Thought it might interest CDers to read the minutes from the latest meeting. Jemima Harrison was not present, but Victoria Stillwell flew over from the USA to attend.

http://www.apgaw.org/images/stories/6th_December_2011_Meeting_Minutes.pdf

I thought the reason KC didn't attend was because JH was supposed to be in attendance?

I think Passionate Productions were allowed to film the meeting.

If they filmed it, then at least we have read the minutes... I would guess they will say nothing is being done quick enough... but unless dog breeding was outlawed tomorrow [which may be in some extremists' agenda] then it really is not going to happen overnight.

I wasn't happy with the comment that a litter of puppies bred on the 14th floor of a block of flats could be less suitable as pets than those bred by a mass puppy farmer. If it is socialisation at the core there - it can't be health, surely? - then at least the flat-bred pups have had constant human attention which the farmed ones won't... tower block flats aren't farm acreages with outbuildings and staff living off site.

Somehow all this talk is missing the real denominator, and that is the human beings that own the dogs.... A knowledgeable and conscientious owner in a flat, who health tests and understands the breed, can and will breed more suitable dogs than the farmer who sticks a few dogs together and makes use of his outbuildings for business means.

.> A knowledgeable and conscientious owner in a flat, who health tests and understands the breed, can and will breed more suitable dogs than the farmer who sticks a few dogs together and makes use of his outbuildings for business means.

especially if the breed they are rearing are a toy breed rather than Great Danes.

Yes you are quite right there Barbara... It's all too general isn't it. About 25 yrs ago I visited someone who lived in a tower block in London for non-dog reasons and was astonished to see they had a litter of GSDs. Pups were in the living room in an enclosure. An adult dog was out on the balcony - 11 floors up, not sure if it was mum or another adult. I was shocked at the time, didn't know what to make of it, felt it wasn't  right.

It stuck with me and now I wonder about socialisation, but were they honestly as isolated as farmed dogs with 3 staff to 120 dogs, never been in a home, never seen a TV or heard a washing machine, never seen a blade of grass or a bird sing?

Neither situation is ideal but if pressed I would go in favour of the litter that had the most human contact from mating thru whelping thru weaning, and that may not be the farmed ones.

On the whole I think this could be a force for good but they seem, to me at least, slightly off course. On the one hand I can agree with the point that "show breeders" are the high profile ambassadors of breeds but at the same time many people (myself included until I started showing) have absolutely no idea there are any dog shows apart from Crufts or that show breeders exist.
It does seem there is the very real danger that all this work and effort will be undertaken focusing on "show breeders" to achieve minimum standards which many of us exceed already - because we represent an easy target as we have records, registrations etc - but the thousands of pups bred either intensively or with ignorance will slip through the net.
I wonder how the RSPCA would quantify " a lot" done to stop puppy farms? I suspect differently to how I would. I live in Kent and within an hour of here I know of three, all which have had reports against them with photos and all still operating.