ANIMAL ADVOCATES SOCIETY OF BC
Box 114, 103-1075 Marine Drive,
North Vancouver, BC, V7P 3T6
604-984-8826
office@animaladvocates.com

December 21, 2005

Mayor Sam Sullivan and Councillors,
The City of Vancouver

Re: Dog Breeding in Vancouver

Dear Mayor Sullivan and Councillors,

The Problem:

In April 2005, Animal Advocates responded to a complaint from a neighbour about a dog breeding operation in Vancouver that demonstrated all that is wrong with the City allowing dogs to be kept in yards and allowing the business of dog breeding: Upset neighbours, chained and suffering dogs, huge protection breed dogs, and under-the-table breeding. The dogs being bred were Mastiffs; a protection breed dog that can weigh over 100 pounds at maturity. The pups were being sold for $1200 each. We attended on the pretext of wanting to buy one of the pups and took photographs and video which we sent to you. The back yard of this house looks like a third world yard with the male on a heavy chain and the female and pups in a dirty kennel. The owner said all the buyers wanted the dogs for protection.

Breeding and selling dogs is a business which the City does not prohibit, but it easily could by simply numbering puppies as "dogs" which would put owners of litters over the three dogs per address that the City currently permits. Currently the City exempts puppies under three months from licensing requirements. This is an open invitation to set up a breeding operation.

We have video of this operation and more photos. Tiny breeds are being bred in apartments and the female dogs are prisoners, sometimes being kept in closets, with untreated infections, overgrown nails, severe hair loss etc. When reported to the SPCA nothing has changed. (See two photos attached. See video at http://www.animaladvocates.com/video/presa-mastiff.htm)

A breeding ban is very enforceable as pups must be advertised. Calling all dogs, including pups, “dogs”, would also stop the reselling of pups from puppymills which is another expanding home business. This growing industry buys pups from puppymills in the BC Interior, and other provinces, many of which are sick. The pups in are kept in cages and resold, many of which die shortly after purchase from parvo and distemper. Hundreds of pups arrive at Vancouver airport every week. Puppies should only be sold through City licensed pet stores that are required by regulation to provide humane social and physical conditions for the pups.

AAS's database of Protection Dog Breeding is at www.animaladvocates.com/dangerous-dogs/2005%20protection%20stats.pdf (copy and paste into browser address line). We can supply the City with ads that are specific to Vancouver if desired, but no matter where the dogs are being bred, more and more of them are being bred and purchased as guard dogs.

Last week AAS received a report of an Akita or Husky breeding operation in Vancouver. It was reported to the Vancouver SPCA more than a month ago and nothing changed. We inspected and documented with photographs (two photos below). The complainant told us that the dogs’ pen is almost always full of feces; that there were about 10 puppies born; price is $500 a pup; the dogs are never allowed out of their pen; that the owner intends to keep breeding; and that this may not be the first litter.

Animal Advocates Society would like to speak to council and present our reports on yard dogs (enclosed) and back yard breeding in January 2006. Please tell us if this is possible and if so, what date we may attend.

We look forward to your earliest response,

Judy Stone
President, AAS

More photos at http://www.animaladvocates.com/backyard-breeding/photos.htm

Akita or Husky Breeding operation