Don’t "Rescue" the puppy, REPORT THE BREEDER …….

This was posted on our forum.  I wanted to share it elsewhere as it’s a message that covers all breeds.  It’s slightly upsetting, so don’t read on if your easily upset..

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Now as I finally close my eyes, I no longer hear the pitiful whining and smell the over powering stench of death and decay, which had surrounded me for the past three and a half years, for I am finally free. My name is Freya and this is my story.

My Life had started with so much promise. I was one of five and to begin with my two sisters and two brothers and I only knew one thing, the warmth of our mother’s body and the gentle caress of her tongue. But all too quickly this safe time was over, as one by one people came and took away my brothers and sisters. I was the last to go as I had always kept quiet and hid from these people, but eventually I could hide no longer.

I was taken from my mother at six and a half weeks old. My new people were all excited and there were so many of them. Adults and children would all cuddle and play with me, coo over me and show me to all who came to their house. At first I was allowed to bite on everything including shoes and bits of furniture, but very soon they started to hit me and when I bit back they hit me again and put me in a cage they had in the corner of the room. After a couple of months of this roller coaster of play and confinement things started to change. Very soon the play stopped all together and all I got was a push here and a get down there, a leave it or and bad dog followed by a smack.

Then one day I could take no more, I snapped back. After the beating came the confinement, the long lonely confinement. The only attention I got was to be let out into the smelly dirty back yard to relieve myself and to be given a bit of food or when back in my cage, a smack on top of the cage to try to stop me howling and crying for company. Then everything changed, I was five months old when some strangers came to the house and I was presented to them and they took me away. I was put into their car and we spent several hours travelling away from my living hell. The sounds and the smells of the place I had come from were fading as new ones hit my senses. Strange sounds and smells of what I was later to learn were called the countryside.

Eventually we stopped as we had arrived at a new place. I was taken out of the car and placed in a pen along with three others of my kind. At first I kept my distance, but eventually one of the strangers came over and sniffed me. At first I was frozen to the spot not knowing what to do as, apart from my litter mates, I had never met any other dogs. Her name was Kya.

Very soon my past was forgotten as the days turned to weeks and I was left with my new friends Kya, Sophie and Jayla. We were allowed to run and play and didn’t have anything to do with people except when they brought us food and water and cleaned our pen.

I had just turned 9 months old when I first became aware of Titus. I had noticed him when I first arrived but as he was in a different pen had never made any sort of contact. My mother had told me to be wary of the big males and so I had always avoided showing any interest in him or any other dogs in the other pens. Now though something was compelling me to look at him. Then everything changed, I was taken from my pen and my new found friends and put into a shed. And there he was standing tall and strong waiting for me. All the warnings my mother had given me were forgotten and all though I was scared I was drawn inextricably to him. Everything happened very quickly at first but once we were together then we were locked together for what seemed like forever. And then he was gone.

I was then taken from the shed and put back with my friends who all were very excited to hear what had happened and were very jealous of Titus having chosen me over them. But over the next few weeks I noticed a change coming over me. My friends became a constant irritant to me and I just wanted to be on my own.

6 weeks after my encounter with Titus my world changed once more. I was taken from my friends for the last time and was never to see them again. I was taken into a large barn where the stench of other dogs of all types was over powering. I was placed in a very small stall type room with one very high up window and just some mouldy straw on the grubby floor and a water bowl in the corner. All I could hear was whining and barking and the scrabbling of claws on the doors and walls all around me. But at last I was away from all the others and could be alone, which although the room and all its noises and smells repulsed me, gave me the peace I had longed for.

Then it happened, something that made everything else melt away. Along came five helpless little blind and naked babies, my five little babies. Five little lives that needed me, just me, and how I loved them, the taste of their fur when I licked them, the feel of their noses pressing against my belly in their search for milk, they were everything to me and their very existence made this moment in my life bearable.

But after only 6 weeks they took my babies away and my world collapsed. I was left for weeks in my prison with no one to love and nothing to do. I saw no one and just pined for my little ones.

Then three to four months after my babies left me I had my first contact with another dog. It was Titus and again it was very brief and then back to my prison. And the whole oh so brief pleasure of my babies returned, and this is how it continued for two and half more years, I had my babies to love and nurture, then they were taken from me, then the loneliness and the despair, then the brief encounter with Titus and my babies returned and then the despair again. Each time the loneliness grew and the despair eventually turned to depression and I lost all feeling for this world that had held so much promise not so many years ago.

Even when a new dog came to serve me in place of Titus I no longer cared. But this time when my babies came they were as lifeless as my heart. In spite of my best efforts with my tongue and nuzzles from my nose nothing happened, for they were born without life. I didn’t even care anymore, I should have cared, of course I should have cared but I had nothing left in me to give. A person came and took away my lifeless babies and left me with nothing, but I didn’t care anymore.

Three days later something happened to stir me from my state of depression. Noises lots of noises, shouting and crashing and banging, people lots of people, strangers with a strange smell, it was the smell of hope. Finally someone came into my prison and crouched down beside me, and stroked me and whispered softly to me. I was dreaming, I had to be and I was sure I would wake up any minute to find my nightmare of a life continuing, but I didn’t and I wasn’t, it was really happening. I was gently lifted into a van and it smelt good. I was free at last.

What was the reason for my punishment and my incarceration, simple, I was born a blue eyed Siberian Husky. What should have been a blessing, turned out in my case to be a curse.

My History, I was bought as a “spur of the moment must have one of those” purchases at six and a half weeks old from a Back Yard Breeder for £250.
Got rid of as a nuisance at 5 months of age for £50 to a puppy farmer.
6 litters (28 living and 5 dead puppies later)
I am rescued, if I had not been then I would have been shot as I was “worn out” in breeding terms.

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Did you know that one fifth of people who bought a puppy in the past two years no longer have their dog? It’s a really sad fact and ends up with more dogs needing re-homing. (From the RSPCA’s own web site.)

– Most bitches will be bred from their first season onwards, whether they are physically mature or not.
– No Health checks for hereditary diseases are done and very little medical care including wormers are administered during her life. She will also get no annual inoculations against Parvo etc.
– Once she has had 5 or six litters back to back she is worn out and disposed of either by shooting or dumping in a welfare rescue centre.
– More often than not the puppies are removed from the bitch at 6 weeks of age and moved on, either via a broker or directly to “puppy outlets”.
– Often the puppies will be put with a “Nice” looking female who will be passed off as the mother.
– Most of the breeding dogs will come through internet “unwanted” sites or people getting rid of unwanted dogs unneutered. In fact many of the puppies which originally came from a puppy farm will end back there as the next breeding animal.

So by feeling sorry for the puppy and buying it to “save” or “rescue” it people are condemning the mother to more misery.

If people want to help these dogs then they must act by reporting the breeders. Whether they are Back Yard Breeders or Puppy Farms please don’t just save the puppy, the mother needs help as well.

In fact it could be argued that the puppies are more often than not the lucky ones, as long as they are not diseased and baring any hereditary problems, for they get to live a full and active life. And hopefully they are in general being bought by caring people who actually want a dog and are not simply acting on a must have “a puppy now” whim.

So, if any one is considering a new puppy and finds when they visit the breeder, they have any reason to be concerned at all about anything they see, they must walk away and report the breeder. This way the authorities can see the problem and help all the animals involved. By all means say to them that when the dogs are rescued that you will take a puppy or even the mother, but please do not just help the puppy.