Why dog lovers should never buy puppies from pet shops

Pet shops are to be banned from selling puppies, under tough new rules to prevent so-called “puppy farming”.

Many are familiar with the image of a puppy in a pet shop window, but behind the cute image often lies a story of exploitation and even abuse.

Michael Gove, the environment secretary, acted after the RSPCA warned of a "puppy crisis."

Third-hand sales of puppies often mean that sick dogs can be sold as healthy, and it is difficult for the consumer to find out the health of the mother. Animals are often also taken away from their mother far too soon, which can cause problems, and bred in sub-standard conditions.

The Telegraph spoke to David Bowles, Head of Public Affairs at the RSPCA, about why this new piece of legislation is so important, and what potential pet owners should look for before buying a dog.

The truth behind pet shop pooches

Mr Bowles said: "The trade in puppies in England is probably something like 700,000 dogs coming on to the market every year.

"And some of those dogs are being sold by what we call third party sellers and you get very poor conditions, being sold in lay-bys, the dogs have poor welfare and they're very badly adjusted."

Never buy dogs from a pet shop

Mr Bowles was very clear that dogs should only be bought from the breeder.

He said that research should be done to find an appropriate breeder, explaining: "So if you want a specific breed just get it from a breeder that you trust, do your research and certainly work out whether you have the energy, the money, the time to exercise that dog, give the dog the right food and water, give it the right veterinary care."

The checks you should do when buying a puppy

The RSPCA chief explained: "They shouldn't be giving you the dog on the first time you get there, you certainly should not be getting the dog anywhere apart from the breeder's house. You should be asking to see the dog's mother because that shows that the person has bred the dog themselves.

"Ask where it's come from if it's microchipped, if it's vaccinated. All of those things the breeder should be very happy to give you the information and you should walk away with a well-adjusted dog.

"Ask if the breeder has the puppy contract. Ask if they are Kennel Club registered. Those are all fairly good signs to show that the breeder knows what they're doing and is breeding responsibly.

"So a dog should be well adjusted and well socialized; if it looks scared, it doesn't look like it knows how to react around humans then it may be badly socialized. "

The new measures mean it should be easier to buy a healthy puppy

Many of the warnings the RSPCA has given about purchasing a puppy are covered under the new measures.

These include banning licensed sellers from dealing with puppies and kittens under the age of eight weeks; introducing compulsory licensing for breeders who sell puppies, which they must have bred themselves, and requiring puppy sales to be completed in the presence of the new owner, preventing online sales.

Adams County SPCA reports seizing 133 animals in deplorable conditions

Adams County SPCA closed unexpectedly Friday following the seizure of more than 100 animals, according to the organization's social media accounts.

Most of the animals seized were birds, including pigeons, ducks, geese and chickens. The organization also took in pigs, rabbits, cats and miniature donkeys from a residence in Adams County, the post states.

With a search warrant, the SPCA seized a total of 133 animals from the residence on Dec. 7. None of the animals are available for adoption at this time because of the pending court case.

A Facebook post depicts alleged "deplorable conditions" with the animals confined to small spaces and living in unsanitary conditions. (Warning: Some might find the photos disturbing.)

The Adams County SPCA could not release more details at this time because the investigation remains open.

The organization is asking the community for donations — both monetary and in the form of Tractor Supply gift cards, bagged straw and bales of hay — to help care for the animals in the coming days.

Here's how you can help animals affected by the California wildfires

Last week, as the Skirball Fire burned up more and more of Southern California, Los Angeles Police Department Officer Tae Kim was helping with evacuations.

Kim's focus was to "get people out," LAPD spokesperson Sergeant Hector Guzman told TODAY. But while going door to door in west Los Angeles, Kim found a cat that seemed to be in trouble.

The cat was in a house whose front door was open. No one appeared to be home, so Kim carried the cat to his patrol car to make sure the feline would be safe.

"For somebody it's their companion, family member," said Guzman. "It could be their everything."

The six wildfires tearing through Southern California have burned up 175,000 acres and counting. A reported 90,000 people have been evacuated from their homes. On Friday, authorities confirmed 70-year-old Virginia Pesola as the first person to be killed in connection with the fires.

Heroic individuals are working around the clock to save animals from these harsh conditions — and the good news is you can help.

A big way to do that is by supporting animal shelters in the affected areas.

