Please try to be polite when answering. This is a genuine question.

How would you refer to a 'breeder' who has 5 young bitches (she got all of them through a rehoming website) , all of different breeds, who this person mates each bitch each time they come into season, and I mean, EACH time, twice a year, to any stud that she can get that lives near enough...not the same breed of the bitch in question, so they are cross or mixed breed puppies. She is quite proud of her achievements.

So, would she be classed as a 'commercial' breeder, 'hobby' breeder, 'back yard' breeder et.

Irresponsible, money grabbing, physically abusive (as in no regard for health and physical strain on dogs), back yard breeder.

No way that's a "hobby" and as for commercial I suppose that depends on if she declares all her income, since commercial infers business.

And yes it would be very easy to be impolite when describing such a person. Are the local council / dog warden aware of her activities?

I can't put what I really want to, because it's not polite!!
But..... I wonder why you ask? Is it because you plan to do something or just a question of definition?

I would call that back yard breeding or small scale puppy farming.

I have contacted her local council and they were not at all concerned. She is allowed 5 'breeding' bitches. Whether she declares her income is another matter. May be my next port of call.

I found her on Facebook. It popped up as a group I would possibly like to join so for curiosity sake I did and am shocked at what is going on. It is called Breeding Small Dogs At Home With Passion And Care. She set the site up. Not naming names, but she is one of the Admin and if you then click on her name it takes you to her personal Facebook and then you can also see details taking you to her personal breeding site.

Everyone on the first group I mentioned are jumping on the bandwagon asking how to breed their own little dogs, sharing studs etc. Most of the participants have no idea what is involved. Asking for help as they don't understand either the mating or whelping process. I am absolutely sickened.

She is also Admin on another Facebook group called ***********, which is where I think she collects her dogs from..Well, she brags that she rehomed the lot of them including at the time a six month old male 'stud' who she immediately studded to two girls who were in season at the time and then wondered why they didn't get pregnant, but hey she then pushed on and managed to get another two pregnant, one of which only had puppies six months before..grrrrrr

RozziRetreiver: Both, I wanted a definition and I planned to do something.

I'm not sure what you can do.

It looks like what she is doing is irresponsible, greedy, unkind, foolish and...perfectly legal.

You can try reporting to rspca but unless the animals are being kept poorly or mistreated (beyond the obvious overbreeding) they might not be able to do anything either.

Unfortunately, yes perfectly legal...unless she is not declaring her income?

Makes an absolute mockery of her group title!

I would certainly involve the tax office as it is highly unlikely she declares her income and they will investigate.
It would also be of interest to the benefits agency if she claims any sort of benefit. Hit her in the pocket, its the only way to do it.
Aileen

Oh wow, I see know why you were asking. She sounds appalling, and more so because she's encouraging others. I wish you luck with your endeavours, especially as the council seem unconcerned. Hopefully the tax office will see differently.

Every council has to publish a list of dog breeders with breeding licence. These are inspected by the council. The list is in the council like this.

Dog breeding licence

If you breed dogs in County Durham with the intention of selling them for profit then you will require a licence from us.

The legislation applies to all dog breeding, regardless of the number of litters per year.

Try looking it up to see what the rules are and then report again. the breeder will lie about the number of litters so some proof is a good idea.
The INLAND REVENUE was interested when I reported someone. The is a special reporting line
Louise

What are the licencing conditions for your areas? There should also be a stipulation on how many litters a person can breed in a year before requiring a licence which is normaly a max of 5 litters within a 12 month period. So if she is breeding back to back with the five girls she is likley going over that amount.
If you can gather proof that she is breeding enough to require a lience the council may issue a fine although they are more likley to just settle with her applying for a lience.

If she is allready licenced then if you can prove she is breeding a second litter within a year from her girls she is breaking the lience condition, as licenced breeders bitches must have a year's gap between litters. Although even if you do find proof of it alot will depend on how much your council are bothered with dog breeding.

Not my area but I did contact her area and asked if she had a license. They said no. Didn't need one for five bitches.

