coolmelbourne.org

Author: Siobhan O'Sullivan
Source: The Conversation
Date: September 20, 2011

I may be wrong, but recent indicators suggest animal suffering is going out of fashion.

I have been tracking the ebb and flow of the animal protection movement as a first-hand observer since the late 1990s. I have also conducted historical research into the contemporary animal protection movement which emerged in the 1970s; and the early-modern animal protection movement of the Victorian era.

Unless I am mistaken, the community seems increasingly unimpressed by animal suffering.

On September 18, around 5,000 people rallied on the steps of Victoria’s Parliament House. Speaker after speaker took to the microphone to condemn puppy mills.

Also know as puppy factories, these mills are often backyard operations, located on city fringes, where breeding adults dogs live in crowded, anti-social, squalid conditions.

It is the dogs’ job to produce puppies; puppies that are then sold through pet stores, often to impulse buyers.

The system has a number of problems:

•     The breeding animals live in poor conditions;

•     Once the thrill of the impulse purchase wears off, many young dogs find themselves at the local pound;

•     Regulation is poor, as authorities aren’t easily able to keep breeders in check.

On September 18, protesters came in their thousands, many with dogs in tow. They called for an end to puppy farms and did so under the banner of “Oscar’s Law”.

The “law” is named in honour of Oscar who survived five years as a stud dog, and was rescued twice by Debra Tranter, the driving force behind Oscar’s Law.

All kinds of people were gathered on the steps of Parliament House: this wasn’t a fringe group of animal liberationists. They cheered for Debra and booed the Baillieu Government’s representative who spoke of greater regulation to stop rogue operators.

Legislation to get tough on puppy factories is consistent with the Baillieu Government’s pre-election promise. But it is not consistent with Oscar’s Law, which calls for an end to all puppy mills and a prohibition on the sale of dogs through pet stores.

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