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Daily’s undercover sting sees illegal puppy farm closed

An undercover investigation by a regional daily has seen an illegal puppy farm shut down and its owners banned from keeping dogs for ten years.

Dan Thompson, investigations editor at the Manchester Evening News, and reporter Amy Glendinning carried out an investigation earlier this year, gaining access to a puppy farm in Walshaw by posing as a couple interested in buying a dog.

While at the premises, they secretly filmed the shocking conditions the puppies were being kept in for a three-page investigation in the paper, and also shared their evidence with the RSPCA – which raided the farm and seized more than 100 dogs.

Now the farm’s owners, Jeffrey and Richard Speakman, have been banned for keeping dogs for ten years and handed four-month suspended jail terms by Bury magistrates after admitting 11 animal welfare offences.

 

When police and RSPCA inspectors swooped on Bentley Hall Farm, they discovered dogs in their own faeces and with untreated medical conditions – including a Labrador found dead in her bed from organ failure.

RSPCA inspectors said some older dogs at the farm had been kept purely as ‘breeding machines’ – producing litter after litter to be sold at around £250 per puppy.

Jeffrey Speakman, 66, of Bentley Hall Road, and his 22-year-old son Richard, of Fern Street, Ramsbottom, were also ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and pay £500 in costs each.

Dan said it was a “great result” from the investigation, which was launched after last November, buckets full of trafficked, pedigree puppies were found during an RSPCA raid in Stockport.

He said: “We covered the story and, after seeing the response it had from our readers, I decide to investigate the issue of puppy farming and trafficking on our patch.

“During the initial stage of this investigation, I discovered there was a puppy farm operating illegally in Bury, north of Manchester.

“A number of people who bought puppies from there complained that the dogs turned out to be very sick or so aggressive that vets advised them to have the animals put to sleep.

“The local council was made aware that these farmers were breeding and selling lots of puppies without a licence, which is illegal, but had taken no action to close it down.

“So we went into the farm undercover on three occasions, saying we were interested in buying a puppy, and secretly recorded the conditions the animals were kept in.”

The paper’s investigation was published in April and almost 15,000 people signed a petition calling for action over the paper’s findings.

The RSPCA then raised the farm with police and Bury council officials a month later.

The MEN has been praised by the RSPCA for its investigation following the sentencing.

A spokeswoman said: “We’d like to thank the Manchester Evening News for the concern they showed for these dogs and the part they played in highlighting their plight.”

All of the dogs seized were eventually signed over to the RSPCA and have either been rehomed or are available for rehoming.

2 comments

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  • October 10, 2013 at 8:23 am
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    Amazing that the council had taken no action. Typical!!

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  • October 10, 2013 at 4:13 pm
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    Bought a bordie collie pup of these idiots he was riddled with infection

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