By Victoria Wellman


Three tiny puppies were rescued from a storm drain when their mother was left for dead miles away in a hit and run.

Sydney, Mathilda and Gabriella were pulled to safety by Edald Hagar whose Los Angeles-based foster home, Hope For Paws, was alerted to the homeless family by another non-profit organisation, the Bill Foundation.

Staff there had received a call from two women who had been feeding and giving water to the abandoned pups for three months, but sadly, when Mr Hagar arrived on the scene, Gaia was already dead.

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Terrified: Three tiny puppies, Sydney, Mathilda and Gabriella, were rescued from a drain in the middle of nowhere, California, after their mother, Gaia, was killed in a hit and run

Hungry? Edald Hagar from Paws for Hope drove out to the drain and found all three puppies but no mother

Dumped on the side of a road in the middle of nowhere in the Californian scrub, a pregnant Gaia was hit by a car in an earlier accident that broke her leg.

Determined to survive for her litter, she gave birth to the three adorable babies in the drain and raised them for three months with the help of two well-meaning women who didn't know how to get help.


Who are you? Syndey and Gabriella guarding the hole where they lived with their mother Gaia, waiting for her return

Beware: Mathilda and Gabriella are suspicious of Mr Hagar who spent seven exhausting hours trying to lure them from their drain

Unable to get near enough Gaia to catch her they were reluctant to take the puppies and so did the best they could by feeding the dogs to make sure they survived.

When Mr Hagar was called by the Bill Foundation they struck a deal agreeing that he would pay for the medical bills and they would find the rescues a home.

Driving out of LA at 3am, the animal-loving Hope For Paws founder, arrived at the drain just before sunrise.


Brave: Mother Gaia had been dumped on the side of the road, pregnant and was hit by a car that broke her leg before she had the three puppies

Too late: Edald Hagar found Gaia miles down the road dead after being hit by a car and left

The puppies, who appear to be some kind of cattle dogs, were there but there was no sign of Gaia.

Mr Hagar detailed the account on his Flickr page, writing: 'When I arrived…I spotted the puppies right away, but I couldn't find the mom. I went to check on the pups, gave them some food to make an initial contact with them and kept watching my back to make sure the mom doesn't come behind me to defend her puppies.'


Gotcha! Sydney is the first to be caught after the cunning rescuer brings the body of their dead mother back and places it near the hole


Trust: Mathilda yaps and resists as Mr Hagar manages to get hold of her

Come on now: Gabriella proves the hardest to rescue, running back and forth between drain openings until finally he gets hold of her leg and pulls her slowly out

A passing truck stopped and informed the rescuer that Gaia had been hit by a car and left by the side of the road to die. The driver had been on his way back to his home to find a gun so he could put her out of his misery.

Mr Hagar took control of the situation, but when he found the mother she was already dead.


Early learning: Sydney plays with a toy for the first time as his siblings and he and they learn to trust humans at their temporary home at the Bill Foundation

Growing: The Bill Foundation posted a video of the puppies five days after their heroic rescue and they are already playing happily

'It was a feeling I can't really explain. It was like a punch in the gut,' he told The Huffington Post.


In a video of the moving account, Mr Hagar wrote: 'I told her I was sorry people did this. I promised her I would save her babies.'

Returning to the puppies though, Mr Hagar found himself faced with a challenge that was altogether new. In the drains and pipes the dogs could hide and were hard to get hold of.

They were scared and nervous and hours later, he had made little progress.

In desperation, he retrieved their deceased mother from the junction where she lay and using her to lure them out managed to grab one white and tan puppy, later named Sydney.

'Even in death, Gaia helped me save her baby,' Mr Hagar reasoned.

Using cunning tactics to coax the other two out, after seven painstaking hours, he was finally successful and the three puppies are now safe and healthy at Bill Foundation where they hope to be adopted soon.

The rescue group has already released a heartwarming video of Sydney, Mathilda and Gabriella at play five days after their rescue.






source:dailymail

•Bumper group of pups is twice the size of a normal litter
•Much sought-after dogs are worth £170 each

By Chris Parsons


Room for one more? The gorgeous collie pups were part of a giant litter thought to be twice as big as normal when their mother had 14 youngsters

When a litter of adorable pups is so big they've got their own special form of transport, you know it's a real super-sized canine family.

