One year on, labradoodles Ted and Autumn are still recovering from the trauma of the puppy farm

Australia Broadcast Center

2 days ago

Emma Haswell
Over my 20 years in my job, I've been into a lot of puppy farms, some with councils, some doing undercover investigations, and some when I've been asked to take on puppy farm dogs when people have been going out of them and they've invited me to come along and take them. I've seen puppy farms that have 20 or 30 dogs, and I've seen puppy farms that have up to 600 dogs. It's something that you cannot ever get used to. It is quite extraordinary. There are puppy farms where the dogs are all on grating in sheds in the dark. They never come out of the cages. They're terrified of people. They take years to rehabilitate. They're so damaged by the cruelty and the neglect and the abuse that they often cop.I've never seen a happy dog in a puppy farm, and I've never seen a confident dog in a puppy farm that I can think of. And then there's the whole issue in Tasmania of backyard breeders as well, which are often pretty much the same thing. So it's a really sad, sad situation for the dogs.
Kylie Baxter
I want you to tell us about Ted and Autumn.
Emma Haswell
So we took 54 of the labradoodles. We actually, those were surrendered directly to us. So we went up and collected them from the puppy farm. And while we were there, I asked her if she would show me around. And I was surprised she said yes. And I explained to her that I would like to pick out a dog. And I wanted to do that because I was looking for the most terrified dog I could find. And I found this little orange labradoodle who had dags on him, like you see on wormy sheep, great big black rocks hanging off his entire body. And he was so terrified. He didn't know which way to go. He was just so scared. So they caught him. And I remember the puppy farmer said to me, oh, what do you want this one for? And I thought, wow, he just had no value. She couldn't work out why I would want this filthy little terrified dog.
Kylie Baxter
Because you wanted to help clearly.
Emma Haswell
Yeah. It's like I always go in there and I try and help the saddest ones first. So anyway, it's a year or so later. I think it's been over a year. I'm not very good at time anymore. And he can't leave home. He likes to be at home. We've got 36 acres. We live just opposite Brightside, across the river. And he follows the tractor everywhere. And he does everything with 300 per cent enthusiasm. You know, if you go out the front door, there's a flight of about six steps. He doesn't go down the steps like any other dog. He flies through the air like a bird.
Kylie Baxter
He's so happy.
Emma Haswell
Yeah. So he's still terrified. I still can't pet him if we're out in the paddock. It has to be inside and then he feels safe. But he's never not at my side. And he just loves life. He loves the other dogs. And the other dog, Autumn, she was an ex-breeding dog. So she was older. Ted was only two. Whereas Autumn was six. And she is a very, very damaged dog. She's terrified, but she wants to be your friend. So it's very clear that she's had people at that puppy farm that were very cruel to her, that she's terrified of. And then she's had other people that she absolutely loves, who love her. And it's confused her and she cannot read body language. She cannot, because she's overwhelmed with fear. So she's come a long way, but she's still terribly, terribly damaged. Over the years, I've had a lot of puppy farm dogs and I have had them, some of them have taken five, six, seven years to recover. And I had one that would still, she'd be sleeping on her dog bed. And if she dropped something on the floor, her entire body would leave the bed just in shock. She still had this sort of PTSD response to loud noises. So yeah, it's a very kind and good person that takes on a puppy farm dog, but they're rewarded so much.