News and updates

SAVE OUR DOGS AT THE NSW STATE ELECTION 25 MARCH 2023

Where have all the dogs gone? Ask the Animal Justice Party.

The upcoming NSW State Election will affect DOGS NSW members and dog owners if the Animal Justice Party retain their seats in Parliament, given their companion animals policies.

DOGS NSW and Dogs Australia despise puppy farms. The AJP calling to amend the Companion Animals Amendment (Puppy Farm) Bill 2021 will no longer give Australians the chance to own a dog of their choice. The Bill will only further restrict heavily regulated home breeders who are registered, ethical and look after the welfare of their dogs. 

The Result - less purebred dogs and the elimination of specific breeds. 

AJP's Bill proposal will increase illegal puppy farms and registered ethical breeders will be collateral damage. They aim to push for dogs to only be purchased through rehoming or rescue organisations. The amendments proposed don’t address how to fix the problem of illegal puppy farms.  

Make sure you know who you’re voting for in this NSW Election on March 25. Be an informed voter and fight for your right to choose a purebred dog.

HERE ARE SOME FACTS FROM PROFESSOR CLAIRE WADE

We would like to thank Professor Claire Wade for allowing DOGS NSW to reprint her professional and valued opinion regarding the Animal Justice Party Companion Animals Amendment Bill.

Below are a just a couple of the changes to companion animal breeding rules proposed:

A proprietor of a companion animal breeding business must not breed from a
female dog or cat in the following circumstances—
(a) if a heritable defect is identified in a previous litter of the dog or cat,
(b) with a dog or cat that is related to the dog or cat by blood.

Response:
The animal welfare justifications for the proposed changes are absent or unclear. 
There is no scientific support for the suggested changes.

Part (a): The definition of a heritable defect is absent or unclear and There are multiple problems with this suggestion. First, the male and female parent contribute equally to the progeny and this action is discriminatory against the female. Second, heritable defect cannot be accurately defined. If a progeny with a birth defect is born, it may be caused by non-heritable factors. This requirement would be impossible to prove and enforce.

For Mendelian recessive conditions, simply breeding the animal with a partner from a different genetic background will minimize the chances of re-occurrence. Indeed, the imposition of such a requirement is far more likely to generate negative genetic outcomes from a population perspective by severely restricting the effective population size of the breeding population. This will do far more genetic harm than good. Most modern companion animal breeders actively participate in research to provide new genetic tests for Mendelian conditions where these do not already exist and actively apply genetic testing to minimize or eliminate the occurrence of Mendelian inherited defects in progeny.

For complex traits, such as orthopaedic traits or cancer, the proposed limit is unlikely to make any substantive impact on the occurrence of disorders in progeny.

Part (b): The definition of “related by blood” is unquantifiable. If this same requirement was imposed upon humans, then many cultures would be subjected to genocide.

This proposal lacks scientific rationale or merit. To begin with "related by blood" is not a scientific term and as such it has no scientific meaning. How will the degree of relationship be determined or proven in practice? This rule would be prejudiced against pedigree dogs as the pedigree relationship is visible through records. Non-pedigreed dog breeders and people using crossbreeding would be free to continue breeding close relatives together without it being obvious to the public.

SUMMARY

The amendments shown have no rationale in science. They are discriminatory against dogs with recorded pedigrees and breeders that employ genetic testing. Breaches of the rules would be impossible to prove and enforce. The rules would do nothing to prevent poor breeding practices in unmonitored breeding establishments. Legitimate breeding organisations already have ethical standards that support the outcomes that these poorly worded rules seek - those are the breeding together of healthy individuals, the application of sensible genetic and physical testing, and the prevention of breeding together of first-order relatives. We agree that all breeders should be held to the same standard, but the amendments as shown do nothing to support that.

No part of the proposed Bill is either justifiable or desirable from any perspective, and particularly not from an animal welfare or animal genetic health perspective.

*PLEASE NOTE: Members are encouraged to circulate this Special Notice as an important message, and to lobby your State members of Parliament regarding the proposed Animal Justice Party (Emma Hurst Puppy Farming Bill). 

NSW STATE ELECTION - #informedvoter Campaign Update

The upcoming NSW State Election will affect DOGS NSW members and dog owners if the Australian Justice Party gain seats in Parliament, given their companion animals policies.

DOGS NSW is currently running an #informedvoter campaign as per the special notice that was sent to members last week. Pre-election, DOGS NSW goal is to encourage the general public to NOT VOTE for the AJP in the upcoming election. This is the time to make sure the public have in power the political parties to push issues of importance to them. DOGS NSW will action this communication via social media and pitching to media (TV/Radio/Print/Online) story opportunities about the issues with the Companion Animals Amendment (Puppy Farms) Bill 2021/AJP and profiling spokespersons, including DOGS NSW President, animal experts and dog breeder members. 

Pre-election, the action DOGS NSW members can do (as per our communications last week) is to share the Special Notice emailed Wednesday and social media posts (#informed voter campaign) among your network of friends and family, to know who they're voting for and not to vote AJP, as it will affect your dog breeding choice and ownership. 

Post-election, once a government party is elected on March 25, we will ask members to email their local MP about this issue so they cannot vote for the Bill's amendment to pass legislation. We will also pitch new media stories regarding AJP's policies should they obtain a government seat and we will include a call to action for the general public/DOGS NSW members to sign a petition.org (which we will create) to refute the Companion Animals Amendment (Puppy Farms) Bill 2021, and this will add further support when lobbying the local MP. This second stage of the campaign is post-election, once a government party is elected; that is when we will know what policies will be pushed and which political parties will align with each other on which policies. This is on the advice of a professional government lobbyist. This will be the time to take action on specific policies to target local MPs.