Today TradeMe announced that it would ban the sale of pugs, French bulldogs, and British bulldogs from its website. Veterinarian and New Zealand Veterinary Association (NZVA) companion animal spokesperson Rochelle Ferguson looks at the state of cat and dog breeding welfare in New Zealand and what can be done to improve it.

The recent TradeMe ban on listing English bulldogs, French bulldogs and pugs highlights the welfare issues that arise when irresponsible breeders create dogs to meet the demand for fashionable breeds.

In veterinary practice, my colleagues and I see first-hand the consequences of poorly bred cats and dogs. The catalogue of animal misery from irresponsible matings is a long one, from the young French bulldog that has an airway so small it faints from lack of oxygen every time it vomits, (developing life threatening pneumonia from inhaling its stomach contents in the process) to the middle-aged pug that has lost its eyesight from the constant rubbing of a misshapen eyelid.

A fair amount of veterinary endeavour goes towards performing correctional surgeries to provide these dogs with the ability to breathe, blink, and move comfortably – and they are the lucky ones. Others, with their problems not recognised or dismissed as being “normal for a their breed,” are destined to spend their entire lives with breathing difficulties, painful eyes and sore joints.

Veterinarians around the world are highlighting the diseases caused by exaggerated features such as short snouts as major welfare issues. The difficulties faced by many flat faced dogs and cats to simply breathe comfortably have been highlighted in the British Veterinary Association’s “Breed to Breathe” and the Australian Veterinary Association’s “Love is Blind” campaigns. There are, however, many other breeds struggling with diseases caused by those who breed to create a certain “look”.

Exaggerated features, such as the elongated backs seen in Basset hounds, the short legs typical of sausage dogs, the excessive skin folds that characterise the Shar pei and owl-like appearance from the folded ears on Scottish fold cats put these animals at greater risk of experiencing diseases related to their appearances than the more traditionally shaped cats and dogs.

Exaggerated features also interfere with an animals ability to breed. Almost all flat faced dogs are incapable of mating naturally. With breathing issues, large heads and small hips, a natural birth is beyond their physical ability. In order to produce a litter for sale, the breeder must subject the mother to a risky caesarean section. Every. Single. Time.

Award winning pedigrees do not provide any safeguard to puppies or kittens either.

Judges at cat and dog shows reward those animals that conform to the breed standard. An English bulldog standard that requires a head to be “as large as possible” and a face to be “extremely short” offers no welfare protection to puppies from diseases related to their looks. This is compounded by high levels of inbreeding, particularly in unusual breeds which have small gene pools.

It is not only the way cats and dogs are bred to look that compromise their welfare, but also the conditions in which they are kept and raised. Puppies and kittens are vulnerable to illnesses and infections. To safeguard their health, the environments they are kept in must be comfortable and clean. Breeders have to understand principles of infection control, parasite management and nutrition in order to ensure their animals good health and give them the best start in life.

The needs of puppies and kittens are not only physical. If breeders don’t also meet the psychological needs of the kittens and puppies, problems can be created that will continue for the life of the animal and affect its ability to integrate into a new home. Cats and dogs have a critical socialisation period between three and twelve weeks, when they should be exposed to different people and animals to allow them to develop into well-adjusted pets. Poor socialisation during this period is the cause of many behavioural problems that make life miserable not only for the pet, but for its owner and the wider family. Breeders who keep puppies in isolation or who have more animals that they can regularly interact with, contribute to many of the problems seen in later life with aggressive dogs.

Countries around the world are enacting legislation to protect vulnerable puppies and kittens from those that seek to exploit them for their own financial gain. Many already require breeders who sell dogs to obtain a license. This allows for their premises to be inspected and sets down minimum standards for their care. The sale of pets by third parties is also regulated by some overseas governments with licenses required.

