Kennel Club Accredited Airedale Terriers Breeders Faced Prosecution on Animal Cruelty

A couple of award winning dog breeders have faced prosecution after they had loaded 12 pedigree dogs into a removals van to be removed to a 30C hot zone around 200 miles away. Alan and Julie Weatherley (couple who are both Kennel Club accredited Airedale breeders since July 2009), one of whose dogs had been placed in the most reputed Crufts show in the year 2005, were in the process of relocating from London to Doncaster. They had been checked by the cops and the officers found beautiful Airedale Terriers caged and piled inhumanly in the high temperatures with almost no proper ventilation. They dogs had been stacked with the furniture and other articles which proved that they considered the dogs as commodities. The couples had been prosecuted for animal cruelty.

The complaint were launched against Weatherley by their neighbor that one of the captivated dogs had fallen down from the the wagon into the road. With the day temperatures on the rise - around 28.8c, they were not allowed to take the dogs with them. 12 Airedale Terrier dogs had been unloaded by the cops and were temporarily rehoused them in a resident nearby which can cost the Weatherley couple up to £1,000 for each dog.

"The animals have been removed from a potentially dangerous vehicle and we will now investigate," said Inspector Colin Baker of Sutton Police. A policeman present on the spot said that the removals lorry had "little or no ventilation". He also added that he had been told that the couple planned to give halt at every half an hour interval during their journey to walk and water their dogs. A spokesman for the RSPCA said: "Any dog owner needs to ensure that their dogs are transported in comfortable and safe conditions, and this means that they must be kept cool and not be too cramped. If it can be proven that dogs were caused suffering then owners can be prosecuted." According to The Kennel Club Accreditation Schemes, the dog breeders are given accreditation only after they make commitment of good breeding practice. The Kennel Club remains really concerned about how people move their dogs, while relocating. A spokesman for the Kennel Club said "it is imperative that people have adequate transport arrangements for their dogs in hot weather, which includes access to water and proper ventilation and this is included amongst the extensive guidelines in the scheme. We have the power to discipline or remove breeders from the scheme, as appropriate, if their standards are found wanting. To date 212 have been removed which demonstrates our commitment to upholding the standards of the scheme. No complaint has been made against the breeders in question since they joined the scheme in 2009 but we are in contact with the relevant authorities about this incident and will act accordingly."

On the other level, a police spokesman said that the they had been called following reports of several dogs being loaded into a removal van that had very little ventilation system. The police said that the dogs were removed from the vehicle and housed temporarily in a safe place. One furious neighbor who launched the complaint against the Weatherleys for animal cruelty said, "we couldn't believe how many dogs were in the van especially given that it was almost 30 degrees today. The dogs have such thick coats and looked really hot - as the police opened up the vans the crates seemed to fall out as they were so badly stacked. Most of the residents on this street are completely incensed about this."