By LYDIA ROBERTS
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RANGERS and animal welfare activists across Armidale say key recommendations from a state inquiry into puppy factories will help stop the cruel practice.
Northern Tablelands MP and chairman of the inquiry Adam Marshall delivered 34 recommendations from the inquiry yesterday.
The report was unanimously endorsed by companion animal committee members, which included government, opposition, independent and Animal Justice Party MPs.
“The Government has six months to consider and respond to our report and I am confident it will act,” Mr Marshall said yesterday.
A key recommendation is the introduction of a breeders’ licensing scheme.
This would consist of a database of breeders, spot inspections and set the number of animals kept by breeders.
The scheme would also mean breeders would have to include their identification details in any ads for selling animals. Such a scheme would ultimately lead to less dogs being impounded and would make it easier to close down non-compliant breeding establishments, the committee said.
Dogs Without Borders founder Judy Scrivener said such a recommendation was a “very strong step in the right direction” in protecting dogs against cruel practices such as puppy farms.
“But we had also recommended setting the number of breeding bitches per establishment at 10,” Ms Scrivener said.
Another recommendation
that drew praise from Armidale Dumaresq Council was the introduction of a single information portal for people to find information, register pets and report cruelty.
An Armidale Dumaresq Council spokeswoman said the recommendation to introduce a single information portal to find information, register pets and report cruelty would be a great initiative.
The inquiry was sparked in May after an expose of “puppy factories” across the state.
The inquiry received 344 submissions, including a petition containing 3000 signatures, and took evidence from 42 witnesses at three public hearings in July. Earlier this year The Express exposed a puppy “stud” which was home to 183 dogs, 70 of which were breeding bitches.