That was certainly the case for Zoe and Marcus Hooper, whose sheepdog Star gave birth to a whopping 14 pups at their home in Leominster, Herefordshire.

The giant litter of newborn much sought-after collie pups is twice the size of a normal litter, meaning the couple transport their new boisterous family around in a wheelbarrow.


Irresistible: The adorable puppies are worth around £170 each

Hard work: Summer Hooper, three, has her turn transporting the adorable new additions around their new surroundings in Herefordshire

Zoe and Marcus feared Star would never be able to rear what was essentially twice the average litter all in one go.

But with all the puppies in good health, Star excelled as a mother and reared all 14 pups with no problems at all.

Six weeks on, they are ready to be homed with some having already been earmarked for new homes.

Four-year-old Star was bred with Zoe’s father Paul Thomas’ dog, Bob. Bob is the son of one of famous breeder Ian Jones’ One Man And His Dog trial-winners so the Hoopers were hopeful for some well-bred puppies.

However, they got a little more than they bargained for.

Zoe, 31, who lives on land owned by her farmer dad, said: 'We had absolutely no idea she was going to give birth to so many.

'After six hours of labour she had given birth to 10 and then a few hours later, as we were going to bed, she had given birth to two more so we assumed that had to be it.


New homes needed: The much sought-after pups are worth around £170 each, meaning the Hoopers could earn over £2,000 from the bumper litter

New homes needed: The much sought-after pups are worth around £170 each, meaning the Hoopers could earn over £2,000 from the bumper litter

'But when we came down in the morning we counted up 14. We were stunned, but also worried that she might not be able to cope.

'I called up my friend who is a vet and she said that as long as all the pups were of the same size that we should let Star have a go at rearing them all herself, but not to be too upset if we lost any.

'But amazingly she was able to look after all of them. She did brilliantly in rearing them all and we have 14 happy and healthy pups now.'

All but four of the puppies have been found homes already, mostly with farmers looking for a sheepdog of good stock. Each of the dogs is worth £170, coming to a total of £2,380.

Zoe said: 'We were tempted to keep one but we already have two dogs. There’s only just enough work for Star to do with the sheep that Marcus and my dad keep together so we wanted the pups to go to homes where they would have lots to do and could be proper working sheepdogs.

'My daughters, Summer, three, and Izzy, six, absolutely love them. We have been keeping them in the shed but it has been chaos for the last six weeks, feeding them all three times a day.

'I’m pretty relieved that we have managed to home most of them because it’s been very stressful but I know the girls will be sad to see them go.'


