Puppymillers - As big a problem in Australia/Europe?

[DogPaddle]

OK, so I was on another board and they had this thread locked because they were discussing millers etc and the Mod locked it because she thought discussion MIGHT get heated. But someone claimed that they just don't have puppymillers in Australia and the rest of the participants seemed to then decide that millers and bybers are a North American problem. Can anyone help me out here, is this true at all?

[kendalyn]

Well, didn't Kat just rescue some dogs from a puppy mill in N. Ireland?

[Malamum]

Unfortunately here in Australia we do also have the problem of puppy mills and back yard breeders.

Maybe not to the extent that you guys in the US and Canada do, but I believe it's relative to population.

Our population is 19 million where as the population of the US is 291 million so of course there are going to more puppy mills in the US than there are in Australia but that's not to say we don't have them.

[Aroura]

Well I haven't seen anything on the news here about puppy mills as such, but there are definatly alot of ignorant people who breed alot of poorly bred dogs and pump them out to the pet shops for profit. Not saying that puppy mills don't exist here, but I haven't come across one yet - though I do live in an area where the pet shop doesn't stock dogs and the population isn't big enough to support a major puppy mill. Mandatory chipping is probably also a major deterant for millers.

Either ways there should be laws requiring licences to breed dogs, and an education of breeding and dog care before these licences are handed out.

[bk_blue]

Oh hell yeah it is a problem here. As Malamum said it's relative to population size. Puppies are sold at flea markets, pet shops, puppy farms/commercial breeders (eg. ACA Breeders, who our favourite gardener allegedly co-owns)... plus all the BYBs...have a look in the trading post (www.tradingpost.com.au) and see how many hundreds of ads there are for purebred puppies, "no papers", or the various poo crosses which are SO fashionable right now and selling for hundred$... for chrissake we had puppies almost as a dinner item not too long ago, and only much public outrage caused Victoria to ban the consumption of cats and dogs. Anyone who says puppymillers aren't a "problem" in Australia needs their head read. :x

[imported_nea]

Here in Sweden there isn't a big problem. Of course there are tons of ignorant, greedy people who breed for money and all. But there are virtually no strays, and only about 400 dogs pass through the 1 shelter a year. And most of them are runaways who get reunited with their owners, and for the ones that aren't runaways they get new homes. I think I read on the shelter's page that there are more people wanting to adopt then there are dogs... :D

If you have more than 3 litters a year you need a special permit, and I doubt that puppymills would get one.

I frequently look at ads for dogs and I haven't seen that many for poo mixes. Here GSD/rottweiler and GSD/Lab mixes seem to be the popular "fashion breeds" or whatever they can be called. :x

[pei obssessed]

I've lived most of my life in Romania, and I don't know that there are any puppy mills there. But there are a lot of irresponsible people breeding indiscriminately... for profit. And there are sooo many stray dogs (they don't even get picked up because they have no where to put them), and not too many people who own dogs in the cities (everything's been paved over by the communists, and everybody lives in little boxes, aka apartments so it's hard to keep a dog), that I don't imagine millers could make a profit. I know puppies are sold in pet shops, but they're probably getting them from BYB.