Hong Kong Puppy Mills

The Horror of Hong Kong Puppy Mills

28-04-2010, Ma On Shan: The sad face of Hong Kong puppy milling. Old English Sheepdogs, used for breeding, denied vet care for their terrible skin condition found in cardboard boxes in a pig sty.

WHAT ARE PUPPY MILLS?

Large scale commercial dog breeding operations that aim to produce the maximum number of puppies with the lowest overheads - dogs suffer greatly in such operations.
While a reputable breeder will work with one or two breeds in order to fully understand and care for the puppies, a puppy mill operator may crank out up to 70 different breeds.

OVERCROWDED FILTHY CONDITIONS

Dogs are kept in overcrowded, filthy conditions. To minimise waste cleanup, dogs are often kept in tiny wire cages, with wire flooring that injures their paws and legs. These cages are stacked one upon the other to minimise space, with the dogs below being messed upon by the dogs above.
Dogs in puppy mills do not receive adequate food or water and get little or no veterinary care. Disease is rife and spreads rapidly throughout the facility.

MOTHER DOGS USED AS PUPPY MACHINES

As mother dogs are not vaccinated and often in poor health, they do not pass any maternal antibodies onto their puppies. As soon as the puppies start to eat solid food, they are taken away to be sold and the mother is mated again.
Mothers dogs are kept constantly pregnant until they cannot produce anymore puppies. Because of this continuous breeding, many are so malnourished that the nutrients for their puppies are stripped from their own bodies, resulting in weak bones and literally, broken bodies.
To save on costs, the mothers rarely receive proper, if any, veterinary care. Some die in labour; others are discarded on the street.

WEAK, SICK, DYING PUPPIES WITH GENETIC ILLNESSES

To feed the demand, bad breeders often obtain their puppies from several sources:

In Hong Kong, it is known that inexpensive puppies smuggled in from China puppy mills are mixed in with local litters.
Healthy puppies are mixed in with sick puppies and illness spreads rapidly. Many may die before they are even sold. If sold, some may die shortly after purchase from the contagious, fatal diseases they are exposed to, as seen in our sick puppy survey. Most die from canine parvovirus and distemper.

WHO RUNS THESE DISGUSTING PUPPY MILLS?

Many are operated by fake "hobby breeders" who are simply large scale breeders, exploiting a loophole in the current law, which allows Private Pet Owners breeding from their own pets to not require licensing.
SPCA raids of puppy mills have resulted in pitiful fines, because it could not be proved that the operator was breeding dogs for sale.
Hong Kong's pet trade licensing laws and fines are currently being reviewed - please support our petition in support of new tougher laws!

The SPCA wants to see the pet industry become more transparent to ensure better animal welfare.
We are calling for buyers to visit the actual breeding facilities, thus helping to “police” the industry,
and reporting their concerns to:
SPCA Hotline 2711 1000 and AFCD 1823