0893a66da639560b4ef2aa919b48a472_resized.jpg
A picture on the property taken by Animal Liberation Victoria on Monday.


UPDATE 12.10pm: A SUSPECTED puppy farm in Beremboke is probably one of many operating in Victoria, say animal welfare advocates.

Moorabool Council will ask VCAT to force the closure of an alleged puppy farm in Beremboke.

It comes as photos taken by Animal Liberation Victoria during a raid on the property this week showed animals living in squalor.

>> PHOTOS: Animal Liberation Victoria’s pictures from the Beremboke property (Warning: Some may find images disturbing).
Animal Liberation raid on suspected puppy farm - Photos | Moorabool Leader

Owner Les Paxton last week applied to the council for a retrospective permit to keep 30 animals on his Marshalls Lane property, near Bacchus Marsh.

But a council report revealed officers had found 59 dogs and other livestock on the 19.28ha property, which abuts the Brisbane Ranges National Park.

Animal Liberation Victoria secretly visited the property Monday for about two hours and saw about 40 dogs, as well as 50 pigs, cows, horses and sheep.

ALV investigator Debra Tranter said the animals were kept in “disgusting” and “distressing” conditions.

She said the dogs were living amid faeces, and there was only “one water bottle for about 40 dogs”.

“It was pure filth,” she said. “There was rotting raw meat tossed into the pens that some of the dogs were chewing on.”

Ms Tranter claimed the property has been operating for eight years without a permit.

“I hope the authorities are embarrassed into action to get the dogs off the property,” Ms Tranter said.

Last week’s report to the council said photos taken during an inspection of the property on September 7 and 8 last year did “not reflect a good quality of life for the dogs”.

The photos were deemed so disturbing that the council’s planning department refused to show them publicly.

They showed dogs covered in their own faeces and crammed into five 1.8m-high dirty, wet pens, surrounded by rotting animal carcasses.

There was also no shelter to protect dogs from rain, wind or sun. Some dogs were tied up without shelter, including three tethered to derelict vehicles.

The report said it was clear that the dogs’ health and welfare were not checked daily and vets were not called to treat injured or sick dogs or vaccinate them against disease.

It said kangaroos had been shot to feed the dogs, but the owners did not have a permit to shoot kangaroos on the land.

RSPCA animal services manager Allie Jalbert said there were no breaches of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act when the authority visited the property in January last year.

But she said there were a number of intense puppy breeding establishments operating in rural Victoria.

“Because they’re operating in a rural area they’re often hard to discover unless there are complaints,” she said.

She said the Domestic Animals Act and breeding fell under councils’ jurisdiction.

But the RSPCA was “100 per cent opposed to the mass production of puppies”, she said.

Ms Tranter said the public was often unaware they were buying puppies raised in such conditions.

She said puppies were often sold through classifieds and the breeders would arrange to hand them over in a public place, such as a car park.

Ms Jalbert said the best way to stop the industry was to stop supporting it.

She said people should choose wisely from reputable breeders who were happy to show buyers the parents of the animals and where the puppies were bred.

She also encouraged people to adopt pets from local animal shelters

Three neighbours objected to Mr Paxton’s request for a permit, all complaining that dogs regularly escaped from the farm and attacked their poultry, livestock and wildlife.

Councillors voted to reject the retrospective permit and seek an enforcement order to stop the farm operating from VCAT.

East Moorabool ward Pat Griffin said the owners had told last week’s council meeting they loved their dogs and looked after them.

“But they weren’t very compelling,” he said.

Fellow councillor Allan Comrie said the council had knocked back the farm’s previous applications and had received complaints from neighbours for “quite some time”.

Leader is attempting to contact Mr Paxton.

>> More to come.

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Puppy Mills breed misery, boycott pet stores that sell puppies. Adopt! Don't Shop

aww them dogs look so so sad

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We can learn a lot from shelter dogs; for
example, no matter how much you have
been hurt in the past, there's someone who
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Opinions ain't facts, take them in and let them go.

They looks very uncomfortable.

What worries me is that this Man must have really thought the living conditions of these animals where appropriate or he would never have applied for licencing, who would knowing that these whre such poor living conditions? The world is going mad....all this education around on anmal health and wllbeing yet STILL we have people like this inthe world
Clare xx

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Staffy x Lab almost 10...Fizz
Ginger Tom 2 1/2...Tilly
Bichon x King charles spanel 1 yr 10 months
Latest addition Tex the black shep 11 1/2 years foster pooch
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RIP Dolly Sadly Passed away 7pm 6/3.2011

Not surprised to be honest, when will people stop buying from puppy farms
And Places that source their pups from the likes of them !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Shops that actually keep these breeder in business have licences to sell these pups. Certain shops will not tell you where they get their pups from...now, if that isnt telling you something, then what is !!!!!


Makes me sick.

I couldn't look at the pictures and I won't. Chicken, yes, but I can imagine what they look like. What's going to happen to all the dogs on the farm? Is he even going to get closed down? I bet all they'll do is say he can only have so many, and that he has to put a rain/wind cover up. In this day and age there is no excuse for treating animals this way. Screw that, there's -never- been an excuse to treat animals this way.
I hope those dogs get found nice homes, or at least fed properly.
x

out of interest, what is photo number 3 from the link of?

I think its a piece of kangaroo.

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I am just a worthless liar.
I am just an imbecile.
I will only complicate you.
Trust in me and fall as well.
I will find a center in you.
I will chew it up and leave,
I will work to elevate you
just enough to bring you down

This is discusting!!! Makes you feel sick to see this!!! What is picture 3? Couldnt make it out! Pet shops here arent allowed to sell puppys any more. Would never get a puppy from anywhere if I cant see the parents!!!

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Pet shops can sell puppies and kittens if they apply for the relevant licence.

There are even puppy superstores within the UK.

__________________

I am just a worthless liar.
I am just an imbecile.
I will only complicate you.
Trust in me and fall as well.
I will find a center in you.
I will chew it up and leave,
I will work to elevate you
just enough to bring you down