source:dailymail

By Rachel Rickard Straus Britain’s rarest breed of dog - which is more endangered than the giant panda and the white rhino - could have been saved after 19 puppies were born this month. Just 20 British Otterhounds were born in the UK during the whole of last year so the arrival of the pups - born into two litters to owner Maria Lerego in Ledbury, Herefordshire, - has provided a vital lifeline to the dying breed. There are less than 1,000 Otterhounds left in the world and about 300 of those are in Britain. Boost: Nineteen Otterhound puppies were born this month in the UK The numbers are far less than the 2,000 or so giant pandas left in the world and the 17,000 white rhinos. Otterhounds date back to the 12th century when they were bred to hunt otters which were then seen as a pest. But their numbers rapidly decreased when otter hunting was banned in 1978. Experts fear the hounds could be extinct within ten years but Miss Lerego, a former Crufts best of breed champion, is fighting back with her one-man breeding programme. Puppy love: The birth of these puppies and their siblings is a cause for celebration as they could greatly increase the likelihood of the survival of their whole species The 48-year-old has bred about 200 puppies in 25 litters over the last 25 years. But she has just experienced her most prolific year yet after bitches Calista and Symphony gave birth to the huge litters within several days of each other. Miss Lerego, from Ledbury, Herefordshire, said: ‘Only 20 were bred in the UK last year and 15 were born in a working pack so they wouldn’t have been available to the general public to buy. Puppy dog eyes: Miss Lerego is monitoring the puppies 24-hours a day as they are so small they could easily be squashed by their 80-pound mother ‘The other five were bred by me and sadly we lost two of them so only three were available as pets. ‘I tried to breed last year and I was really beginning to tear my hair out that I wasn’t going to get them mating. ‘But, then two of my bitches did and fell pregnant about Christmas time. Quite a handful: Miss Larego with a full size Otterhound, one of just 300 left in Britain ‘The first litter that arrived was Calistas and she gave birth to nine. Symphony gave birth a few days later to 11 but sadly one died. ‘I am over the moon. We now have as many as we did in the whole of the last year for the country.’ Miss Lerego is watching the puppies around the clock because they are so young their mother can easily roll over and squash them. They only weigh a pound at the moment, while their mother weighs 80. Bundle of joy: Otterhound puppies snooze together just days after they are born in Hertfordshire She believes Britain needs to keep its own native breeds going and is pleased she has received a lot of interest from people wanting to buy a puppy. The dogs sell for around £800, she says. ‘The breed is still very much at risk if the numbers keep declining as they are at the moment but it is a much happier situation than five years ago,’ she said. ‘There are so few Otterhounds because they had never been available to the general public, so the public didn’t know they existed. Hounds of love: Five dozy-looking puppies pose together. They will be taken to their new homes when they are around nine weeks old ‘They make excellent pets, they are a very sociable breed and they are intelligent. ‘They are very easy going characters and quite laid back. If you gave them the choice of a hunt or an afternoon on the sofa, they would pick the sofa.’ Otter hunting began in the Middle Ages because there were so many of the small mammals that they were considered a pest. However in time hunting them because something of a sport. By 1977 hunting the marine creatures was banned after otter numbers declined, mainly due to pollution and loss of habitat. Excellent companion: Otterhounds are a social and intelligent breed and quite laid back. However they are not the easiest dogs to train Miss Lerego said: ‘After that some of the dogs went into Mink hound packs and some went into homes. But their numbers soon went downhill.’ Otterhounds are renowned for their excellent hunting skills and strong work ethic. Although they are the largest scent hound they are not a danger to other animals; in the past they would wait for terrier dogs to kill the quarry. Shhhh!: Although the breed is known for its hard work ethic, Otterhounds prefer an afternoon on the sofa than hunting, according to Miss Lerego Paul Keevil, of the Kennel Club’s vulnerable native breeds committee, said people had been put off from owning them because of their sheer size. ‘They are not for novice dog owners because they are not the easiest dogs to train,’ he said. ‘They were bred to be independent and are used to working on their own initiative. ‘You can’t really take them off the lead in a park because if they catch the scent of a rabbit or a cat they are off and they are very difficult to call back, you have to go after them.’ source:dailymail

By Daily Mail Reporter


Group hug: The 27 puppies were born in the space on three days - a new record for their breeder


A German dog breeder has found herself with a wealth of puppies - after 27 were born in the space of three days.

Beatrice Oswald, from Aken, who has been breeding dogs since 2004, is now the owner of the large litter after two of her canines went into labour one after the other.

Such was the sheer volume of pups, that both mothers are struggling to produce enough milk to feed all of the bumper brood.

New arrivals: The tiny puppies are being bottle fed as their mothers are unable to produce enough milk to cater to the entire litter

Oswald's two-year-old dog Elfi of Tara was the first to give birth, producing 11 adorable puppies and soon after, three-and-a-half-year-old Anny Bonny yielded a litter of 16.

Beatrice has been relying on friends and volunteers to assist in the bottle feeding that has been ongoing around the clock.

She will continue to care for the puppies for the next few months until they are old enough to be sold.


Centre of attention: Whilst a group of siblings from one litter attempt to take a nap, one energetic pup clearly has other ideas



source:dailymail

By John Hutchinson


Left for dead: The litter of eight puppies which had been dumped in a bale of hay on farmland. Their mother had been tied up next to them

It's little wonder that with such cute faces peering out over the edge of their plastic bowl, these eight abandoned puppies have found new homes.

But their futures could have been a lot bleaker.

The puppies and their mother, a mongrel named Amy, had been found by a farmer stuffed inside a bale of hay on his land in Newark.

Adorable: The gorgeous pups tugged on the heartstrings when their plight went public after being found by a farmer last month

But now, following an appeal by local newspaper the Lincolnshire Echo, the eight six-week old puppies have found caring owners who will be able to give them the life they deserve.

