UPDATE:

Raffles licence expired as of January 2021 and has not been renewed. This means they are no longer allowed to sell puppies. However, James Wetton, the son of the owner of Raffles has now been given a breeding licence by Cheshire East Council. Seeing as James worked with his father at Raffles and that James is breeding/selling puppies from the same address as Mark was, we can't help but feel this is inappropriate. It is the same family and the same premises/kennels, therefore there is no reason to believe that they are now running things any more ethically. 

Please keep signing and sharing our petition if you believe that it is wrong of Cheshire East Council to licence James Wetton. We wish to see all of the Wetton family banned from selling puppies.

Update 2

The Raffles website is still up and running despite no longer being licenced. Mark is still advertising puppies by directing viewers to another site (his son's website). We can't help but feel that this is inappropriate, and infact have been made aware that this is in breach of licencing laws. As a direct quote from Raffles Have Your Say - "Raffles cannot, by law, direct people to another breeder by advertising them. They must advertise themselves, giving details of their own licence." It is also stated that "only a licenced breeder may advertise puppies for sale". Seeing as Raffles is not a licenced breeder any longer, we do not believe that they should be advertising puppies, whether they belong to himself or his son.

Please keep signing and sharing.

 

Why We Want Change

Raffles Cockapoos is a dog breeder in Nantwich, Cheshire. Widely believed to be a puppy farm, Raffles churn out thousands of puppies a year, seemingly without regard to their health or welfare. 

Despite only being licenced to breed from 48 dogs, Raffles had 252 litters last year alone - that's around 1000 puppies! Seeing as females should have a minimum of 12 months between pregnancies, 252 litters from 48 dogs in the space of one year, clearly does not add up. 

I ask you how 1 man can look after 252 adult dogs and 1000+ puppies alone? The answer - he can't. Raffles have a 1-star breeding licence appointed by Cheshire East Council. This means that they “fail to meet minimum standards”. Seeing as the breeder cannot even meet the “minimum” welfare standards required when caring for an animal, we do not believe he should be allowed to breed them, especially on such a large scale.

Raffles regularly sells puppies with (preventable) life-threatening conditions. These conditions include parvovirus and giardia - the two biggest puppy killers, kennel cough, pneumonia, and even broken bones! Seeing as every single one of these conditions is preventable, we feel they should not be allowed to breed when it seems like it is just a case when it is just a case that they are too lazy to look after their puppies well enough to prevent illness.

Raffles also appear breed from a number of dogs with hereditary health conditions. Dogs with these kind of health issues should never be bred from because their puppies will inherit the condition(s). However Raffles breed from them anyway because they seem to care more about making money than they do about the wellbeing of their puppies.

On top of a mountain of other lies, Raffles also stated that their puppies are raised in the home, yet they are actually brought up in what they call ‘Kennels’; meaning that they live in an outdoor building where they are kept in sawdust and their own filth. Seeing as socialisation is crucial at this stage of puppy development, puppies should be in a house, where they can get used to household noises, sights and smells. But yet again Raffles don't seem to care enough to put the effort in to do this.

Another common lie told by Raffles is about the breeds they sell. Whilst Raffles advertise a puppy as either a Cockapoo, Cavapoo, Cocker Spaniel or a Cavapoochon, many people have reported they have been sold a different breed entirely, most of which have 4 or more breeds mixed in them - confirmed by DNA testing. Several people also reported receiving a different sex of puppy than was advertised. Surely as a dog breeder, the easiest thing should be telling the breed and sex of a dog. If he cannot even do that how is he expected to be able to care for the complex needs of his dogs and puppies?

Raffles also seem to fail to wash and groom their dogs adequately, and the dogs have been described as a “matted mess”. One person who used to groom Raffles’ dogs, says that the “tightness of the matts had caused sores on the skin”, that they “had open puncture wounds on their heads” and that the female dogs “were in even worse of a state where their nipples were sagging from having so many litters, all the matting was tight around their belly also”.

252 litters, a 1-star licence, “failing to meet minimum standards” of welfare, sick puppies, lies about where the dogs live, selling mutts of 4+ breeds disguised as a crossbreed, failing to groom their dogs, and the list of horrors goes on. Please sign this petition for all of the poor mothers forced to have litter after litter, and for the sick puppies born at Raffles, many of which die.

What We Want To Change

We hope that the result of this petition will be that Raffles are re-inspected and lose their breeding licence. This would mean that Raffles would not be allowed to breed at all. We would also like to see the owner of Raffles to be banned from keeping animals, and him to reimburse everyone who has bought a sick puppy from him. Until this is able to happen we would at least like to see a cap on how many dogs he can breed a year, we believe 10 litters is plenty, until Raffles stop breeding completely.

Update - We are also asking for James Wetton's licence to be removed as we don't feel that any of the Wetton family should be selling puppies.

Who We Are

This petition has been organised by EndPuppyFarmingNow.

At EPFN we are passionate about ending the unethical breeding of animals and ensuring that the puppies being bred in this country are healthy and happy. We believe that all puppies should be raised in a home setting, and should have more than just their “minimum” welfare needs met. Puppies should be brought up with constant supervision, regular human interaction, and carefully planned socialisation. Mums should be family pets, not used to churn out litter after litter until they are ‘disposed of’ when they are too old to have puppies. We believe that breeding dogs should be something people get into because of their love of dogs, and a passion for breeding the healthiest and happiest puppies, not for the money. 

I have put a lot of time and effort into this petition, and the research that took place beforehand, but my voice alone is not enough to make the change. Together we can make a difference. So please add your voice to mine by signing this petition and sharing it to as many people as possible.

For further information about Raffles, and puppy farming in general, please see the EPFN Instagram page @endpuppyfarmingnow. To get in contact please email endpuppyfarmingnow@gmail.com.

Thank you to everyone for reading, signing and sharing.

 

*Image not of Raffles