UK prime minister Theresa May has proposed new laws to improve animal welfare in the UK which are expected to come into force early 2018. These include the following regulations:

• Licensed commercial dog breeders must show puppies alongside their mother before a sale is made.
• To prevent online sales where buyers aren’t able to see the puppies, sales must be completed on the premises with the new owner present.
• Licensed dog breeders can only sell puppies they have bred themselves.
• The sale of puppies, as well as kittens and rabbits, that are younger than 8 weeks old would be prohibited.

New Zealand has no regulation or oversight from authorities. Anyone is able to cash in on the social media demand created by #ILoveMyFrenchie and #PugLife to produce puppies that sell for thousands of dollars.

No officials will check that these breeders are knowledgeable about animal health and breeding practices and nobody will ensure they have the necessary facilities to keep the puppies safe and comfortable.

It is a sad state of affairs, that in the absence of regulations to protect vulnerable animals, TradeMe have had to step in as a quasi-regulator with a voluntary code of conduct for breeding cats and dogs, and a ban on listing some welfare compromised dog breeds.

The fallout from puppies that have been irresponsibly bred is shouldered, not by the breeders who profit from their sale, but by the families that purchase these animals and the veterinarians that treat them.

It will be the new puppy owner that foots the bills for the surgeries needed to widen the nostrils of the flat faced dogs so they can breathe, and alter their eyelids so they don’t rub on their eyes. It will be their new owners that have to listen to cats and dogs snort and struggle to breathe.

It is the vets who must deal with the anaesthetic risks associated with taking bulldogs to surgery to fix their “extremely short” snouts. It is also the vets that support the owners of the one year Scottish fold cat that has advanced arthritis of which there is no cure.

Without any New Zealand animal welfare regulations to protect puppies and kittens, the NZVA ask that prospective puppy and kitten buyers take action. In the absence of laws that hold breeders to account, the power to effect change, and enforce standards lies with the purchasers.

In the way that we ask for our eggs, dairy products and meat to be produced with higher welfare standards. Purchasers must also demand higher welfare standards for breeding cats and dogs.

Irresponsible breeders are hiding behind the lack of regulation, their ability to sell through third parties and the general public’s lack of awareness. Responsible breeders do exist and these are the ones that purchasers should be seeking out. If you are planning to get a cat or dog, make enquiries of the breeder about puppy and kitten welfare. Get educated on what is acceptable and what isn’t.

Veterinarians can help, and would much prefer to consult and discuss the health and welfare issues with clients before they obtain their animals, rather than dealing with the heartache when it is too late.

The NZVA have an ethical guide to obtaining a dog and a checklist for puppy buyers to assist them when making a purchase. The British Veterinary Association Animal Welfare Foundation also has an excellent puppy information pack and a downloadable contract to guide buyers on getting the answers they need from breeders.

Share these resources and raise the bar on welfare for vulnerable puppies and kittens. Together, we can make a world of difference to these animals.

Rochelle Ferguson is a veterinarian and companion animal veterinarians operations manager at the New Zealand Veterinary Association. She loves all dogs, from the tip of their noses to the end of their tails.

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As students flock back to Wellington in the lead-up to the academic year, landlords are cashing in with innovations which encourage bidding wars amongst applicants. 

The nightmare that is renting in this country continues to bring new horrors, with reports from Wellington that landlords are explicitly operating tender processes on their rentals in a bid to drive up prices.

Oliver Clifton, a fourth year student at Victoria University, recently viewed a flat on Kelburn Parade: five bedrooms at $1110 per week. On receiving the application forms he was shocked to find the landlord requiring tenants to submit the maximum they’d be willing to pay above and beyond the listed price as the house was in ‘high demand’.

“I thought it was kind of outrageous,” he says. “It was a pretty straightforward flat viewing, pretty standard – but then we saw the question about maximum rent and everybody thought it was an outrageous thing to ask.

“I thought it might even be illegal – I don’t know how the tenancy rules work. But there was definitely a general consensus that it was grossly unethical.”

