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NSW Farmers welcomes re-think on puppy farm laws

Sheep Central, April 18, 2018

NSW Farmers has welcomed confirmation that the position of working dogs on the state’s farms is protected, with the government’s decision to abandon additional regulation on dog breeders.

NSW Farmers’ Association said today it is pleased the government had listened to its concerns, with Minister for Primary Industries, Niall Blair, announcing it will start again on the development of new draft welfare standards and guidelines for dog breeders.

Mr Blair confirmed in a Radio 2GB interview today that the draft legislation aimed at cracking down on puppy factories by restricting the number of female dogs on a property would be scrapped.

NSW Farmers strongly opposed the draft regulations on the basis that they were not feasible for working dog breeders, and would have threatened farmers’ ability to access quality working dogs.

Chair of the NSW Farmers’ Animal Welfare Committee James Jackson said that is was a common sense decision to start again, as the draft regulations were completely inappropriate.

“These regulations are focused on community concerns with puppy farms. These concerns do not apply to working dogs and the Government must recognise the difference between working and companion dogs.

”The draft S&Gs were focused on regulating commercial puppy farm operations. As a result they placed overly bureaucratic requirements on breeders and would have forced working dog breeders to stop operating,” he said.

“We thank the Government for listening to our feedback on the unintended consequences on working dogs and farmers, and recognising the draft S&Gs were missing the mark.“

Mr Jackson said NSW Farmers will continue to push for working dogs to be exempt from further regulation.

“We will engage strongly in the new process to ensure that working dogs are exempt, consistent with the approach that has been taken in Victoria”.

Source: NSW Farmers.

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  1. Nicholas Ryan, April 18, 2018

    Why does this NSW Government keep taking advice from the animal liberationists? Their agenda is to stop pet and livestock ownership. When you see the vegans stopping stock trucks etc, thinking these people are mad, they are the very animal liberationists the government is listening to. The whole puppy farm issue is just an animal liberation beat up to try to stop companion animal breeding. It does not matter if someone has 20 bitches or one bitch; if they are cared for properly, that’s all that matters. So get the RSPCA and the council rangers to do their job properly and leave the good people alone. If someone is running a so-called cruel puppy farm, where animals are not looked after properly, they are already operating outside of the law and would not be paying taxes for the income and will not care what laws are brought in.
    The answer is not more legislation, but funding the RSPCA and rangers to investigate. If you see someone advertising dogs for sale or neighbours complaining about noise and smell, have a look and either advise how to improve if it’s not bad, or close up and prosecute the bad ones. The law is already in place as far as animal health and cruelty goes, so start using them before drawing up new ones.

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