35% of Exeter Dog Owners May Have Unintentionally Supported Organised Crime

An estimated 25% of UK puppies are mass farmed in appalling conditions, where the mother is forced to give birth to as many puppies as possible, as fast as she physically can.

They are taken away from the mother before the minimum recommended eight weeks, and kept in cramped cages, barely fed, never having human contact. The dogs can go on to develop health problems due to their upbringing, and may require significantly more care in later life. On average, dogs from puppy farms suffer from more frequent and worse health problems than responsibly bred dogs due to the conditions they’re raised in. One such disease they’re more vulnerable to is Parvovirus, which can cost up to four thousand pounds to treat.

Once the breeders have found a buyer or a place to sell the puppies, they’ll be herded into a car and driven wherever they need to go, often never being let out or given the care they need. Often breeders take more dogs than they need in case some don’t survive the trip. If a new TV show or movie features a specific cute breed of dog, demand for that dog will skyrocket. Breeders know this, and will breed as many of that dog as they can. Often they can’t sell all of the puppies, and the ones that don’t sell are abandoned.

A recent survey conducted by GoCompare found that more than a third (35%) of people in Exeter and the surrounding areas did not know what puppy farms were, or thought they were a good place to get a puppy, so would be unintentionally supporting organised crime by buying one.

There are dogs in 28% of homes in the South West, so that’s a staggering amount that may be coming from these horrible places. For more information, please visit http://www.gocompare.com/puppy-farming