{"id":40382,"date":"2021-02-22T12:46:35","date_gmt":"2021-02-22T17:46:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=40382"},"modified":"2021-02-22T12:46:35","modified_gmt":"2021-02-22T17:46:35","slug":"activists-warn-of-puppy-mills-amid-increased-demand-for-pets-during-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/activists-warn-of-puppy-mills-amid-increased-demand-for-pets-during-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Activists warn of puppy mills amid increased demand for pets during pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Local authorities and SPAA seized 230 dogs and 70 cats from a puppy mill in Saint Christophe d\u2019Arthabaska, a small town between Montreal and Quebec, on Jan. 29.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the unspoken activity that people don\u2019t really like to talk about but there are puppy mills in Ontario and Quebec and across the country,\u201d says Liz White, a founding director of the Animal Alliance of Canada.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A

Liz White, director of the Animal Alliance of Canada and Tavish. Photo by EK Park.<\/p><\/div>\n

According to White, there\u2019s an estimated 1,500 puppy mills in Quebec. The province has even been called the puppy mill capital of North America.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey found dozens of dead puppies and animals living in just awful conditions,\u201d says Stephen Smith, manager of communications for the Ottawa Humane Society.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"COVID has sort of exacerbated the issue,\" says Smith. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of folks right now who want to get a pet in their life. Without a doubt, this is because people have more time on their hands.\"<\/span><\/p>\n

The pandemic has caused Canadians to spend much more time at home. Statistics Canada has reported that the number of Canadians working from home has increased by nearly 700,000 in January, bringing the total to 5.4 million.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Smith, this extra time at home can provide pet owners with the training and bonding a pet really needs and might be a way for pet owners \"<\/span>to cope with the loneliness of the pandemic.\"<\/span><\/p>\n

White also emphasizes the high demand for dogs. \u201cWe know that they\u2019re being shipped from other countries into Canada,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n

A shipment of 500 puppies from Ukraine landed in Toronto over the summer. They had been crammed together and 38 had passed away from suffocation, with dozens more arriving in poor health conditions.<\/span><\/p>\n

This prompted the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) to put a temporary ban on the importation of puppies under eight months of age from Ukraine, effective Jul. 6, 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n

White notes fewer animals are available in shelters as they try to keep up with the demand.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe vacancy of available animals was filled in by somebody setting up a bunch of puppy mills and delivering animals for commercial sale that way,\u201d says White.<\/span><\/p>\n

Smith and the Ottawa Human Society encourage people to \"Adopt, don't shop.\" He says if they do need to buy they must be asking questions to the seller before buying.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe strongly encourage them to research who they\u2019re buying from first to make sure they\u2019re supporting somebody who actually cares about their animal's welfare and isn\u2019t in it just to make a quick buck,\u201d he says.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Smith, a seller who does not care for their animal's welfare may not ask a buyer if they are prepared or know how to care for it and simply seek to complete the transaction instead.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the surest ways to find out is definitely how urgent the seller is making things,\u201d Smith says.<\/span><\/p>\n

White also notes several red flags people encounter when buying animals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you can\u2019t go to the place, if they won\u2019t show you where the animals are, how they\u2019re housed, how they\u2019re bred, if they won\u2019t give you all the paperwork, if you\u2019re buying off Kijiji you are risking some real heartache and problems both for you and the animal you get,\u201d says White<\/span><\/p>\n

Smith says the animals in puppy mills are kept in \u201cvery deplorable conditions.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not being fed properly, they\u2019re not being given the proper space,\u201d he says. <\/span>He also notes that they are not being bred or trained properly, a concern echoed by White.<\/span><\/p>\n

White says these animals are bred to maximize the number of puppies produced as opposed to considering the health and wellbeing of the female animal.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOften fathers and siblings are bred, female animals and their male offspring are bred together,\u201d says White.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This inbreeding can result in severe genetic conditions, such as hip dysplasia, weak ligaments and bones, and breathing issues due to flat noses.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people go and get these animals, are they prepared for a $5,000 vet bill upfront? I would argue in many cases not,\u201d says White.<\/span><\/p>\n

She also expresses concern for the fate of animals adopted and purchased during the pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBecause people are acquiring pets during the pandemic the concern that I have at the end of it\u2014if and when we go back to work\u2014 what going to happen to these animals,\u201d White asks.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll see, we don\u2019t know. It may be that everyone\u2019s fine,\" she says. \"There may be a surge of animals dropped off at shelters because they can\u2019t deal with the animal anymore.\"<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Witnessed accounts of puppy mill activity can be reported to the SPCA<\/span><\/a> or Humane Society<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Local authorities and SPAA seized 230 dogs and 70 cats from a puppy mill in Saint Christophe d\u2019Arthabaska, a small town between Montreal and Quebec, on Jan. 29.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s the unspoken activity that people don\u2019t really like to talk about but there are puppy mills in Ontario and Quebec and across the country,\u201d says Liz…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":40628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,3265],"tags":[6284,6309,6283,6282,6281],"radio":[1290],"origine":[267,269,1571],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40382"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40382"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=40382"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=40382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}