The Echo put out an urgent plea to animal lovers to adopt one of the puppies who were taken in by Lincolnshire Rescue Kennels on December 5.

The mother was discovered with a rope tied around her neck which she had bitten through.

The cute and playful nature of the puppies must have hit home as they were rehomed within hours.

Speaking to the LIncolnshire Echo, Marek Cybulski, who gave one of the puppies, now called Nina a home said the family had been looking for a puppy since one of their other dogs was killed a few months ago.

Puppy love: Marek Cybulski gets a playful paw from one of the rescued brood, who has been named Nina

'I saw the picture on the front of the Echo and knew that she was the one for me. I went to have a look at the puppies and Nina came running up to me – that just sealed the deal.

'She's been settling in great so far and she's already met our cats and other dog.

'She's only six weeks old so she's still a bit skittish, but she's very playful and we're going to give her a loving home.'

Nina, joins a family which includes another dog, two cats and 20 chickens.
But there is still some sadness left in the story.

Abandoned mum Amy is still looking for a loving new home, according to the kennels.

Kennel assistant Beth Sutton said there was an amazing response, not just for the puppies in question, but also for other dogs that need homes.


Child's play: The puppies enjoy some much-needed attention from a young fan as they recover from their ordeal



source:dailymail

By Rebecca Seales


Super-mum: Two year old Dalmation Pebbles with her sizeable brood


It's not quite 101 Dalmatians. But when two-year-old Pebbles gave birth to 15 tiny puppies, she and her owners found their paws were more than full.

The litter is more than twice the average size for a Dalmatian, and the trials of motherhood initially took their toll.

Owner Kay Sullivan, 45, said: 'We had to care for [the puppies] for two days because Pebbles was not very well.

Bouncy: Four of the litter of 15 Dalmatian puppies


'She was very weak because they had taken all the energy out of her.

'We had to care for them and feed them for the first couple of days. One puppy in particular we thought wasn't going to make it.'

Mrs Sullivan, who lives with her husband Neil and their four children near Ammanford, Carmarthenshire, said the large litter had drawn parallels with the much-loved children's story by Dodie Smith.

'It's the same number of puppies which they start with in the film, before they get stolen,' she noted.


Proud: Kay Sullivan from Garnant, with Pebbles and pups


Young 'uns: Three year old Cerys Sullivan playing with some of the puppies


source:dailymail

By Vincent Graff


Puppi love: Feeding all 15 of her pups is a full-time job for Romy


You’d be exhausted if your babies had been keeping you up all day and all night for the past two weeks. Especially if there were 15 of them.

So forgive new mum Romy, a three-year-old pedigree Irish Setter, if she does not look her perkiest as she marshals her new troops into place at feeding time.

Suckling almost twice the number of puppies she might have reasonably expected when she became pregnant makes for a chaotic scene every time they get hungry.


When I meet Romy, at the Coventry home she shares with her owner Natasha White, she is feeding her new family. I find myself immersed in a scene of utter chaos.

The puppies are the sweetest little imps, with the floppiest and silkiest little ears and crinkly, squished old-man faces.

Within a few seconds, the ten little girls and five little boys have stolen my heart.

They’re good at that. But picking up other skills will take time. Like seeing where they’re going — their eyes haven’t yet opened — and learning to take their turn.

Which means feeding time is mayhem. There are puppies pushing and shoving, rolling this way and that, nose-diving over their brothers and sisters in search of a teat.

Poor old Romy. Even with some human help, it takes an hour and 20 minutes for her to feed them, and then, two hours later, the puppies are back for more.

Which is why the moment a feeding session ends, she immediately lays out flat on the floor, rests the whole length of her forlorn face on the ground and allows her eyelids to droop like autumn oak leaves. Dog-tired, you might say.

No wonder she’s eager to squeeze in a cat-nap when she can. (Not that any self-respecting Irish Setter would ever call it that, of course.)

With lunch over and the permission of breeder Natasha White and her housemate and co-owner Alicia Copping, I reach over and pick up one of the puppies. A little lad no larger than a guinea pig, he’s about 12in long from nose to the base of his tail.

When he was born, on November 24, the last of the puppies to emerge, he was the biggest, weighing 11oz. Now he’s 2.2lb. What’s his name?

‘Red Boy,’ says Natasha, 28, pointing to the colour of his collar.

