BREAKING NEWS! Government FINALLY to enact #LucysLaw to ban the sale of puppies in pet shops. They have set an implementation date of 6 April 2020, meaning Dogs4Us and other pet shops have until then to end their puppy sales.
Marc Abraham, Lucy’s Law campaigner and founder of Pup Aid said:
I’m absolutely thrilled that Lucy’s Law is now being laid in Parliament and will come into effect from April 2020. For years irresponsible breeders in the UK and abroad, so-called puppy farmers, have depended on commercial third party sellers – e.g. dealers and pet shops – to keep their breeding dogs and puppies in horrific conditions hidden from the public.
Lucy’s Law is named after one of the sweetest, bravest dogs I’ve ever known, and is a fitting tribute to all the victims of the cruel third party puppy trade, both past and present.
On behalf of my fellow grassroots campaigners I’d like to thank Mr Gove, Defra officials, and every single supporter, parliamentarian, celebrities, and ethical animal welfare organisation that has proudly helped make Lucy’s Law a reality.
Boycott Dogs4Us thanks Pup Aid, C.A.R.I.A.D and Lisa – Lucy The Rescue Cavalier for heading up this campaign and for all the groups that supported them including including Saynotopetshoppups, K-9 Angels,Little Rascals now Puppies at Home Dog Breeders Lincoln UK The Facts, Chancepixies Animal Rescue and of course all the supporters of Boycott Dogs4Us.
We will continue to campaign against Dogs4Us until they stop selling puppies in April 2020 or, hopefully, before that date.
Our campaign organised a protest outside Parliament with TV Vet Marc Abraham calling for a ban on the sale of puppies in pet shops and other third-party dealers in support of PupAid and C.A.R.I.A.D, who were giving oral evidence to the committee. The protest was attended by Labour MP Rob Flello, Conservative MP David Amess, SNP MP Paul Monaghan, Labour MP Rosie Cooper, Linda Goodman (CARIAD), Leigh-Catherine Salway (K-9 Angels), and Jodie Marsh (Bodybuilder and Glamour Model).
Due to the work of national campaign groups Pup Aid and CARIAD and support from smaller groups such as ourselves, the committee published a report recommending a ban on the sale of puppies in pet shops and by other third party dealers. Boycott Dogs4Us’ evidence was very briefly quoted as part of the report.
Aran Mathai from Boycott Dogs4Us spoke on BBC 2 about why the sale of puppies in pet shops needs to be banned.
Following the protest we went on to secure local politician’s support for our campaign. We were overwhelmed by messages of support from both Councillors and MPs. You can see the messages on our Celebrity and Political Support page.
Working with our local political contacts we worked behind and in front of the scenes pushing the Councils to take action regarding Dogs4Us, including holding a protest outside each store which highlighted an investigation by the BBC which included shocking undercover footage shot inside Dogs4Us puppy farm suppliers.
The Boycott Dogs4Us Team then attended the UK’s largest anti-puppy farming event PupAid to spread the word about our campaign.
In Leeds we delivered a Deputation to Full Council calling for a ban on the sale of puppies in Leeds pet shops. A vote was held and the Council unanimously agreed to pass the issue to the relevant department.
We held a rally for Puppy Farm Awareness Day in Manchester City Centre. The rally was attended by actress Shobna Gulati (Anita in Victoria Wood’s Dinnerladies and Sunita Alahan in Coronation Street) and speeches were given by or on behalf of numerous dog welfare/animal protection groups including Manchester Animal Action and the Linton Pet Shop Campaign.
In Salford (Manchester) following our lobbying efforts the Council began a consultation into license conditions for pet shops. We submitted a response to the consultation thanking the Council for beginning to address the issue and to point out shortcomings in their proposed changes. We also staged a protest in Salford town centre at the end of the consultation period.
We held a protest at Leeds Town Hall calling on the Council to end the sale of puppies in pet shops and by other third-party dealers in Leeds.
The next day we met with Leeds Council representatives securing commitments to investigate concerns raised by our campaign.
Finally we held two days of action at the Manchester and Leeds stores educating the public as to why puppies are not presents.
Sadly champion of puppy farm dogs Lucy The Rescue Cavalier passed away in the run up to this two days of action. Therefore our campaign decided to hold a minutes silence for Lucy at our Manchester event. Other campaigners including our friends at C.A.R.I.A.D galvanised thousands of people across the world to join the minutes silence remotely, spreading the message even further.
Boycott Dogs4Us would like to thank all the people and groups that have supported and helped the campaign throughout 2016. In 2017, we at Boycott Dogs4Us will be redoubling our efforts to support campaigns such as PupAid and C.A.R.I.A.D in their push for a ban on the sale of puppies in pet shops (and by other third-party dealers). We will also continue to push the Councils locally to take action against Dogs4Us.
With your help a better future is possible for the dogs!
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The protest was covered on Look North – see coverage here:
The Boycott Dogs4Us campaign is committed to exposing Dogs4Us sale of sick and dying puppies sourced from cruel puppy farms. We will continue to campaign until Dogs4Us stop selling puppies. Learn more on our About Dogs4Us page.
