Having trained with them in the past and spent a lot of money on them, and having personal links to some elements myself, whether anything criminally has occurred isn't the point. I think it's possible some rules have been broken but it's also exposed me to the loopholes in the system that allow puppy farmers to continue practicing. I have no doubt that the things that point to bad practice can be covered by, for example, co-ownership of a bitch. Therefore, what you see is everyone becomes implicated in some manner even if they didn't realise what they were implicating themselves into.
People's stories of working there are not just rumours/stories. They are experiences that possibly may not break any laws depending on the contract type and all sorts of things.
As always, it comes down to what do you want your money to support. What type of business do you want to support?
I have spent about 40 hours so far researching this topic. I have been on a journey of ethics and morals. Not just relating to animal welfare but to social media. Just like how the justice system can wrongfully convict people, or guilty people are never brought to justice… trial by social media sometimes implicates the guilty as well as the innocent.
The one thing that links all of this together is: being complicit. People do not call out others because in some way their action may be considered linked to the organised crime. This is the power of social media. When people share, everyone is becoming complicit but for a good cause. Suspicions can be reported to authorities. You do not need to be an expert on anything to report a suspicion. It is not a crime to report a suspicion to the correct place and via the correct route. 1 suspicion alone may not be enough but everyone’s suspicions builds a picture.
Who is to say 1 individual alleged to be involved in this crime was not coerced themselves? Are they the coerced or the coercer?
I’m not vegan, I’m probably not as eco friendly as I should be. It’s when something touches you at the core it makes you re-evaluate everything. I thought I had ethics and morals related to animal welfare already but there is SO much more I could do.
Individually we’re all culpable for supporting practices that damage the world and damage animal welfare. The root cause is usually human selfishness. I am selfish. We all are. I will be doing more to minimise that now. I would much rather be poor but know that who I am in my mind and what I stand for serves the greater good. I never really understood why people put themselves in the firing line when they could face repercussions, but now I absolutely do. We all do things due to self preservation, intentional or not. We are all trying to support our families and our own lives but I will always ensure that people who have experienced immoral practice, criminal or not are supported too.
At the heart of dog training and breeding, should be kindness. You are raising an animal that is going into someone’s home and will change the path of that individual. When you’re training someone’s dog, you are going to change the path of that individual. The line between business and breeding is a tricky one to tread. The parallels with highly regulated industries is yes profit is made, the policies and systems in place are not always foolproof but they hold values at their core which ensure profit benefits wider issues as much as it benefits the individuals working for it.
The parallel to this story would be like being in the pharmaceutical industry while the same business sells known carcinogens. It doesn't happen in highly regulated industry. Dog breeding, training etc is not highly regulated. Every organisation involved just shifts culpability and blame to the next individual because not every organization can have every fact. Honestly, it's a minefield.
I suggest everyone just thinks a little about their values, what is important to them and then supports practices that support those values. Mind you, it's not even that simple because rescue centres fund puppy farms too in a very roundabout what. But what else are they supposed to do? Someone needs to care. But the root cause lies in the decision each human being makes when they choose to either breed from, or buy a puppy. And yes, I have bought puppies from questionable places in the past but now I know better, I do better.