I also asked if she was registered for business 'Council Tax' as obviously running a business from home. They didn't think she was a 'commercial business'. In other words, they can't be bothered.

Might it be worth contacting the rescues she is getting the dogs from, and any others in the area to give them the heads up, personally I am surprised that rescues are homing unneutered dogs and bitches, most wont do that, not helping the situation. People make my blood boil

I call this type of breeder a Greeder. The tax office may well be interested in her income from her greeding and maybe the local DSS office.

Actually Teigan, You would probably be amazed to hear that the rest of the admins from that rehoming group are also involved. Reading down over the past months they have allowed their own dogs to be used as studs. They are all great friends. Contacting them brings nothing other than angry comments and told to stop bothering them.

So is she only getting her animals from that site, I thought it was local rescue centres, still might be worth giving any individual local organisations the heads up, to stop one source of income for her and limit her resources, I really cant put what I want to call these people, cause it would never be allowed to be left on the site, I could ahhhhhh words fail me, well printable ones do

our local licensing laws, not number of bitches, but number of litters, so may well be worth pursuing, they are likely thinking one litter per year when they are told 5 bitches, but clearly this is not the case:

A licence is required for keeping a breeding establishment for dogs under the Breeding Dogs Act 1973 and 1991 and the Breeding and Sale of Dogs (Welfare) Act 1999. A person will be presumed to be carrying on the business of breeding of dogs for sale where during any twelve month period five or more litters are born to his/her bitches which are:

kept by him/her at any premises during any period of 12 months
kept by any relative of his/hers at those premises
kept by him/her elsewhere and
kept by any person under a breeding arrangement with him/her

BYBing of the WORST KIND.   I would contact your local Council, Environmental Control, the RSPCA although don't hold your breath that they will come out without a TV crew/camera around and so on.    I'd like to know (or probably not) what will happen to these poor bitches when they come to the end of their viable breeding life.   And as for any stud dog owner who is involved - they are 50% as responsible (if that's the right word) for what their dogs are involved in producing.

Sadly all we can probably do about this disgusting set up is try to educate the public so that any demand there might be, goes.   This is part of the down side of living in a 'free society'.   Much as you might hope she is contravening some local Bylaw so gets shut down.   And the comment about 5 breeding bitches being different to 5 breeding bitches producing 2 litters a yar = 10 litters!!

The Kennel Club should be concerned about this, but of course they are really only interested in collecting fees - and in their defence, looking after purebred dogs.

And then there's the question of what she's declaring on her Income Tax Returns.

Add -   She got them through a rehoming website.   WHY IN THE BLUE BLAZES WEREN'T THEY SPAYED BEFORE BEING REHOMED.  That should have prevented any of this.   And I can't believe if they came from different rehoming places, not one of them was spayed?

Well she certainly should have a breeding licence as producing more than 4 litters a year, she automatically qualifies to the legal term as commercial.

Morally she is the worst kind of breeder, breeding from rescues.

Large Scale Commercial Back Yard breeder.

Worth reporting to the Tax office as even if this is her sole income she may well be over tax threshold, even after her expenses.

As a commercial breeder it is against the law (Breeding and Sale of Dogs Welfare Act) for a bitch to have a litter in less than 12 months from the last or under a year old or more than 6 litters.

How anyone proves that the bitches are overbred is anyone's guess, as they aren't registered.

That's the trouble with laws that can't be policed and aren't enforced.

> which is normaly a max of 5 litters within a 12 month period.

It's now 4 litters when a License is required (wasn't aware of that change), and may be fewer if the LA define commercial at a lower level.

As soon as a fourth litter is bred in any 12 month period the person automatically has to have  a licence and comply with the Breeding and Sale of dogs Welfare Act. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1999/11/section/7
"he shall be treated as carrying on a business of breeding dogs for sale at the premises throughout the period if a total of four or more other litters is born during the period to bitches falling within subsection (4) of this section."

> should have a breeding licence as producing more than 4 litters a year,

Correction seems they have reduced the number of litters needed for licensing to 4.