Randy Friedman, spokesperson for Ventura County Animal Services — in the area where the Thomas Fire has spread across 148,000 acres — told TODAY that the shelter has taken in far more animals than usual in order to provide a "safe space" for the community's pets.

That includes those who are lost and stray, and those who need refuge while their human family members are evacuated. VCAS' usual capacity is about 400 pets; they are now caring for more than 1,000, both at the regular shelter and at the evacuation shelter at the Ventura County Fairgrounds.

On Friday, an elderly woman came to VCAS with her three dogs, one of whom is 17 years old. She was evacuating to an emergency shelter, but her dogs weren't allowed. Full to the brim already, staff quickly built a new kennel in the shelter director's office so the dogs would have someplace to stay until their owner could reclaim them.

"That's our main mandate," Friedman said. "To keep people's pets safe."

To help in this mission, VCAS is maintaining a fire wish list, updated regularly as needs change. They're also posting updates on the VCAS Facebook page.

Friedman said another priority is to have animals go home as quickly as possible to free up much-needed space. Families who have left pets at the shelter while they are evacuated should retrieve them as soon as they are able. While the shelter has been closed to adoptions due to the fire, that should change early in the week at the latest, Friedman hopes — and "adopt right away once we're back open," he said.

The Humane Society of Ventura County is also working "in full-throttle crisis mode," said spokesperson Franki D. Williams. "We have been open 24/7 since Monday and have been intaking animals as well as going out on animal evacuations since that time."

Shelters swell with more than 1,000 animals displaced by wildfire

At the Camarillo Animal Shelter, which has nearly doubled its population in the wake of natural disaster, even the deputy director's office is being used to temporarily house kenneled pets displaced by the Thomas Fire

"We have never been this busy over the past 10 years, as we have been over the past few days," said marketing director Randy Friedman.

Ventura County Animal Services has fielded an "alarming" amount of calls for animal welfare this week, according to field operations supervisor Bryan Bray.

"We've had an extreme volume of calls," Bray said. "Everything from ‘Can you check on my animals because I've been evacuated' to ‘my animals need to be evacuated' to ‘where can I take my animals.' "

As of late Friday, Ventura County Animal Services had received more than 1,000 displaced animals, 426 of which were being kept in Camarillo, including house pets, horses, ponies, emus, chickens, quail and a pig.

The temporary shelter at the Ventura County Fairgrounds was housing 315 domestic animals, 215 equines and 47 others.

"We're stretched, but we're making it happen," Friedman said. "The community has really come out in a way that has just floored us."

Friedman said the community has donated "literally a ton of food" for the animals. It has also responded to the live wish list Friedman maintains on the shelter's website.

"Within a few minutes after posting something, people have purchased it and they've brought it to the shelter," Friedman said. "We just needed eye drops … because our field supervisors are in the smoke and their eyes are all tearing up. All of a sudden, somebody came in with eye drops."

The Santa Paula Animal Rescue Center evacuated 59 dogs and 77 cats to the Santa Paula Airport on Monday and Tuesday.

Nicky Gore-Jones, SPARC's executive director, said the public has responded with "unbelievable generosity."

"During this week, some things were more important than others," Gore-Jones said. "I was looking possibly for fosters at the beginning of the week, just to get animals out quickly. Then we were looking for food and … water. Every day, things have changed."

As of Friday, when the animals returned to the center, Gore-Jones' priority has shifted back to finding homes for the animals.

"Now our No. 1 priority is for people to adopt our animals because we were full before the fire and we're overloaded now because we haven't been able to adopt out all week," Gore-Jones said.

The Humane Society of Ventura County, which has taken in "hundreds of animals" this week at its shelter in Ojai, has made a public cry for monetary donations.

"Donations are pouring in and are greatly appreciated, but the need is monumental and ongoing," director of community outreach Greg Cooper said in a news release.

"If people want to donate, money is our No. 1 ask," Cooper said, "since we can appropriate the funds to specific needs for fire relief."

Others have donated their time. The Camarillo shelter has been boosted by about 50 volunteers. "Hundreds" of volunteers have donated time in Ojai, according to Cooper.

"We have vets and a vet tech volunteering their time," Cooper said, "including bringing in a mobile clinic to the shelter to assist with any injuries or questions."

Cooper mentioned a dog who was brought to the Ojai shelter with singed hair and burns on all four paws and his back. "Mike" is receiving round-the-clock care.

"He's a fighter and he's doing OK," Cooper said. 

With the fire continuing to burn, Bray's advice for animal lovers is to have a plan.