Ethically questionable, maybe, but legally sound. In response to questions from The Spinoff around the practice, which came to light following Clifton’s tweet on Thursday, MBIE’s acting general manager of housing and tenancy services, Steve Watson, says “There is nothing in the Residential Tenancy Act (RTA) that precludes the tenant indicating what they would be willing to pay for a rental property.”

In fact, according to the MBIE, asking tenants to indicate a weekly rent actually removes the landlord from the rent setting equation, and allows the prospective tenant to be an active participant in the setting of ‘market rent’. Empowering, right?

One Wellington professional, who we’ll call Jane – she wished to remain anonymous for fear of landlord retribution – felt far from empowered at a viewing in Hataitai.

“We went to a nice house where there were a lot of people obviously in a similar position to us,” she says. “As we walked in to register there was a spreadsheet where you could put your name and phone number, and then I saw a column where you could list your maximum rent that you were willing to pay.”

The column was full of replies indicating tenants would pay much more than the $800 listed price, but when Jane attempted to apply for the house online, that box was nowhere to be seen, leading her to believe the rental company was cross-referencing the two documents to screen applicants. In short, tendering bids.

Across the ditch in Victoria, a state currently in the midst of overhauling their tenancy laws, apps like Rentberry which facilitate these bidding wars have become the target of a crackdown announced last year in an effort to protect tenants.

At home, our own government has unwittingly become a participant in the process of ‘setting market rent’, as landlords across Wellington immediately lifted rents to match the increases in student allowance introduced this year.

“I’ve been to a lot of flat viewings over the last wee while and my understanding is that basically everywhere is going up,” says Clifton. “Most flats have had a rent hike this year – I know most flats go up a little bit every year anyway, but there have been significant increases this time.”

Jane says after spending her life in Wellington the recent rent hikes have been astronomical, even for someone with a job and references.

“I’ve lived in four or five flats here and the increases I’m seeing, especially in the inner-city in places like Newtown, student areas, is just crazy. It has been a very sudden increase.”

Clifton and his ilk are more vulnerable still.

“I’m lucky to be from a middle class background with some support from my parents,” he says. “But for lots of my friends it’s becoming very hard to get by. $200 a room has become the new cheap. Finding a flat that’s liveable for that much is pretty hard. Everyone will need to either get more part-time work or spend everything they have on rent.”

Because what tenants aren’t free to do is escape the market altogether – already flat viewings across the city are attracting hordes of applicants, thronging in the streets and clamouring for a place to sleep as much as a full month before university begins for the year.

“I was at one the other day and there were people everywhere streaming up and down the street. Someone came out and asked us what was going on on their street because apparently there’d been like a hundred people walking up and down. It’s been pretty hectic.”

The heightened demand in Wellington is in part the result of artificial accelerants.

“Most property managers only want one year tenancies so they can raise the rent without worrying about being taken to the tribunal,” says Robert Whitaker from the Wellington renters’ advocacy group Renters United. “And even if they were, so long as landlords can prove it’s market rent, even if it’s at the highest end of the scale, they’ll generally be OK. Add to that the fact that most tenancies end around January to March, the demand becomes pretty extreme.

And with that demand comes options for landlords and barriers for tenants. Finding a flat as an affluent white student is one thing, but the process becomes exponentially harder if your ethnicity or disabilities trigger a landlord’s conscious or unconscious bias.

“If a landlord receives 40 applications for a property in two hours, by what measure are they even going to shortlist their selections?” says Whitaker. “How much unconscious bias comes into play at that point? It’s already difficult enough for someone with a disability to find suitable housing in Wellington, let alone in the current climate.”

And here’s the kicker – once you secure your potentially deadly property after a secret bidding war, you’re now beholden to some of the weakest tenancy protection laws in the western world.

Sleep tight!

If you’d like to get in touch with the author confidentially to talk about renting in Wellington, email don@thespinoff.co.nz