She shows me a chart, listing the puppies’ sex, birth times and weights. Each of the 15 was assigned a coloured collar and hence a temporary name. ‘Except we ran out of coloured collars,’ says Natasha. ‘And some colours had to be doubled up.’

So, it’s Turquoise Boy, Turquoise Girl, Purple Boy, Purple Girl, Red Boy, Red Girl, White, Yellow, Green, Pink, Orange, Blue and Gold. That’s only 13? Like she said, they ran out of collars.

The other two are Gold Neck — courtesy of a small blob of nail varnish Natasha painted on the puppy’s collar — and No Mark, who has no collar or nail varnish.

Two of a kind: The puppies are identified by different coloured collars


‘Then we thought it wouldn’t be fair to call a puppy No Mark’, says Natasha’s mum Janice, 57, who has popped round to help out with the feeding (Romy hasn’t got enough milk to go round, so it is supplemented with formula). ‘So she’s the only one with a real name: Rosie.’

As I stroke Red Boy’s golden-brown fur, his little snout instinctively reaches for my finger. His toothless mouth starts sucking hard and contentedly.

I have two children — now five and two — and remember them sucking on my finger in just the same way, with the same contented enthusiasm.

If I’m worried that Romy might be jealous, I needn’t be. Of course, she clocks what I’m doing and walks over. But a quick glance at Natasha and Alicia assures mum that I’m not here to harm the puppies. She brushes past me and lies down again. More rest. ‘Irish Setters are very gentle and delicate,’ explains Natasha.

Within a few minutes, Red Boy is asleep in the palm of my hand. (I told you he was tiny.) I’m not sure who is happier at this point — him or me.

‘They’ll be fully grown in a year to 18 months,’ says Alicia, a 28-year-old police officer. By then, Red Boy’s shoulders will be more than 31in above the ground.

Natasha, a veterinary nurse, works for the breeding programme for Guide Dogs For The Blind Association, so she couldn’t be more at home with a dog pregnancy. But surely even she was a little taken aback by the extraordinary litter she has ended up with?
Her eyes widen as she recalls the night Romy gave birth.

‘We’d had a scan at four weeks — just less than half way through the pregnancy — and we could see seven puppies on the screen. But it’s very difficult to tell, and we just watched Romy grow and grow as the pregnancy progressed.

‘By the end, her belly was so distended she looked like a cow with udders. For the last week she didn’t want to do anything. She was lying on her back and couldn’t get comfy. So we knew there’d be more than the usual eight or nine puppies. But it was a shock when she’d given birth to ten and her belly was still huge — you could still feel the other ones still inside.’

The first, Turquoise Boy, was born at 7.40pm. They then arrived steadily every few minutes until number 13, Gold Neck, a female, was born at 1.18am.

Then Romy seemed to lose energy, despite the fact that she clearly had not finished.

Natasha was beginning to worry but then took her for a little walk in the garden to get her energy going. The contractions started again. Two hours after number 13 came Turquoise Girl, followed by the final arrival, Red Boy.

Natasha’s reaction when it was all over? ‘Joy and shock. One of the most amazing things is that none was stillborn. They were all delivered normally, there were no breech births and Romy severed all the umbilical cords herself.’

Remarkably, none of the animals was underweight — there was no obvious runt in this litter.

Of course, no one can keep 15 dogs. Natasha and Alicia are Kennel Club-certified breeders, and all the puppies, bar one, will be sold. But only after extensive telephone interviews with each potential owner in order to make sure they are properly capable of looking after their new pup.

Busy mum: As soon as Romy has finished feeding her litter, she wants to do nothing more than sleep


The criteria are: they mustn’t work full-time; they must have owned a dog before (preferably a large breed and ideally a setter); and they must not to be too old to handle a naturally energetic dog.

Fourteen have already been placed — in homes in Coventry, Newark, Bognor Regis, Reading ... and Florida (with a British expat). At £600 each, that’s £8,400. ‘It may sound a lot,’ says Natasha. ‘But it costs a fortune to get to this point.’

She points to a huge £50 bag of dog food which will last only three or four days when they get to six weeks old. Then there’s the cost of bedding, lighting and washing, not to mention vet’s bills.