Breeding and Sale of dogs Welfare Act. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1999/11/section/7
"he shall be treated as carrying on a business of breeding dogs for sale at the premises throughout the period if a total of four or more other litters is born during the period to bitches falling within subsection (4) of this section."

Repling to myself, think it may still be FIVE as re-reading the legaleese

"........if a total of four or more other litters is born during the period to bitches falling within subsection (4) of this section."

I came across this on another website I happened to be browsing -

"Council License Information

A local council issued dog breeding license is required for anyone who keeps a breeding establishment for dogs which meets the following conditions :

    England and Scotland - If in a 12 month period their dogs give birth to 5 litters or more.
    Wales - If in a 12 month period their dogs give birth to 3 litters or more.
    A license may also be required even if the person doesn't meet the above criteria but if the local authority believes that the person is breeding for commercial gain."

I wish Licence had been spelt correctly!!   A LicenCe - noun.   To LicenSe - verb.

I'm flabbergasted and appalled.. surely re homing centres usually say neutering the dogs being re homed.  To encourage others to breed will nilly any cross any dog utterly stupid and irresponsible.  Trading standards/local mp/rspca/all rescue centres/tax/council all should be emailed/written to and advised of this practise

just a thought the homing website could be anyone of number that rant linked to rescues. Often the animals are being rehomed direct form the owner with no one else involved therefore neutering would not necessarily be done. Have look through ones like preloved or homes for pets for example its nothing to do with rescues

Yeah I always read it as 4 litters need a lience but was told it was past 4 need a lience by a few people, so who knows.
But they changed it now in Wales any way, it's now if you have 3 or more breeding bitches (any unneutered bitch over 6 months old) and -
Breeds 3 or more litters with in 12 months
Advertises a puppy from 3 or more litters within 12 momths
Supplies puppies from 3 or more litters with in 12 months

Which does make me wonder does that mean is someone here had 2 bitches and bred every season so produced 4 litter a year would they not need a lience as they don't have 3 or more breeding bitches?

Yes,  and of course how can a bitch be a breeding bitch until she is bred from or at least be old enoghbto breed from by KC or breed club rules,  which for my breed is two.

At least that is better than just the number of bitches,  also need to breed three litters in a year which seems reasonable.

The law (the Breeding and Sale of Dogs (Welfare) Act) stipulates that anyone breeding 5 or more litters (of whatever breed/type) in a 12 month period requires a council licence. No bitch may have more than a single litter in any 12 month period. Local councils are allowed to make the rule stricter in their own area, but they cannot make it more relaxed than national law.

I'd guess by classing a breeding bitch as over 6 months would prevent someone breeding bitches on their first heat then getting rid of them before they hit a higher age and officially count as breeding bitches which you could do if a breeding bitch was classed as say over a year or over 2 years.
It's a shame there would be people out there who would try it.

but according to the law registered breeders can't have litters from bitches under a year and KC rules are same.

At the moment I have three entire bitches, youngest still a Junior, but until a bitch is proven she can't be a breeding bitch and that probably won't be until she is Three.

I spay all my bitches after last litter, but in breeds where coats are awful after spaying people may keep quite a number of entire bitches, that aren't breeding bitches, maybe breeding once in a blue moon, mainly showing.

So I am glad that the Welsh rules haven't reverted to the three bitches being the definition, but three or more bitches and more than three litters.

Exactly so a licenced breeder wouldn't be able to breed their girls at 6 months anyway, but by classing a 6 month girl who could be due in season any day as a breeding bitch it stops someone having at least three of them and breeding them all because as soon as they breed the third one they need a lience which would prevent them doing it to any more girls under a year old. Other wise I could imagin puppy farms and crappy breeders using it to get out of having a licence by breeding girls at 6 months then getting rid of them if they wernt classed as breeding bitches.

Yes so glad it's breeding bitches and litters rather than just breeding bitches. I know a friend was worried when it was first announced as she has multiple girls but she doesn't breed them all. Other wise alot of people would be forced to neuter and neuter pets early to not end up needing a lience to keep their girls. This way you could have 5 intact girls but if you don't breed more than 2 litters in 12 months you wouldn't need a lience.