A dog breeding map of the UK

Naturewatch Foundation, a charity doing good work in relation to the dog breeding industry, has produced an online dog breeding map of the UK. It shows how many dog breeding businesses a council licences and the size of operation with number of dogs licensed.

I have long believed that if people knew this, it might change their behaviour. If puppy buyers knew the parent dogs lived not in a breeder’s home but in kennels and sheds, more would walk away. But, it’s easy not to think too much when buying a puppy. Especially from a slick business, which many breeders today operate. Pointing a puppy buyer to how many dogs a breeder is licensed for and the dots more quickly connect.

I have prevented some buyers supporting their chosen breeders simply by showing how many dogs a breeder holds . It’s been gratifying to do but it’s never been easy to find the information. This map from Naturewatch Foundation won’t have all the info we should have publicly available but it will make researching easier.

It’s a good resource to get familiar with. By telling people this information about a breeder, it helps them to question things. Ask them whether they’d be comfortable if their pet dogs were living with tens (or more) of other dogs. An, not in comfy, homely living rooms, but in kennels, or sheds, or similar.

There is simply no way that someone holding tens and tens of adult dogs to breed from (which is also a lot of puppies) is treating them as companionable friends. Which is what most people buying a dog as a family pet are buying into. If a puppy buyer would be uncomfortable about their own dog living like it, they definitely should not be keeping that breeder in business and condemning other dogs to that life. Even if no animal welfare laws are broken, when large numbers of breeding dogs are held, they cannot live what I consider a dog’s life should be.

If you hear of anyone looking to buy a puppy, ask about the breeder and suggest they use this map as part of their research. Or do it for them and provide the numbers. Click through on the links and you’ll see some councils do not make information publicly available. Of course they don’t, that would make it far too easy to see the scale of a problem under their authority. I do not believe this information should be witheld from public viewing.

Open the discussion with anyone you know who is puppy buying. And ask for more information from the licensing authority. I would urge you to get familiar with the map. Look up the licensed breeders in your area, or wider afield. I have looked at Northern Ireland (Albert’s birthplace) and south Wales – both have eye opening numbers, as expected. Northwest England is also worth a look.

If you suspect a breeder in your area isn’t licensed, report them, Naturewatch Foundation will assist you.

We all have a role to play to break the cycles of suffering in the breeding industry. We can and should all do our bit and tools like this, help us.