Backyard breeders and complacent pet owners are being put on notice after the RSPCA in Canberra was forced to euthanise puppies born with severe deformities.<\/p>\n
The animal rescue group has reported a surge in heavily pregnant female dogs being surrendered to ACT facilities, with three mothers delivering 26 puppies between them in the last three weeks alone.<\/p>\n
“I think the biggest challenge that we’re seeing right now is the financial crisis,” Rhiannon Kwateng from RSPCA ACT said.<\/p>\n
“A lot of people just don’t have the funds to do the things like de-sexing.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Rhiannon Kwateng, from the RSPCA ACT. (ABC News: Jade Toomey)<\/p>\n
‘They wouldn’t be able to survive’<\/p>\n
But unplanned pregnancies and backyard breeders are contributing to avoidable harmful outcomes among some newborn puppies, according to the RSPCA.<\/p>\n
“We’ve seen unfortunately a little of puppies born where three of the puppies were born without the roof of their mouths and noses,” Ms Kwateng said.<\/p>\n
“Unfortunately, those puppies wouldn’t be able to thrive, and they wouldn’t be able to survive so we’ve had to kindly euthanise them.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Backyard breeders are only making the problem worse in the ACT, the RSPCA said. (ABC News: Jade Toomey)<\/p>\n
That’s on top of an unplanned litter of ten puppies surrendered to the facility in January who were diagnosed with parvo virus shortly after birth.<\/p>\n
“That is such a deadly virus and very difficult to treat, especially for vulnerable newborn puppies,” Ms Kwateng said.<\/p>\n
“And we did have to make the decision to euthanise that litter of puppies.”<\/p>\n
Rescue groups picking up the bill<\/p>\n
Desexing costs start at a few hundred dollars but rise according to the size of the dog.<\/p>\n
But without it, the burden can fall on rescue groups where resources are wearing thin.<\/p>\n
The RSPCA ACT’s Weston facility is currently caring for 280 animals \u2014 double the number at the same facility two years ago.<\/p>\n
Ms Kwateng said it’s a “massive stretch” on resources.<\/p>\n
“When you have 40 puppies plus the existing adult dogs, it is constant work from the moment the team gets here to the moment they leave,” she said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The care for the puppies can be a 60-month job for an already waning service. (ABC News: Jade Toomey)<\/p>\n
“It’s 60-plus mouths to feed, to clean, to socialise, to love, to walk, it’s a massive challenge.”<\/p>\n
The facility is also struggling with a portion of its kennels currently out of operation because of a broken underground heating system, which the RSPCA said was crucial for vulnerable pets living through Canberra climates that drop well below zero.<\/p>\n
But among the warnings, there are some happy endings.<\/p>\n
Two puppies were adopted from an unplanned litter of nine were adopted on Saturday.<\/p>\n
One of them, Hippo, went home with Forde couple Kane Rattley and Emma Hanlin.<\/p>\n
“[He’ll go] straight home, warm cuddle, heater on, cuddle up on the couch probably watching some movies getting him used to the new house,” Mr Rattley said.<\/p>\n
“We’ve looked at so many previously and looked online, but he’s the only one where we’ve gone ‘he’s the one!'” Ms Hanlin said.<\/p>\n
“You just kind of know.”<\/p>\n
The RSPCA said it was breaking the cycle of irresponsible pet ownership by desexing all of its puppies up for adoption.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Backyard breeders and complacent pet owners are being put on notice after the RSPCA in Canberra was forced…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4746,4749,4740,4745,4744,50,4743,4747,4742,4748],"class_list":{"0":"post-3692","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-act","9":"tag-animal","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-canberra","12":"tag-de-sexing","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-puppies","15":"tag-rescue","16":"tag-rspca","17":"tag-welfare"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114724060000002201","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}