Selfsufficientish.com

Yes, I am in the right section.... we are going to 'foster' 2 young(ish) Cavalier spaniels!

Oh we must be bloody mad - we have the 2 bassets already & the kitty & the ever-expanding feather mob outside, but we are taking 2 brother cavaliers on next week for 8 weeks to see if they will settle.
If they DO settle, they will be allowed to stay & will be formally 'adopted'...... and after that we will still be used for short term fostering for cavaliers over this side of the country, to try & help with the puppy farm dogs that get moved on - so sad, but I'm hoping it will be fulfilling as well.

So look forward to seeing some pics of 'George & Ringo'..... on here soon!!

Wow Julie, good on you!! Hard but rewarding work, I look forward to seeing piccies!!

congratulations

I'm completely lost as to what it all means - 'settle', 'stay' and 'puppy farm'? Hope you have fun though whatever it is all about!

MMM - you don't know about puppy farms???

Hmmm..... ok a puppy farm: A place where someone has lots of outbuildings/barns/dog cages/pens/whatever they can cobble together.... then they get several bitches of several breeds & usually one dog & mate the bitches as often as they possibly can, pushing hoards of pups into the dog world.
They usually don't have much of a worry about the dogs health & welfare - if a dog gets poorly, well they will replace it soon enough, no need for vet bills. They have no regard to the genetic problems of the breeds, as long as the dogs are mating & pushing out litters, that's all they're worried about.
Some puppy farmers give the buyer the relevant 'paperwork'... on closer inspection, the buyer will find it's not actually affilliated to the official kennel club.
The pups are sold in high quantities & at a cheap price to get them gone....

Ireland is probably one of the worst countries for its high levels of puppy farms all over the place & has a disgusting reputation for dog welfare.

On one of our online advertising sites, you can see scores of photos of cute young puppies.... funny how the same backgrounds, or sofa, or baskets are used in these photos & will indicate a puppy farm.
They sometimes use the same phone number as well, but nowadays they will have separate mobiles for the different breeds.

Anyway, the 2 boys that we are getting are brothers from a puppy farm & past their sell-by at the age of 4!
They are coming to stay with us to see if they fit in with us - it's very hard to rehome pairs of dogs, but they are a bit bewildered at the moment, because they know nothing about living in a home with 'humans'!!
If they are ok with us and us with them, then can regard this as their forever home & can hopefully have a happy and normal home life at last.

Fingers crossed!

Oh! I was going to say:
The first time Leah heard us talking about 'puppy farms', she didn't say anything.... a few days later in the company of some friends who have very strong animal rights views, they asked Leah what she wanted to be when she was grown up... Leah announced 'I want to have a puppy farm & be a puppy farmer'!!

Thanks Julie. I haven't heard of a puppy farm. Are there kitten farms as well?

I thought you were fostering them for them to be passed on to someone else and didn't understand why. So I'm glad to hear they may be staying with you!

Were they kept on this puppy farm all this time then? I'm surprised if the answer is yes because from your description of these farms I would have thought they'd have been, er, disposed of, if not sold whilst puppies. Do the farmers just give you these dogs for free? Are you not then in a way helping their 'business'? Or is this more like taking on used battery hens?

Sorry about all the questions but I genuinely haven't heard of this before!

It's completely new to me too!

I don't know much about dog-breeding and would never have a pedigree cat - all that in-breeding really upsets me.

I've just googled kitten farms and, yes, it would seem that's big business too. One of the sites suggested never buying kittens from pet shops of classified ads - chances are they're farmed - but always go to a rescue place.

Aren't we supposed to be the nation of animal lovers

Well, like I said, the 2 lads are here for a trial basis to see how they fit in - if they are ok, they can stay with us & then after that we will be taking in other cavaliers short term, just to assess them for their forever homes.

You're right MMM in that it's a lot like taking on an ex-batt hen - puppy farms actually aren't illegal, so the breeders have no qualms in calling the rescue places & passing the dogs along. They are very quick in keeping up with the trends as well - so at the moment there are lot of popular crosses - the cockapoo, puggle, etc.
On average if a bitch has 5 pups, the breeder can sell them for anything between 400 & 700 euros apiece... and will often use every short cut & trick in the book to continue making money.

The lady who fronts up the cavalier rescue in Ireland went to pick up a 4 yr old dog & mentioned something about getting him neutered... the breeder told her, 'oh he'll be good for a few more litters yet!'... and that was AFTER he knew the dog had a heart murmur!
The main problem is getting the message through to the general public - if there wasn't the demand for these dogs, the breeders wouldn't be in business, I guess.

If we can help the dogs from these places to find forever homes and help them get used to family life, then we're happy to do so. It's nice to be in a position to help out.

Now, I just hope George & Ringo are typical cavaliers & don't snore too much!!

JulieSherris wrote:The main problem is getting the message through to the general public - if there wasn't the demand for these dogs, the breeders wouldn't be in business, I guess.

I suppose it's a bit different with cats as there are always moggie kittens going free whereas dogs are less likely to get pregnant just because they don't roam around - well not as much as cats. So I suppose there are more kittens going spare than there are dogs. I'd rather have a moggy or a mongrel any day to a pure breed - I've had one very interbred, highly strung with a humungous show champion pedigree Cocker Spaniel when I was a kid who was always getting ill plus was a complete neurotic pain in the arse, and we currently have a pure beed Chartreux cat who always has something wrong with him too and is also a pain in the bum despite the fact we love him. It's quite a well known fact that pure breeds are less hardy than moggy/mongrels.

So you pay twice for these animals, once to buy them and then again with never ending vet bills. So I don't know why pure breeds are quite so in demand unless it is trendy or something.