Last week in the Victorian town of Kerang a family faced court facing charges for some of the most woeful acts of animal neglect and cruelty ever seen in court in Australia.

Three members of the ironically named Peace family sat before court facing over 200 animal cruelty charges, and over one hundred council charges.

As the horrific cruelty charges were being read out in court Dean Peace sat with his head in his hands and his father John sat smiling and at times even laughing, All the while his mother Phyllis was wildly shaking her head at every charge as it was read out as if to deny each and every one of them, perhaps she had forgotten that she had already pleaded guilty to them all.

The 86 page charge sheet for the Pyramid Hill puppy factory reads like something from Dante’s inferno.

“…found to have an infected tailbase and prolapsed rectum… suffering from diarrhea which caused a rectal prolapse which ultimately led to faecal build up around the delicate tail…. Eventually causing the painful and traumatic amputation of the tail.”

The four-week old poodle described above was euthanised. One can only imagine the suffering involved when the acidity from the diarrhea and the rot from its chemical burning went deep enough and was left untreated long enough for to unfortunate creature to eventually have a limb drop off from it.

Lead inspector for the RSPCA, the greatly experienced Ali Jalbert stated:

“These were the most difficult circumstances I’ve worked under due to the sheer amount of suffering and psychological trauma.”

However it is not the scale or the suffering of these animals I wanted to go into today. Nor is it the $253,000 just in declared income over the last two years that I wanted to delve into. I certainly was seeking to avoid attempting a psychological profile on perhaps the most evil, depraved and ultimately sick family that comes to mind in recent memory.

If ever there was a case of animal cruelty that deserved jail sentences, this is it.

What I did want to talk about however is how this case highlights a glaring failure in the system and one that needs urgent correcting.

During breaks in proceedings outside court council rangers and compliance officers could be seen chatting and laughing while puffing on a cigarette. These are the people the public rely upon to police these matters.

The Peace’s Pyramid Hill puppy factory was issued a permit for domestic breeding by Loddon Shire Council in 1996.

So how long do you think it took for the council to do its first inspection? One year? Perhaps two? Maybe even stretch it to three?

Not quite. As mentioned the Peace’s received their permit in 1996, however did not have a council inspection for the rest on that century. Nor did they receive one in the first decade of the next century. It was in fact not until 2012 that council bothered to inspect the premises. Sixteen years after issuing the permit.

Bear in mind that dog registration is renewed every April, as is the councils breeding permit. Most would consider these renewals as a reminder and a convenient time to perform the required inspection, but alas this didn’t occur to officers at Loddon Shire Council the first 15 times. Dereliction of duty doesn’t seem to cut it in this instance.

There are many theories I’m sure for how these hideous places manage to operate and evade detection for so long, but the one I subscribe to is that the inspection process is less than perfect. Actually less than adequate or acceptable would be more apt, and this particular puppy factory is only one example in a long list.

The essential ingredient for a puppy factory is privacy. They are noisy and smelly places so it is imperative that neighbors are a reasonable distance away.

For this reason the vast majority of puppy farms are in rural areas.

The thing about many of these rural areas is that often they are the type of places where everyone knows each other.

This creates a situation where the council official who’s role it is to inspect the puppy factory possibly drinks at the same pub as its owner or may well have kids attending the same school. There is even the chance that the council employees family pet came from the puppy factory owner.

Given the likelihood of this is it any surprise that so many of these places fall between the cracks and only come to light after being exposed by animal activists?

The responsibility for the inspection of these sites needs to be stripped away from councils that have time after time shown themselves as incapable of acting in a way that is acceptable by community standards. These inspections need to be carried out by officials who have animal welfare at the top of mind rather than glorified revenue collectors who would rather be booking motorists for parking 10 minutes too long in the council car park.

This is precisely why funding should be redirected towards the RSPCA so that they can supply compliance officers to inspect premises in a regular, efficient, and most importantly effective manner.

With a parliamentary inquiry into puppy factories starting in NSW and legislation currently being worked on in Victoria I hope that this is a part of the problem that is being addressed.

It is also important to remember that while addressing this issue would be a great start it still only covers the puppy factory owners that are operating with a council permit. Unfortunately the vast majority of these ghastly paces operate without permits to escape inspections and the taxman alike. To tackle the issue of these factories the RSPCA need to be given greater powers of surveillance and investigation to adequately enforce the laws it is expected to police.

Until then the only thing the public can do is try and ensure that running a puppy factory is not financially viable by not supporting their customer base.

It’s not rocket science, if your local pet shop sells live animals, shop elsewhere. I don’t mean just for the purchase of animals I mean for everything, don’t even buy a collar or shampoo there.

It is also essential that when it comes to purchasing a pet we educate people to buy only from a registered breeder, not from a pet store or online. Either that or consider adopting one from your local pound or an animal rescue service.

Meanwhile until the government acts and the public wise up, animals will continue to suffer needlessly.

Tragically on an industrial scale.

 

 

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