Eating us out of house and home: Raising the pups costs a fortune in food and get bills


The puppies were not meant as a money-making exercise, but simply because Natasha and Alicia wanted to see the offspring that Romy and the puppies’ dad, Ruben, their other beloved Irish setter, would produce.

Talking of dad, Ruben is out the back. He’s known Romy since she was a few weeks old. They sleep in the same bed, usually one on top of the other, though the puppies are, Alicia explains, the result of a holiday romance: ‘We were in Dorset in a caravan at the time!’

Next year, perhaps it would be wise to take the dogs on separate holidays — unless they want to try to supersede the Cambridgeshire Mastiff who broke the world record for the largest litter of puppies in 2005 when she gave birth to 24.


source:dailymail

By Daily Mail Reporter


Dognapped: Tia, a Dogue de Bordeaux, and her nine puppies before they were stolen


Nine puppies and their mother, said to be worth a total of £10,000, have been stolen in a heartbreaking case of dognapping.

The Dogue de Bordeauxs were taken from an unlocked shed in a back garden.

Owner Maria Smallman, 52, said she and her 16-year-old daughter Donna had been left ‘absolutely devastated’.


She added: ‘They have taken the mother knowing the puppies are still feeding off her.’

The family bought the mother, called Tia, eight months ago and she gave birth to her litter last month. Each dog is said to be worth about £1,000.

The raiders, who had to break two padlocks on a back gate to gain access to the garden in Tipton, West Midlands, also stole a dog lead that had been left on the fence.

Last month the Daily Mail told how a 16-week-old Cavalier King Charles spaniel called Alfie was snatched under the noses of his owners by thieves who sped off with him on a motorbike in West Bromwich.

Pauline and Ian Parsons, from Brierley Hill, were ‘heartbroken’ by the loss of their beloved pet.

But there was a happy ending when a couple who had bought the puppy for £150 from a man hours after he was snatched returned him to his rightful owners after seeing publicity about the case.

Mrs Parsons said: ‘He was a bit timid at first, but he’s settling back in now.’


source:dailymail

By FIONA MACRAE


Puppies and kittens could be clubbed to death under new European Union regulations on the welfare of laboratory animals.

Currently, newborn puppies, kittens, ferrets and fox cubs which are not needed for scientific research are put to sleep.

But rules due to become law in the UK by 2013 sanction killing by a 'percussive blow to the head'.

Animal welfare charities have described the technique as 'officially sanctioned cruelty'.

And they have accused the Government of bowing to the wishes of drug companies anxious to cut costs.

The directive aims to harmonise standards on labs around the EU. Britain has the option of keeping its own higher welfare standards but shows no sign of doing so.

In a consultation document, the Home Office says that clubbing is likely be to humane – but public perception 'may be (very) poor'.

Dan Lyons of campaign group Uncaged, which brought to light the plans, said: 'The Home Office could have said, “We are not going to introduce it, we are going to retain current methods”.

'Instead, they have opened the door to it.

'The barbaric methods of the Canadian seal hunt are poised to arrive in British labs and breeding establishments.

'The only thing the Government appears to care about is "poor public perception", with no concern for the animals.

'It reflects a deeply disturbing lack of basic morals, ethics and compassion.' The proposal covers very young dogs, kittens, ferrets and foxes, many of which are likely to have been bred specifically for use in experiments only to be killed because they are surplus to requirements.

In other cases, the mother animal may have been used for drug or other testing while the young were still in the womb.

Directive: European Union flags seen outside the European Commission headquarters in Brussels


Dr Lyons, one of Britain's leading experts on animal research policy, said that while universities and pharmaceutical companies will still have the option of putting the creatures to sleep, some may see clubbing as quicker and cheaper.

He said: 'It is one of the most extreme forms of officially sanctioned cruelty I have ever come across.'

The RSPCA says that following the directive would leave some animals in chronic severe pain, suffering or distress, as well as allowing inhumane killing.

Dr Maggy Jennings, who heads the charity's work on research animals, said: 'Successive governments have made proud claims that the UK has "the highest standards in the world" for animal research and testing.

'Now they seem prepared to weaken this legislation and take a step backwards on lab animal welfare.

'We urge the Government to respect public concern on this issue and, at the very least, maintain the level of regulation that we currently have.'

