Please feel free to amend – the more personal, the better. However, if time is short we are grateful to you forsending as it is. If you would like to advise us you have sent the email, please do contact:
Dear (insert name of MP)
I am writing to you as you may be aware that early in 2016, Defra ran a consultation on animal establishments licensing which proposed a degree of self-regulation in the puppy breeding sector. It also proposed reducing the litter threshold at which breeders would require a licence, thereby bringing significantly more breeders into the scheme (3 times the current number based on Kennel Club registration statistics).
At the time, I supported the proposal for greater self-regulation – which was to allow members of the Kennel Club Assured Breeder Scheme to be ‘exempt’ from the local authority licence regime. This would not mean that Assured Breeders were actually exempt from the local authority licence requirements of course, but because they have already adopted the Assured Breeder Scheme standards (which go far beyond those of local authorities), it would mean that Assured Breeders would automatically receive a licence (if one was required) on passing their Assured Breeder Scheme inspection, rather than incurring the inconvenience and cost of a duplicated local authority inspection.
I am a member of the Assured Breeder Scheme which is the only UKAS accredited dog breeding scheme of its kind. As a member, I am assessed by Kennel Club trained assessors at the point of joining, and then regularly thereafter, to ensure that I breed dogs to a higher standard than local authority inspections currently require.The following requirements do NOT have to be met by breeders who are not members of the Assured Breeder Scheme, but as a member of the Scheme I have undertaken to:
•Carry out relevant mandatory health screening tests, which may include screening for hip dysplasia and elbow dysplasia, clinical examination for inherited eye conditions and a range of DNA tests. Other breed specific health tests are also recommended in certain breeds
•Aim to produce puppies with an inbreeding coefficient below the breed average
•Notto breed in excess of 4 litters from any one bitch
•Provide written advice to the purchaser on socialisation, grooming, feeding, worming, exercise, training, features and characteristics and immunisation regime
•Socialise and habituate puppiesprior to sale
•Ensure each puppy is vet checked prior to sale and pass any record of veterinary treatment or examination on to the new owner
•Provide a contract of sale for each puppy
•Provide post sales advice and information about a complaints procedure
Including Assured Breeders in local authority licensing regimes will offer no further health or welfare benefit to dogs, as Assured Breeders are already going beyond the more basic requirements. In addition to this, it will create huge additional work loads for local authorities who already struggle to licence those breeders breeding in excess of 4 litters per year. Based on Freedom of Information requests to each local authority, we know that:
•Just 5 per cent of local authorities licence 10 or more breeders in their area and 90 per cent licence 5 or fewer breeders
•Over one third of local authorities did not carry out any inspections on dog breeding premises in 2015 and 68 per cent carried out 2 or fewer inspections
•1 dog breeding licence was revoked throughout 2014 and 2015 and over a 5 year period only 20 licences were refused, equating to less than half a percent.
These statistics suggest that many breeders are already slipping through the net, which is why puppy farming (irresponsible volume breeding) is continuing and current regulation is not working.
It is now looking more likely (I believe) that Defra will reduce the litter licensing threshold in order that more breeders will have to comply with licence conditions (which is a positive step) but Assured Breeders who are required to be assessed by both a Kennel Club assessor (in order to remain a member of the ABS) and the local authority are effectively being punishedby having to be inspected more frequently and also incur higher costs (as some licensing and inspection fees are hundreds of pounds). As a breeder who is doing my part to tackle the puppy farming trade by breeding responsibly,I believe that I should be granted an automatic licence based upon passing my assessment as an Assured Breeder – an inspection that is more rigorous than that of a local authority. This would allow my local authority, with finite resource, to identify and inspect those who are not Assured Breeders.
In 2014, 41% of people who bought a puppy did not see their puppy with its mother and 53% did not see its breeding environment. The aim of the Assured Breeder Scheme is not only to improve health and welfare in dog breeding but also to direct the puppy buying public towards breeders who offer them the best possible chance of not only getting a healthy, socialised puppy, but to receive help and advice from someone experienced in their breed. By encouraging more people onto the Scheme, we hope it will leave disreputable breeders more exposed.
As a constituent of yours, I hope that you may be able to make the case to Defra for licences to be automatically granted to members of the Assured Breeder Scheme as part of the Government Better Regulation programme.
Yours sincerely
EMAIL TO:
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HOUSE OF COMMONS
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