Dogs Dumped in Forest by Suspected Puppy Mill Operator
PETA is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to the identification and conviction of the person or persons who dumped eight dogs in Beerburrum West State Forest in Queensland over the past month.
The RSPCA is investigating the origin of the dogs – who were all poodle crossbreeds – and suspects they came from an illegal puppy mill.
The frightened dogs had worn all their teeth down to nubs, likely from chewing on cage bars.
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Dogs in puppy mills are kept in cramped, barren, filthy conditions. Female dogs are generally bred twice a year and are usually killed or abandoned – like the ones found in the forest – when they’re no longer able to produce puppies. Both the puppies and their mothers routinely suffer from malnutrition, exposure, and a lack of adequate veterinary care and socialisation.
Regardless of whether they have a licence to breed, puppy mills such as this – and the people who buy from them – contribute to the deaths of around 200,000 homeless dogs and cats who are euthanised in animal shelters every year.
– PETA Campaign Coordinator Claire Fryer
Choosing to buy an animal from a store or a breeder takes away a home from an animal in a shelter. Continual inbreeding of purebred dogs such as these poodles can also lead to a wide variety of genetic diseases.
Poodles commonly suffer from problems such as progressive vision loss, gastric displacement, diabetes, tracheal collapse, seizures, and brain malformations linked to sensory and processing difficulties.
