PUPPY FARMING
A primary concern of the Kennel Club is for the welfare of all breeding bitches
and puppies whether they are produced by large or small breeders, as its
mission statement is ‘to promote in every way the general improvement of
dogs’. To this end, the Kennel Club is committed to doing everything it can to
help stamp out puppy farming and our Assured Breeder Scheme is key to
this.
The Kennel Club established its Assured Breeder Scheme in 2004, in order to
help potential puppy buyers to differentiate between responsible and
irresponsible breeders and to encourage better breeding practice. There are
now around 9,000 members of the Assured Breeder Scheme who agree to
follow Kennel Club guidelines for breeding and selling their puppies and put
the health and welfare of their puppies first and foremost.
By registering breeders under the scheme, we are able to ensure that
Assured Breeders abide by certain conditions and can remove those whose
standards are found to be wanting.
By contrast, the Kennel Club’s puppy registration system is a record of births
only. The Kennel Club has no statutory powers and is not a law enforcement
agency; local authorities and the RSPCA are charged with the task of
monitoring and taking action against unscrupulous breeders. However, should
there be a conviction under the Animal Welfare Act against a breeder, then
this is a legitimate ground for scrutiny under the Kennel Club’s disciplinary
procedure and to consider disqualification from future registration.
Breeders who breed five or more litters a year normally require a breeding
licence from their local authority, and in order to continue registering puppies
with the Kennel Club, anyone seeking to register five or more litters in a single
year is asked to provide a copy of their licence. The Kennel Club will also be
entitled to ask for a licence from those individuals who collectively register
more than five litters a year from a single address.
SEC/IS15
Issue 4
Mar 2013
The Kennel Club has a limit on the number of litters which may be registered
from a single bitch. It will not normally register any more than four litters from
any bitch unless there is good and justifiable reason for breeding a further
litter and such applications are assessed on a case by case basis. The
Kennel Club’s four litter limit is lower than the legal limit of six litters.
It is important to remember that puppy farmers tend to operate under the
radar and choose not to register their litters with the Kennel Club. In fact, the
vast majority of those who register with the Kennel Club breed in small
numbers – often no more than one litter a year. Only two percent breed more
than five litters per annum and within that number there is a tiny minority of
volume breeders which includes Guide Dogs for the Blind, who are
responsible and caring.
The Kennel Club’s definition of a puppy farmer is not necessarily a volume
breeder but any breeder who does not care about the health and welfare of
their puppies, and that is why the Kennel Club’s plea to all prospective buyers
is to buy from an Assured Breeder. Kennel Club Assured Breeders have to
abide by certain rules and regulations, to ensure their puppies are as healthy
and happy as they can be.
Currently the only way to control breeders is by licensing through statute (via
local authorities), which already exists, but only covers a certain percentage of
breeders, or voluntarily via the Assured Breeder Scheme. We want all
responsible breeders to join the KC Assured Breeder Scheme – so the Kennel
Club can check and enforce best breeding practices, and for all buyers to find
their puppies from members of the scheme.
The Kennel Club, as the secretariat of the Puppy Farming Study Group, is at
the forefront of moves to try and end the complex and harmful business of
puppy farming. The Kennel Club has also called on the government to make
the standards and principles of the KC Assured Breeder Scheme mandatory
for breeders of ALL dogs throughout the country.
SEC/IS15
Issue 4
Mar 2013