Facebook posts on the Dogs4Us Manchester and the Dogs4Us Leeds page encourage parents who are not looking to purchase a puppy to bring their children to their store. They are also running the ad on local Leeds radio station, Radio Aire. The only possible commercial reason for such an enticement is to encourage impulse purchases of puppies.
‘Pester power’ leads parents to make spur of the moment decisions. Many puppies are bought for the summer holidays only to be put up for sale/re-homing once the school term starts.
Dogs continue to be put to sleep due to a lack of good homes. If you have space in your life for a dog, please visit a rescue centre. Adopt, don’t shop.
Actress Linda Blair has re-tweeted about the latest Boycott Dogs4Us protest.
Academy Award nominated and Golden Globe winning actress Linda Blair is best known for her role in The Exorcist and more recently for her guest appearance on the TV Series Supernatural. However Blair is also a committed animal activist.
When one of our supporters tweeted Blair about our upcoming protest against the cruel puppy farm pet shop Dogs4Us, she didn’t hesitate to re-tweet to her fans.
Dogs4Us buys their puppies from cruel puppy farms, many go on to have health issues and even die much to the heartbreak of the families that purchase them.
Sky News and Channel 5 exposed Dogs4us for their cruelty. You can see the Sky News video below:
Nicola Robinson who was the manager of Dogs4us Leeds for 4 years has come out against her former employer. Speaking to the Boycott Dogs4us campaign via Twitter, Robinson revealed that Dogs4us does indeed source its puppies from puppy farms, despite the company’s claims to the contrary.
Robinson also spoke of her heartbreak at seeing puppies die while at the store.
On Sunday 21st June 2015, 20 activists over the course of the day protested puppy warehouse Dogs4Us in Leeds.
The protest highlighted the fact that a Channel 5 and Sky News expose revealed that Dogs4Us sources their puppies from cruel puppy farms in Wales. Dogs at Dogs4us supplier farms are kept in horrific conditions, living in tiny pens in complete darkness with little or no bedding, space, stimulation, or access to the outside. Customers of Dogs4Us have reported buying sick and diseased puppies.
Dogs4Us claims to offer a guarantee but this does not offer any more protection than the legal minimum. It does not cover vet bills but rather only allows a refund or replacement dog – treating puppies like products.
The protest marked the launch of “Operation Boycott”, urging a complete and total boycott of the Yorkshire based puppy superstore.
Customers were told of other places to buy supplies and rescue centres from which puppies can be obtained. This led to many customers turning away from the store.
Dogs4us was empty or nearly empty throughout the day! This shows the effectiveness of the awareness raising efforts of the campaign so far.
One protester was arrested after a false allegation by a Dogs4us staff member that he had hit their car. The campaigner was later released without charge. This shows the desperate lengths that the puppy farm pet shop Dogs4us will go to silence legitimate protest.
The campaign will continue until Dogs4us either closes down or stops selling puppies for good.
On Sunday 26h August 2012, 30 people (over the course of the day) including local children and young people protested against Dogs4us Leeds. It is great to see young people taking action for animals – special thanks to them.
The store had hardly any customers all day, people turned away after receiving leaflets and even more turned away at the gates after merely seeing the protest. Staff were standing about with nothing to do and ordering themselves a pizza and drinking cups of tea all day.
Customers came up to campaigners to tell us the puppies were clearly too young to be responsibly sold, had no fresh water and there were lots of stories of sick puppies bought from Dogs4us.
Local children told us how the puppies always looked sad in Dogs4Us and were keen to join the protest themselves.
Yesterday (22nd July) around 45 protesters (over the course of the day) protested Dogs4us in Manchester. This is over double the lower end of our pre-protest estimate of 20! Loud and direct the protest had tons of public support. The road was awash with noise as cars tooted to show their disgust at Dogs4us dirty business.
Refreshments were brought by locals that wanted to show support for the campaign and other passers-by joined the demo.
Members of the public and the few customers Dogs4us actually had, read the signs and leaflets about the Sky News and Channel 5 expose showing the cruel conditions dogs were kept in at a breeder that supplied Dogs4us. The megaphone was used to let people know that the Government recommend that you only buy a puppy if you can see the mother and that no so-called ‘responsible’ breeder would sell to a pet shop.
Sacha (the son of the Dogs4Us owner) who came out to photograph the protesters ran back inside Dogs4Us when activists went up to say ‘hi’ (assaulting an activist on his way). Then he cowardly sent his girlfriend out to take photos of the protesters while he hid inside!
Paige (Sacha’s girlfriend) appears to join the Boycott Dogs4us protest 😉
Interest in the campaign continues to grow with over 60,000 views on the YouTube video showing the Sky News investigation of Dogs4us. Pledges to boycott continue to overwhelm the campaign and protest numbers continue to be strong. Dogs4us…. it is time to stop selling puppies!
