{"id":15412,"date":"2021-01-29T01:53:22","date_gmt":"2021-01-29T01:53:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newmatilda.com\/?p=139928"},"modified":"2021-01-29T01:53:22","modified_gmt":"2021-01-29T01:53:22","slug":"pro-bono-push-to-fight-australias-covid-19-fuelled-puppy-farm-industry-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/01\/29\/pro-bono-push-to-fight-australias-covid-19-fuelled-puppy-farm-industry-expansion\/","title":{"rendered":"Pro Bono Push To Fight Australia\u2019s COVID-19 Fuelled Puppy Farm Industry Expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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A Victorian animal rights group has launched a legal service that from next week will provide free preliminary legal advice to pet owners who have recently purchased a puppy, that became sick shortly after arriving home.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Monday, Victorians will be able to access the Anti-Puppy\nFarm Legal Clinic, the brainchild of the Animal Law Institute (ALI), a\nnon-profit community legal centre dedicated to protecting animals and advocating\nfor their interests through the Australian legal system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new service is in response to a sharp rise in pet\nownership – particularly dogs \u2013 during the COVID-19 pandemic, and a corresponding\nexplosion in \u2018puppy farming\u2019, where breeders create intensive dog breeding practices\nthat fail to meet the physical, social or psychological needs of animals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dogs are typically kept in inhumane conditions and suffer\nenormously, and the litters are on-sold to both private and commercial operators,\nincluding pet stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anastasia Smietanka, Co-founder of the Animal Law Institute\nsaid healthy puppies can present with underlying conditions after unsuspecting\nbuyers bring them home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cVictoria arguably has some of the strongest anti-puppy farm\nlaws in Australia, but unscrupulous breeders continue to operate,\u201d Ms Smietanka\nsaid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw more and more puppies\nbeing sold by breeders hoping to make a quick profit off unaware buyers. That\u2019s\nwhy we are launching a specialist clinic to tackle this issue, and using our\nlegal skills to fight negligent breeding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Monday (1 February), Victorians who want advice on\ntaking action against a breeder or seller (including a pet store) can submit an\nenquiry for legal assistance by completing an intake form on the Animal Law\nInstitute\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About 450,000 puppies are sold annually in Australia, according\nto the Pet Industry Association of Australia (PIAA), and only around 15% of\nthem are sold through registered breeders. Another 15% are sold through pet\nstores, with the remainder mostly sold through online classified advertising, which\nis completely unregulated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Identifying an animal from a \u2018puppy farm\u2019 can be difficult,\nbut one tell-tale sign is a seller claiming their animal is vaccinated, when it\u2019s\ntoo young to receive its first round of vaccinations (between six to eight\nweeks old).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nationally, the practice of puppy farming is not technically\nillegal, although conditions on puppy farms routinely breach state-based animal\nwelfare legislation. Animals Australia reports that Victoria is considered to be\nthe only\nstate in Australia<\/a> with legislation specifically aimed at mitigating some\nof the problems associated with puppy farming, a fact not lost on the Animal\nLaw Institute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe clinic was made possible thanks to the generosity of our donors and is supported by the Victorian Government,\u201d Ms Smietanka said. \u201cThe Animal Law Institute extends its sincere thanks to all those involved in the creation of the Anti-Puppy Farm Legal Clinic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The post Pro Bono Push To Fight Australia’s COVID-19 Fuelled Puppy Farm Industry Expansion<\/a> appeared first on New Matilda<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on New Matilda<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Victorian animal rights group has launched a legal service that from next week will provide free preliminary legal advice to pet owners who have recently purchased a puppy, that became sick shortly after arriving home. From Monday, Victorians will be able to access the Anti-Puppy Farm Legal Clinic, the brainchild of the Animal Law […]<\/p>\n

The post Pro Bono Push To Fight Australia\u2019s COVID-19 Fuelled Puppy Farm Industry Expansion<\/a> appeared first on New Matilda<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":640,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[605],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15412"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/640"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15412"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15413,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15412\/revisions\/15413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}