feel that the poor dogs born into this life still need all the love and TLC as much as a dog born with a reputable breeder. IMO it is not the dogs that should be penalised it is the puppy farmers that should be prosecuted

I too understand your point of view but where does one draw the line. If rescues keep mopping up the overspill from the puppy farmers, the breeding bitches that are no longer of use to them and the badly socialised or unhealthy dogs that came from these farmers then they will keep churning them out because they really do not care what happens to the pups once the money has been handed over or the dogs are too old to be profitable. I believe every dog has the right to a good, caring, responsible home but  every puppy farmed dog taken in by rescues just makes more room for the PFs to fill the space with another dog and so it goes on in a never ending cycle.

I hate to see the conditions these dogs live in and the life style they have to endure - but each one passed on to a rescue just means another poor dog is going to take it's place. Perhaps by not taking these dogs some other future generations will be spared that ordeal.

>Perhaps by not taking these dogs some other future generations will be spared that ordeal.

It's very hard on the emotions, but 'never rescue a puppy-farm bitch' is no different to 'never buy a puppy-farmed puppy'. If the PFs can offload their surplus on rescues then it's easier for them to carry on causing dogs to suffer, and the well-meaning rescues are facilitating them.

Boland does NOT give his worn out bitches to rescue, he simply pts's them. So it doesnt seem to make a difference whether or not a rescue takes the worn out ones or not.

I would never buy a puppy farm puppy, but I would consider taking an ex breeding bitch from many tears or the like. I don't think of that as supporting the puppy farmer at all as the pf doesn't care a jot about the bitch once she's past breeding. It's as easy, if not easier, for him to hit said bitch over the head with a shovel as it is to drop her off at a rescue. If he doesn't care about the future of the bitch then it's not making it easier for him to continue by rehoming the bitch - the only one it helps in my opinion is the bitch herself. If pfs didn't get a new bitch because they hadn't rehomed their old ones then that would be a very different story, but of course this isn't what happens. If rescues didn't take these bitches they would be killed, and probably not by a caring vet :-(  Either way it wouldn't affect the pf at all.

And as long as the pf doesn't profit from the bitch being re-homed (no-one pays for the ex breeders), then that is one less potential puppy sale as they have rescued the bitch instead.

Buying the puppies, which then end in rescue is adding to the problem.

I had a very close friend who moved to Ireland - Roscommon - for a few years, then moved back to England. When he came back he brought with him Milly - a liver GSP, rescued from an Irish puppy farm, where she had been used as a breeding machine for who knows how many litters?

What a beautiful and loving dog but so incredibly submissive, and scared of her own shadow. At first she would gorge herself on food if allowed - even accidentally. This was brought under control by free-feeding her constantly with little bits in her bowl 24/7 so that she eventually knew food was always there and not something given on an irregular basis to be gobbled up immediately.

She also had terrible SA at first and was ridiculously nervous of Real Life. I thoroughly enjoyed taking her out for walks when I had the chance, and socialising her... she & I had some lovely walks into shopping centres and we found some shops that would allow her in. Other shops she learned to wait outside when I just went through the door and came out straight away. She eventually learned to love the seafront and not be scared of the waves. Once we met a rather strange man on the beach, who for some reason took off his wristwatch and threw it into the sea.... Milly dived in and retrieved it.

Slowly and slowly - we are talking years not months here - she became a real dog. Milly and my friend eventually emigrated to Spain, where she basked in the sunshine and had a laid-back life unimaginable and so different from her life at the puppy farm. When my friend met an untimely death three years ago I offered to take her on, but she had already found people in Spain who would care for her in the same way my friend had, and could give her the life she deserved.

Please forgive me I get very bitter when discussing puppy farms, but this is a copy of a post I made on a different topic when discussing how they get rid of past their sell by date bitches, but it is a reason why we need to work to get rid of puppy farmers.
"The usual way is to bash them over the head with a lump of wood and throw them into a hole in the ground. A few years ago the RSPCA managed to close down an illegal breeder (puppy farmer) for cruelty not too far from where I lived, he moved house to the sticks in Scotland where he is doing the same thing again. The new owner of the house, on digging the garden found dogs skeletons buried all around the garden. Some adults and some pups, all the adults had had their skulls bashed in. I think that just about says it all, and without a doubt he is doing the same thing again in Scotland"

That's my point, pfs don't care at all about their dogs, once one is past breeding it will be disposed of, rescues taking on these bitches are only helping the bitches, they are often accused of aiding pfs to continue their vile trade, but I disagree strongly.

If they hand over any money to whoever supplies them with these poor dogs then they're directly funding them. If the animals are in poor condition when they come in, and each one isn't reported under the AWA, then they're condoning the trade. Are the rescues that seem to have a permanent supply of ex-puppy farm dogs continually pestering their local council to have the perpetrators' licences revoked - they've got all the evidence they need to bring a prosecution for cruelty? If not, why not?

Probably because they are afraid if they did so then all the ex breeders would be killed and the evidence buried.

A risk worth taking if the authorities really were interested in applying the law and closing them down.

I might be leaning myself out of the window BUT ickle ex puppyfarm breeding bitches are SO much easier to rehome than other dogs. So I think a certain dependence is established right there and then.

Edited to add: I do not know how Boland kills his worn out bitches but I somehow doubt that its done in a humane manner as that would cost money.