School holidays are coming to their natural autumnal end and everything’s pretty routine with nothing particularly exciting going on. But for our beloved pets, unbeknown to them, it’s potentially a time of great change and progress. Yesterday I was invited to speak in Parliament about irresponsible dog breeding and puppy farming, in particular its welfare implications imposed both on the thousands of poor breeding bitches imprisoned in horrific puppy farms, as well as the even greater number of their sick dying pups separated from distressed mothers way too early only then sold from websites, pet shops, garden centres, free newspaper ads, etc right across the UK. This morning I was back in Parliament again speaking at a reception dedicated to online selling of pets, namely puppies and kittens, but also dogs that needed ‘rescuing’ or even pregnant bitches. For most of us online selling of pets is just plain wrong, as of course is puppy farming, yet they ‘happily’ exist, and if anything, are gaining in popularity in 21st Century Britain; a civilized country complete with a totally enforceable Animal Welfare Act to prevent suffering. Sadly, as proven dramatically by last week’s huge outcry against the controversial Badger Cull, it’s now up to us, the general public, to care about animals, to join together in person or via social media, and raise awareness rather than wait for any new animal friendly laws by uncaring political parties in suits, content with glorifying ripping innocent wild animals to pieces in their downtime. ‘People power’ is now the way forward. Government e-petitions only make it to Parliament when 100,000 signatures are collected. As I write this, my own anti puppy farming Government e-petition is over 62,000 and 5th most popular UK e-petition. Please sign and share here: www.pupaid.org Finally this week ends with PupAid – one of the world’s largest puppy farming awareness events – and well worth the short trip up to Primrose Hill, North London, to join in the celeb judged dog show, boutique doggy shopping village and much, much, more. See you there with your dogs, folks! Visit www.GroveLodgeVets.co.uk