'If they don't, animal welfare, public confidence and ultimately UK science will suffer.' Understanding Medical Research, a group representing researchers, universities, drug companies and funding bodies, backed the animal welfare groups' calls for the current methods of killing to be kept.

The legislation could also lead to the number of inspections of labs being cut from 2,000 a year to just 80 and to animals being housed in smaller cages.

Public consultation on the proposals closes on Monday.

Some 3.7million animal experiments were carried out in British labs last year – a one million rise on a decade earlier.

The bulk of the experiments involved mice, followed by fish, rats and birds.

More than 2,500 experiments were on monkeys and other primates, and 8,000 on dogs and cats.


source:dailymail

By David Leafe


As the July sun sets over a Shropshire smallholding, sheep graze quietly in the fields, horses doze contentedly in their stables, and hawks circle majestically in the skies above.

This rural scene is like something out of a painting by Turner or Constable, but suddenly it erupts into chaos more reminiscent of the Keystone Kops.

Around the corner of a barn appear 16 frisky dalmatian puppies, tumbling and scampering in every direction as they are pursued by their owner, 21-year-old Becky Elvins.

Ruff and tumble: Milly with her litter of 16 pups - so many the kennel club told her owners they wanted a vet's confirmation they were all born to the same mother


As quickly as she can scoop them up and place them in their large wicker basket, they spill out again, darting between her legs, nipping at her wellingtons and endlessly disappearing and reappearing in a polka-dot whirl. I feel exhausted just watching the bedtime bedlam which has been part of Becky's routine for the past seven weeks.

As a trainee teacher, she spends her day handling classes of primary school children — but that's nothing compared to looking after this brood, born to her much-loved dalmatian Milly at the end of May.

So numerous are Milly's litter that the Kennel Club demanded a letter from the Elvins' vet confirming they were all from the same litter, as the average number of pups born to dalmatians is eight. And Milly herself was one of a litter of 16.

As one of the puppies hurdles past my left shoe in a dash for freedom, Becky says: 'I don't know the odds against a coincidence like that but this lot certainly came as a bit of a surprise.'

I gently replace the squirming escapee in the basket. 'That's Tilly! She's one of the naughtiest. You can recognise her because she has two black ears. She loves to run away and hide behind the greenhouse.'

To me, these doggy doppelgangers are impossible to tell apart but Becky's love and knowledge of the breed goes back to her childhood, when she was captivated by the Disney cartoon 101 Dalmatians.

At 15, she decided she wanted her own dog to join the family labrador and the two Jack Russells owned by her sisters Lucy and Sarah.

She saved up £500 by waitressing at a hotel, and when she saw newspaper reports about the birth of Milly and her 15 siblings in a nearby village, she begged her mother to let her visit them.

'Mum said we could go just to have a look — but of course I fell in love with Milly the minute I saw her,' she says.

The feeling was reciprocated. Originally bred to run alongside horse-drawn carriages, dalmatians are well-known for their loyalty. Whenever Becky rode her pony, Casper, Milly followed faithfully behind.

She has since learnt to recognise the sound of Becky's car as she bumps along the long country lane leading to their house, near the market town of Church Stretton.

'As soon as I pull into the drive, she's there, trotting along beside the rear left-hand wheel,' says Becky.

Two years ago, it was time for Milly to become a mother and Becky set about the business of canine love-matching via the internet. This eventually led her to Coventry, the home of a spotty suitor named Dexter.

'He had a really good pedigree with loads of champions in his blood-line,' explains Becky.

The first litter resulted in 11 pups, but nothing prepared the family for the fruits of Dexter's return visit earlier this year.

'We took Milly to the vet for a scan and he could see only four pups,' says Becky. 'Milly was much bigger than she had been before so I thought there must be more, but I had no idea she was carrying that many.'

When Milly had failed to go into labour two days after her due date, the vet decided to perform a caesarean, watched by Becky and her mum Lisa, who runs an antiques business with her husband Terry.

'He started lifting the puppies out and eventually got to eight,' says Becky. 'We thought that was it but then he said: “I'll start on the other half now.” We couldn't believe it.

'The vet and his nurse aren't used to having that many puppies to deal with in one go, so Mum and me took a batch each, and rubbed them with towels to help get their circulation going.

'It wasn't long before they were running all over the place, tipping over boxes of cotton wool and almost sliding off the table on to the floor. They have been a handful ever since.'

