Dogs are amazing: cuddly companions, snuggling up to us on a night, greeting us with enthusiasm every time we enter the home – even if we were only two minutes while we put the bins out. Furry friends, not judging our awful decisions or fashion sense and forgiving us for our mistakes. Peaceful pals who never say nasty things to people or behind their backs. Dogs are so well tuned into us, they can be trained to guide visually-impaired people, alert people who are about to have an epileptic fit and intuitively protects us from danger.
Most of us spoil our dogs rotten. Our gorgeous girl has the best quality raw feed, carefully chosen natural shampoo and conditioner which is free from parabens and sulphates and a tailor-made dressing gown for after her baths. (I don’t have any of the above for myself!) I even pick up her poos for her. Really, she’s a puppy princess and I’m just her devoted servant!
I have always been concerned with animal welfare and sadly aware of the need for charities such as the RSPCA to fight animal cruelty. During the pandemic, there was a huge glut of people wanting dogs. Respectable breeders, as always were careful who they were sending the puppies to and limited the amount of times the dogs could have puppies according to both the legal and moral law.
However, puppy farms (sometimes called puppy mills), began raking the money in. The exhausted females were bred repeatedly whilst being fed low quality food, and kept in dirty cages or crowded pens. Puppies were given no toys or socialising and certainly no medical care. Even the stud dogs didn’t have it easy as not only do the puppy farmers not want to “waste” money on good quality food, they also don’t want to “waste” time on exercising their dogs and they definitely never show them any affection – quite the opposite. Many breeding dogs on puppy farms never see the light of day. The mother dogs often have the puppies removed too early causing extreme distress as well as health problems for the mothers and the puppies. But what do the puppy farmers care? They are making lots of money and that is all that matters to them. If a dog dies, they’ll get another one (often somebody’s stolen pet!)
When our beloved goldendoodle, Monty died last year, at just three years old, we were as devastated as if he had been a human member of our family rather than a furry one. There’s little difference. The sad irony was, that when I’m upset, I snuggle into my dog, but I had no dog to snuggle into while I wept for him. My only comfort was knowing that he had the best three years any dog could ever wish for. I would much rather he had three perfect fun-filled years living with his doting family, than twelve years of utterly cruel, puppy-farm torture.
Frequently, I donate to local animal charities, but I wanted to do something more. I wanted everyone to be aware of puppy farms. Not only of the cruelty to the helpless animals held captive there, but also the high risk of the poor puppy having a variety of medical conditions which at best cost money and at worst cause death. So I wrote a children’s story to highlight their plight: “The Boy Who Dared” Three boys stumble across a cruel puppy farm. Foolishly, they try to rescue the puppies themselves, but of course the types of people who run puppy farms, are not the types of people young children should cross. Things go terribly wrong and the boys find themselves in extreme danger, having to dig deep inside themselves to find the wit and courage to survive.
It is my belief that most people would not willingly support cruel, criminal puppy farms. Sadly, the public’s ignorance allows these criminal gangs to be able to continually profit from their heartless enterprises. Therefore, I hope that when children read “The Boy Who Dared”, as well as enjoying the exciting adventure, they will also be gently alerted to the sad state of countless puppies and breeding dogs, resulting in the readers never accidentally supporting a puppy farm themselves.
I hope you and your children enjoy my book which can be ordered from any online or physical bookshop and is stocked on the shelf at a fabulous indie bookshop: The Book Dragon in Stockton.
You can read my interviews with two reputable puppy breeders here and here.
If you would like advice on how to buy a puppy safely without accidentally supporting a cruel criminal puppy farm, the RSPCA gives some valuable information here.