Carmarthenshire Council is currently considering whether to allow a farm near Llanllwni to keep running a dog breeding business.
Planning officers recommended that the business should go ahead as the plan complies with the Welsh Assembly’s goal to assist farms into diversification, as long as the farm is not home to more than 96 dogs at a time.
But I find the idea that the Assembly would support a dog breeding business extraordinary, given that, not very long ago, the Assembly released this press release, deploring so-called puppy farms.
In the release, Welsh leader Carwyn Jones said: “We will be bringing forward new legislation to ensure that irresponsible breeding in so called “puppy farms” is brought to an end.”
While every farmer needs to find innovative ways to make ends meet, dog breeding is not a long-term, sustainable business practice.
This is because dogs are certainly not in short supply. In fact, the UK’s dismal economic situation has created a crisis where dogs are being abandoned as people lose their jobs, homes, or are forced to change their working circumstances.
Anyone who wants a puppy can already visit one of hundreds of rescue centres across the UK. In Carmarthenshire, Many Tears, has hundreds of puppies and dogs looking for homes. Many of them are ‘ex-breeding dogs’ from breeding businesses that have tossed the dogs aside because they’re no longer needed. People looking for a puppy or dog should visit the Many Tears site first to see the vast number of dogs without homes.
If you don’t want a rescue dog, there are many people who operate small-scale breeding operations where an animal’s health and welfare come before profit.
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