Oscar's Law: why you shouldn't buy a puppy from a shop window

Mahatma Gandhi once said “One can measure the greatness and the moral progress of a nation by looking at how it treats its animals”. By those standards, we most certainly have a very long way to go.

To the unknowing eye, one would never suspect the horrific start to life Oscar has had. Just as, to the unknowing eye, one would never suspect the appalling places the cute little furballs in your local pet shop have come from. Oscar was rescued from a Central Victorian puppy farm by Debra Tranter. Malnourished, in constant agony and terrified, Tranter provided vet treatment for Oscar only to have authorities raid her home days later and return him to the hell he thought he had escaped. After an agonising 18 months, Tranter was able to finally take Oscar home for good. Now Oscar has become the poster boy for a campaign to

educate the public and eradicate puppy factories. Since being launched, the Oscar’s Law facebook page has had over 19,000 likes and thousands have gathered for rally’s around the country. Celebrities including Sia, Jon Stevens, Jessica Mauboy and Kate Ceberano have come forward in support of the campaign and the recent infomercial has almost immediately gone viral. After 5 years on 2 puppy factories, Oscar is finally safe, but there are thousands more Oscars out there who still desperately need our help.

Puppy factories and backyard breeders are commercial breeding facilities, supplying animals to pet shops or selling them online or through classified ads.

I sincerely wish I could say that this whole thing is all an exaggeration, or at least only happening somewhere far far away, but it is not. This is happening right here in Australia, in your local community.

The RSPCA believes that an animals welfare should be considered in terms of the Five Freedoms – freedom from hunger and thirst, freedom from discomfort, freedom from pain, injury or disease, freedom to express normal behaviour and freedom from fear and distress. Puppy factories, as a matter of course, deprive their “breeding stock” of these freedoms. These are companion animals, kept in tiny, filthy cages, receiving no vet care and often very little food and water. Some of these dogs survive years of repeated breeding, an endless cycle of litter after litter after litter, and then die only metres from where they were born without ever having seen the sunlight or felt grass under their feet. Nearly all are in constant  pain of some sort –  eye and ear infections, abscesses, gum disease, dental problems, prolapsed uteruses. They endure this until they are no longer able to breed and then they are killed. When Oscar was rescued, he was in so much pain from his horribly matted fur he had to be put under general anesthetic to be shaved. He was so severely matted that Tranter described his fur as feeling like concrete, and when he was shaved his weight dropped from 2.2kg to just 1.6kg.

Over the last 20 years Debra Tranter has been involved in investigating many puppy factories and has first hand seen the terror. “Unspeakable cruelty goes on in these sheds, and once you’ve seen it, you can’t un-see it.” The psychological torment and perpetual anxiety, which sees the dogs constantly pace and circle in their small pens. Anyone who has ever owned a dog will tell you that they live to love their owners, but these imprisoned souls receive no exercise, no freedom, no comfort or affection. Even for the lucky ones who manage to escape, the outside world is a terrifying place and some are not able to fully recover from the torture they have endured. “When you look in the cages it’s as though they’re screaming at you” Debra says, “Not just with their bark, but with their eyes. But it’s the ones who don’t bark – they’re the ones you know have been there for years. They don’t even move. Their spirits are broken”.

Tranter and fellow animal activist Trish Burke, founder of Pets Haven, have recently been charged with theft after they removed dogs from a puppy factory. These puppies were brain damaged from starvation and dying, and in footage seen on the 7pm project (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_87EozIdXE), in desperate need of vet care. Tranter’s desperate sobs and screams for Burke when she discovers them are haunting, as are the images of the tiny puppies weaving back and forth, unable to even stand by themselves. After notifying police and RSPCA that they could no longer wait to get these animals treatment, Tranter and Burke took them to a vet where they were deemed too far injured to survive and euthanised. The breeder of these dogs has had no charges brought against him.

“But aren’t there laws against this kind of treatment of animals?” I hear you cry. Certainly, current legislation requires an animal to have adequate shelter, food and water and access to vet care, but when there’s no-one to be held accountable to and only mild consequences, it doesn’t make that much of a difference. In September 2010 members of Oscars Law took footage of a legal puppy factory which had 200 dogs and no staff.

The owner was found in breach of the code of practice. He received a 2 year good behaviour bond and his permit was revoked.  He did not receive a conviction or have to pay the RSPCA the costs of bringing the matter to court and is still operating with 100 dogs on his property. Tranter says “Many puppy factories are in rural areas. Often, the council ranger and the puppy farmer are mates. They drink at the same pub, their kids go to the same school. Not one puppy factory I have been to operates in accordance with the legislation, but there’s no-one out there enforcing it.”. The RSPCA simply does not have the resources to intervene in every case, which is why these places must be outlawed  Every time an unsuspecting consumer purchases an animal from a pet store, they enable and support this trade to continue. Never has the “Adopt, don’t shop” mantra become more important than now.

OSCAR’S LAW aims to:

– Abolish the mass production of dogs. Make factory farming of dogs illegal

– Ban the sale of factory farmed companion animals from pet shops, online and in print media

– Encourage people to adopt animals from shelters, pounds and rescue organisations

– Tell the Government to commence running a REAL campaign about true and responsible pet ownership

WHAT YOU CAN DO

GO TO oscarslaw.org to find out how you can be part of the solution and help us shut down puppy factories.

THE POWER IS IN OUR HANDS.