More sad news http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-20441298

Although I dont know these people personally, they are just a couple of miles from me. My heart goes out to them. How absolutely awful. A warning to us all, I suppose as the heat lamp is probably the cause combined with the fact that it must have been too close to some combustible material!! I wonder what that was. Newspaper maybe? I dont know.

Poor things :-(, doesn't take away from the tragedy for the poor dogs, but I wonder if this was possibly a puppy farmer ?.

Well to be honest, this was my first thought but as eight were puppies and its the only breed?? I dont know if there are any other buildings. Another incident in our area was when a large number of dogs were stolen from a "kennels". the owner said he would have to close down as it had happened before and he was worried for the owners of the dogs he looked after.. It did add that he also kept dogs for breeding and named around eight different breeds. It wasnt the first time dogs had been stolen and It makes me think that someone was liberating these poor pooches.

why a puppy farmer? 12 dogs in total and 8 pups - doesn't add up to a puppy farmer to me!  A puppy farmer with one breed and only four of them?????

My heart goes out to them, they must be devasted.

As to puppy farmer then I suppose you might think the same for me. I have 4 dogs and when I breed I could have anything up to 15 pups in one litter (13 has been my most, but they didn't all survive birth) In 22 years of owning this breed I have only bred 5 litters.

Those poor dogs.

surley there must have been a fault with the lamp in that case or it fell or something, Where i work has heat lamps over some of the animals so there is wood shavings, shredded paper, bark chipps, hay ect under them. Most of them in the winter are on 24/7 and never has it gotten hot enought to cause any prolems.

Wasn't the numbers that made me think PF, more the reference to them being raised in a barn on a farm.