A New South Wales animal welfare inspecting body has accepted $35,000 from a puppy retailer it is responsible for auditing, prompting anger among activists.
The Animal Welfare League NSW accepted the money in three Christmas gifts over three years from Kellyville Pets, Sydney’s biggest pet shop.
Kellyville Pets denies making the donation, saying the money came directly from the store’s customers.
The store sells puppies sourced from external breeders, and has plans for its own $841,000 breeding operation near Bathurst, which would supply the retail store.
Critics have described the proposed facility as a “puppy farm” – a label the business rejects.
The Animal Welfare League has a regulatory and inspection role, which includes independent auditing of the Kellyville store, according to the company’s website.
The league also shares responsibility with the RSPCA for auditing the breeders that supply Kellyville Pets.
Last month, the Victorian government banned the sale of puppies in pet stores, and introduced strict requirements to clamp down on puppy farms.
Oscar’s Law, an organisation campaigning to end puppy farming, said accepting the money showed the Animal Welfare League in NSW was out of touch with the public mood.
“It is a huge conflict of interest,” Oscar’s Law founder Debra Tranter said. “The Victorian government have just banned the sale of puppies from pet shops from July this year.
“Times are changing, and for AWL to be working with one of the biggest pet shops in Sydney, I think proves they are really out of touch with community concerns.”
Tranter called on the league to hand back the money and end its association with Kellyville.
The money was sourced from Kellyville’s customers through a Christmas-themed pet photo promotion. About $5 was donated from the price of each photo package sold, and donations could be made via an “AWL wishing tree”.
Kellyville’s managing director, John Grima, said it was wrong to suggest the business was responsible for the donations. Grima said the customers had given the money to Animal Welfare League.
“All of the funds raised come directly from our customers as explicit donations from them, not from us,” he said. “We provide the space for the Santa Paws photos to happen [and] consolidate the individual donations so it’s easier for AWL to collect, and accept donated dog toys at our store.
“It is not a donation from Kellyville Pets to AWL.”
He said any link between the donations and AWL inspections was “clearly unfounded”, as the RSPCA also had responsibility for regulating Kellyville’s breeders.
The company’s Facebook page carried a photo in December of a cheque for $15,094.60 to the AWL, in the name of Kellyville Pets and the photo studio, Fuzzy Beast.
Grima said the business went above and beyond what the law required by handing both the RSPCA and the AWL the names of its breeders.
He said the proposed facility in Bathurst would set a “set a new benchmark for the pet industry not seen in Australia before”, and included large grass exercise yards, insulated kennels, socialisation yards, grooming facilities and a lifetime rehoming guarantee for all dogs, including the breeding bitches.
The Animal Welfare League NSW declined to comment until it had released a more general statement to the media.
But a board member, animal behaviourist Joanne Righetti, said the matter was being investigated. Asked whether there was a reputational risk to the AWL, she said: “There always is. My number one concern is animal welfare, absolutely. That goes above everything else.
“No matter what we do, we’re constantly checking and rechecking ourself to make sure animal welfare is the number one priority.”
The Animal Welfare League’s national policy states that it does not condone the sale of dogs and cats in pet stores, but says if businesses choose to do so, they should “rehome dogs and cats on behalf of shelters/pounds or from government-authorised breeders who abide by a code of practice with exemplary animal welfare standards”.
Grima said Kellyville has helped rehome 321 cats to date. It also holds rescue days for AWL and other organisations.