"We want animal owners to be prepared," Bray said. "Even though you may not be under a voluntary or mandatory evacuation, situations change rapidly. So we want you to be able to get out quickly with your animals and be able to house them safely.

"What we've noticed is a lot of transportation issues as far as livestock and large animals, people not having enough trailers or not being able to get them out quickly enough. So those have been obstacles that we've been trying to deal with."

That included a call to an evacuated home on Casitas Pass Road, where three officers took in about 100 chickens, quail and a peacock.

"We actually had three officers out there rescuing these animals," Bray said. "We were able to successfully capture all of them and bring them to the shelter to house them safely."

Rescued animals being brought to Brazoria County Fairgrounds

In Harvey's wake, crews are working to save stranded animals and reunite owners with lost pets.

The lines didn't stop Friday at a parking location at the Katy Mills Mall. People weren't there to buy goods, instead, help animals left stranded by Harvey.

"I think that these dogs and animals need help and I thought it would be fun to help," volunteer Jack Herberig said.

Volunteers walked, fed and clean animal cages.

"It doesn't make me sad," Herberig said. "It just makes me want to help."

An Austin based group, Austin Pets Alive, is running the parking lot shelter. An area originally meant to help nearby agencies, but that quickly changed.

"We also are running into an extreme need for stray animals to go," Austin Pets Alive Executive Director Ellen Jefferson said. "So we've also become a little bit of a hub for stray animal intake."

The displaced animals are crated and packed into cars. They'll be moved to nearby shelters. The goal now is to get pets reunited with owners.

"We are rapidly working with the city of Austin, city of Houston, and Best Friends," Jefferson said. "They are working on a lost and found database that people would have access to."

It might take some time because animal organizations say this is not like anything they've seen before.

"We were involved with the 2011 Bastrop fires that were really terrible for animals," Jefferson said. "We did search and rescue that was nothing compared to this. This is just massive."

Katy isn't the only place where animals are being saved. As the water rises in Brazoria County, crews are racing to help stranded animals.

"We've been working for seven days," Brazoria County emergency management lead Jesse Leija said. "We've got about a hundred plus horses, cattle. We've got about 200 to 300 heavy cattle that we've been working with."

And with the levels continuing to rise, responders aren't sure when they'll be able to retire their street boats.

"God created creatures," Leija said. "We're here to save them."

If you're looking to help animals, check with the shelters and see if they need volunteers. The groups certainly need supplies, including plastic spoons, kennels and poop bags. You can also donate online.

Animal advocacy groups press on to save pets affected by Harvey

People who work with pets and animals might soon notice a boom in the number of little creatures named Harvey.

At least two animal advocacy organizations are telling stories of animals saved in the wake of the former hurricane who rescuers named after the storm that battered Texas.

Those two animals - a baby sheep and a hawk - are among thousands of animals needing help after Harvey, which has left a death toll in the double digits. An army of organizations and workers are finding that the efforts to rescue and transport dogs, cats and other creatures is nearly as intense as that to help humans affected by Harvey.

 "We are actually ramping things up," Katie Jarl, Texas state director of the Humane Society of the United States, told USA TODAY Friday.

"When you have a population of that many thousands upon thousands of people who have lost homes and people are using the news to just find their family members – can you imagine if it's that difficult to find your mom and dad how difficult it is to find your cat?" Jarl said.

The rescue effort for thousands of pets affected by the storm will take years, said Jarl, adding that her long days and nights getting animals flown to other parts of the country, returned to owners, treated by veterinarians and rescued from danger have been "powered by coffee."

Jarl's organization is one of many that have coalesced to make sure people's furry companions get to safety and health after the storm that pounded Texas. Every organization and private company that deals with animals seems to be involved: the Humane Society of the United States, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Best Friends Animal Society, GreaterGood.org, Wings of Rescue, PetSmart and many more.

The furry -- and not so furry creatures -- are often rattled by what has happened and sopping wet when they arrive to safety. Some have gotten sick while waiting for help. Some are found clinging to furniture, while others have been saved from drowning.

The efforts are massive:

— Best Friends Animal Society has taken over the 15-acre Montgomery County Fairgrounds in Conroe, Texas, and made it into Rescue and Reunite Center where animals are being reunited with owners or triaged.

— People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, was in hard-hit Port Arthur rescuing stranded animals by boat in scenes reminiscent of Noah's Ark.

