Please check out the Oscar's Law website at: www.oscarslaw.org and back this terrific campaign to MAKE PUPPY FARMS HISTORY! Please DO NOT buy puppies from pet shops who use puppy farms to source their animals.

You may think 'But this puppy will have a lovely life', but please think of the parents of your puppy who are bred to death with minimal human contact in squalid conditions and with no veterinary care. Their reward for their lives of misery is a bullet in the head once they are no use for breeding.

Puppies from puppy farms often have mental health issues from inbreeding (no puppy farmer follows up on genetic defects) or the awful conditions they endure as babies. They also often have medical conditions, such as mites and ear infections, that you will have to pay to sort out. They may be sold as a specific breed, but are often cross breeds so you are not being sold what you think you are.

Puppy farmers and the pet shops that sell farmed puppies do not care about animals they care about PROFIT.

Alternatives to Pet shops/ Classified Ads (always puppy/ backyard breeders)/ Internet puppy sales ( puppy farms). Do not consider ANY advert that lists lots of different breeds for sale. They are PUPPY FARMS:

Try:

1. Registered ethical breeders: NOT just 'registered businesses' or 'registered dogs'. Unscrupulous breeders will try to tell you they are 'registered breeders', but you must always CHECK. Log on to the Oscar's Law website for directions to find caring registered breeders.

2. Specific breed rescue: 'But I want a specific breed'! You shall have it! All breeds have their own breed rescue. Just google (for instance) 'Poodle rescue Melbourne', or whatever breed you want. They tailor dogs to situations, unlike pet shops and unethical breeders, the dogs are checked out by dog behaviourists, and, yes, they do get puppies!

3. Rescue Centres: Why do so many people think it's only 'problem' dogs that end up in Rescue Centres? It is not! Dogs are given up for many different reasons and you can find wonderful pets at these centres. All dogs in rescue centres are tailored to the specific needs of the adopter be it family, farmer, single person etc..... They are checked out by a behaviourist and 'roughed up' by them in a one to one session. Any dog showing signs of agression during the extensive psychological check list does not make the adoption cut. You are much more likely to get a well balanced dog from a shelter than from any pet shop!!!!! Plus you are saving a life and, yes, they do get puppies!!!!

4. Pet Barn and other caring and ethical pet stores who have proved that you can make a profit and be successful without trading in live animals from puppy farms. They run adoption services for local shelters and showcase beuatiful healthy dogs and cats. Please support these caring ethical shops and stay away from uncaring unethical shops such as Pet's Paradise, Greensborough.

Please consider all of the above before buying your pet. A dog bought from a pet shop is a purchase that has not been properly thought through. A pet is for life, it should be a cosniderable decision that you take time and care over. It shouldn't be as easy as dropping by the pet shop. And Pet's Paradise is no paradise for the dogs still sentenced to a life as a breeding dog in a puppy farm. They will die a couple of metres from where they were born at the hands of an uncaring owner having never known love or kindness.

Do you want to have this blood on your hands? Please support the Oscar's Law campaign!