Lots of spots: The dalmatian puppies jostle for space in their basket. The unusually large litter had to be born by caesarean section


Back home, the family made space for Milly and the puppies in their conservatory, with Becky sleeping on the sofa beside their basket, unwilling to leave them for even a minute.

Her anxiety was understandable. The first few weeks of life are a particularly dangerous time for puppies from such a large litter. Born pure white, and with their eyes closed until they are about a fortnight old, their competition for Milly's milk meant that the family had to ensure they fed in shifts.

'We'd let eight feed while eight stayed in the basket,' explains Lisa. 'Then we'd swap them over. Otherwise, the greedier ones would have taken all the milk.

'As it was, we noticed one or two of them looking a bit weak at times so we tried to feed them with formula from baby bottles. That didn't really work because they didn't like the rubber teats, but they all managed to pull through anyway.

'That surprised the vet, who thought we might lose one or two along the way.' With her milk eventually drying up, the puppies were weaned off an exhausted Milly. The Elvins family now have their work cut out grinding down food pellets and mixing them with warm water to form what looks like a doggy version of Weetabix. This is given to them four times a day — with predictable pandemonium every time.

'We put out four feeding bowls with four puppies at each one so they will get a fair share,' says Becky. 'Some hope! It usually ends up with them all feeding out of each other's bowls and grabbing whatever they can.'

Playpen: The tiny pups play in a pen made from bales of hay


At a month old, the pups had already developed individual markings and personalities, which have become even more pronounced since.

The quietest is Prince, notable for having the fewest spots, unlike his brother Bertie, who has the most. Then there is Snoopy, with two dark smudges under his eyes, and Lexi, who has three large splodges on her face.

Most distinctive is the largest, Butch. Unlike the rest, who all have black spots, his are brown and he is particularly boisterous.

It was Butch who was gang-leader when it came to teasing the family cat, Dalboy. 'The puppies loved to chase him at first but Dalboy started lashing out at them,' says Lisa. 'They soon learned their lesson and now they keep well away.'

Such petty jealousies aside, there is no shortage of puppy love as far as the humans in the family are concerned.

Bundles of joy: At two weeks old the litter began to show their spots


As soon as she gets home from school, 11-year-old Sarah runs to the rectangle of straw bales which form the puppies' play-pen during the day and lets them out on to the lawn. 'She is out there every night, playing with them until bedtime,' says elder sister Becky, whose room is filled with dalmatian-themed ornaments and stuffed toys.

For her 21st birthday party, she had a white cake covered with black spots and topped, naturally, with a plastic dalmatian.

This, of course, is no substitute for the real thing — and Becky will keep one of the newborns, Maisie, to live alongside Milly.

'This will be the last time Milly breeds,' she says. 'We think she has had enough with two such big litters.'

Shift work: The pups had to be fed in turn, to make sure that all of them received enough milk to survive


The rest of the puppies have been put up for sale. The four bitches command more for their breeding potential and have already been sold for £600 each. The dogs cost less, at £550 each, but Butch (or Charlie, as his new owner has named him) has been sold, with the rest likely to go soon.

The Elvins family are understandably concerned that none of the puppies should end up at the real-life equivalent of Hell Hall, the fur factory presided over by Cruella de Vil in 101 Dalmatians.

Each prospective owner is checked to ensure they can offer a loving home and understand the implications of taking on a dalmatian (the Kennel Club advises that the breed needs at least two hours exercise a day and is best suited to large houses and gardens).

When the puppies are ready to be taken away next week, there will no doubt be tears for Becky and her family. 'The first one to go and the last are usually the most emotional,' says Becky. 'But you know they are going to the next stage in their lives and that they will be loved.'

Each departing puppy will be accompanied by a blanket rubbed over with the scent of the rest of the litter to give them a comforting scent in their new home. And their new owners will receive a CD containing photos of them from their day of birth onwards, and will be asked to keep the Elvins family updated on their progress.

As for Milly — and all the family — they will be having a very well-earned rest. 'When you watch the Disney cartoon, you have to wonder if anyone could ever cope with that many dogs in real life,' says Lisa.

'We've loved having the puppies, but it's been hard enough looking after 16 of them — let alone 101!'


source:dailymail