— On Thursday, a team representing the Humane Society went to hard-hit Rockport, Texas. The workers are sleeping in the local jailhouse because it is the only place still standing with enough beds for them and they are people who have lost everything, Jarl said.

At the Montgomery County Fairgrounds site, 30 employees with Best Friends Animal Society from all over the country were handling veterinary care, animal transportation and other duties, Eric Rayvid, director of public relations and content marketing for Best Friends, told USA TODAY.

"We're bringing all animals rescued from the flood waters here and letting people know they can come here to find their pets," said Rayvid, the sounds of barking at the fairgrounds site in the background.

Organizations and companies have donated money, goods and services too, animal advocates said. Coldwell Banker D'Ann Harper Real Estate in San Antonio is inviting the public to a pet adoption event planned in conjunction with shelters.

The American Kennel Club Humane Fund has donated $10,000 and a trailer to help with the pet rescue to the city of Houston. GreaterGood.org paid for about 120 dogs and cats from a shelter in Louisiana to be flown by the humanitarian animal organization Wings of Rescue to Manassas, Va., on Saturday so they would have a safe place to live until they can be reunited with their families.

PetSmart Charities is giving upwards of $1 million in emergency aid and several truckloads  of pet food and supplies to help the animal advocacy groups working on the ground.

The animals that are the recipients of all this help are not always dogs and cats.

There was the baby sheep found drowning in a ditch in San Antonio now named Harvey. There was the hawk that set up shop in the back seat of a Houston taxi and would not leave, forcing the driver to take him home (now safely recuperating at a wildlife facility). There was the shaggy 80-pound mutt named Sandy who was waiting to be adopted out of a San Antonio shelter near January and who now has people waiting to adopt him at his new shelter home in Seattle.

There was the little pig found wandering in an abandoned area, and a waterlogged armadillo who just needed a boost to dry land.

Some of the animals are injured or sick because of the storm, Jarl said.

"When animals experience high levels of stress they make themselves sick," Jarl said. "They've spent days on top of boxes sometimes. Their immune systems will shut down."

Many cats are coming down with upper respiratory infections, she said.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals was asking people to tweet the locations of animals in need in Harvey's wake to @PETA. Its team was in Port Arthur, rescuing animals by boat. On Thursday, the team saved four stranded kittens, three dogs and an ailing chicken.  The team found one of the kittens clinging to a patio umbrella and the others huddled nearby. They found three dogs left in a flooded backyard standing on part of a rotting wooden shelf and they came to the rescue of an armadillo stranded on a small patch of land, David Perle, PETA's assistant media manager, told USA TODAY.

The fairgrounds in Conroe was quickly reaching its 1,000-animal capacity, said Rayvid of Best Friends. The site was housing three distinct groups of animals, he said: evacuees staying at the nearby Lone Star Convention & Expo Center, where pets are not allowed, pets evacuated from flood zone shelters and pets rescued from the flood zone, he said.

Childhood dog-bite victim is happy with pet-free life

Dear Abby: I'm not a dog person. I'm not even an animal person. I am, however, surrounded by dog owners — my family, my husband's family, my neighbors. Back in middle school, I was bitten several times by dogs while delivering my paper route.

My husband has been without a dog for five years (since the beginning of our relationship). Over the last six months, he has begun to ask when he can get "us" a dog. I absolutely do not want one. They're not clean, they make "messes," and we will constantly have to find someone to care for it when we travel. I have told him this, yet he continues asking. We can't even agree on a hypothetical breed of dog.

I suppose I could say, "Go ahead," with the condition that my husband will have to shoulder all pet-related responsibilities. But we both know how well that will work out. What do you think?

— Wary in Wisconsin

Dear Wary: There's a saying, "Once bitten, twice shy." Because you have been bitten more than once, your reason for not wanting a dog seems logical. Frankly, I think it would be unfair to the animal to bring it into a household in which it wasn't unanimously welcomed. And if you think your husband would lay the responsibility for caring for the dog on you, you should not agree.

Dear Abby: My wife seems to only want to have sex with me when I'm supposed to be at work. It's really flattering, but I am at risk of losing my job. We don't have enough savings to last more than a couple of months if I'm out of work. She wanted me to call in sick today, but I didn't know how to say no without offending her. Help!

— John in Canada

Dear John: Try this. Ask your wife, "Which is more important to you — me in your bed or food on the table and a roof over our heads? I'll be home by 6 o'clock. Be ready!"