Tyrone woman sold scores of sick and dying dogs across NI Our

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26 October 2014
SUNDAY NEWSPAPE R OF THE YEAR
■ Tyrone woman sold scores of sick and dying dogs across NI
■ Our year-long probe lifts the lid on cruel and illegal trade
SPECIALUNDERCOVER
UNDERCOVER
INVESTIGATION
SEETO
PAGES
4&5
SPECIAL
INVESTIGATION
TURN
PAGES
4-7
GUNNED DOWN:
Eddie Gibson and
(right) his father
Edward Taggart
FULL STORY PAGE 2
By Ciaran Barnes and Patricia Devlin
THE OFFICIAL IRA murdered a petty criminal in a botched
punishment attack after he was falsely accused of rape.
Eddie Gibson, 28, died yesterday after being blasted in the stomach
and leg following two gang fights in west Belfast on Friday.
The dad of one — whose father Edward Taggart was killed by the Provisional IRA in 1985 — was attacked a second time in the emergency ward
of the Royal Victoria Hospital after being rushed there for treatment.
TURN TO PAGE 8 FOR FULL STORY
KILLED
OVER
RAPE
SMEAR
Victim murdered in OIRA shooting 30 years after dad was shot dead
4 I NEWS
www.sundaylife.co.uk
Sunday Life 26 October 2014
SPECIAL
IN
PUPPY FARMER
IS SELLING SICK
DESIGNER DOGS
By Patricia Devlin
EXPOSED: Wilma
Little talking to
Patricia Devlin and
(left) holding a
neglected puppy
THIS is the heartless puppy farmer selling sick and
dying dogs to unsuspecting animal lovers across
the province.
Sunday Life today unmasks Wilma Little as one of the
key players in the cruel money-grabbing trade.
In a year-long investigation into her secluded puppy mill
on the outskirts of Dungannon, we can reveal how Little,
who also uses the name Emma, has been making a fortune
churning out ‘designer’ dogs like ‘jugs’ (a Jack Russell/pug
cross) and ‘schoodles’ (a shih-tzu/poodle cross) and selling
them on the internet.
Sunday Life also gained access to the squalid shed in
Donaghmore where the 40-year-old keeps scores of different
pups and dogs locked up in disease-ridden cages.
Our shocking undercover footage shows countless breeds
caged together before they are sold on.
In a joint investigation with the the Ulster Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (USPCA), we can
also reveal:
n Little poses under five different identities to sell various breeds of designer dogs;
n she is raking in thousands of pounds selling dogs for
up to £300 a time;
n she uses countless mobile numbers
to advertise on the web; and
n the USPCA has received hundreds of
complaints about her Tyrone puppy farm
in the last 18 months.
Neglectful Wilma Little exposed as key
Sunday Life launched an undercover
investigation into the illegal puppy farm
last year after being contacted by a number
of devastated dog owners who fell victim
to Little.
VIRUS
Each bought a different breed of pup
from her, and each was left heartbroken
when the pets they brought home turned
out to be seriously ill. Some were so sick,
they had to be put to sleep.
Belfast woman Tracey Cousins, who
bought two miniature Jack Russell pups,
was left with a vet bill spiralling into
hundreds of pounds after both dogs were
found to be suffering from the parvo virus
— a killer infection spread amongst dogs.
Just one of them survived.
Another dog sold by Little, a small shihtzu male, had to receive treatment for
urine burns to his legs and body — believed
to have been caused by other dogs inside
the farm shed.
Our undercover reporters called to Little’s Garvagh Road home after responding
to one of her many online adverts.
This time she was selling a litter of
brown and black maltese, shih-tzu cross
pups, known as ‘mal-shis’.
When we arrived at her plush, two
storied home, just a few miles from
the quiet village of Donaghmore, she
greeted us at the door with the tiny,
male pup in her arms.
Selling it as a “loving pet” raised in a
“family home”, Little , who at that time
told our reporter her name was ‘Julie’,
said: “It likes running about, and is very
good with children as well.”
Little also paraded out a small black
and white female shih-tzu, and claimed
the female dog was the pup’s mother.
She said the small shih-tzu, around
two years old, was a family pet, and that
it was her first litter of pups.
When asked if we could see the father
of the pup, she replied: “We don’t have
the daddy, we got her covered. He was
very healthy, very healthy now.”
She also handed our reporter a health
card, apparently signed by a vet, with a
sticker from a recent vaccination.
She said: “He has no problems — it
went to the vet and got checked over.
“The vet looked over him and gave
him his first injection, and he is due
again on the 7th of June for another
one. And he said it was a very healthy,
very healthy wee pup.”
Pointing to a sticker on the small,
white card which had the words ‘vaccination record’ across the front, she said:
“That’s called parvo, and that is very,
very important to get into the pups.
“Very, very important. Then that’s
him fully vaccinated for a year.”
contents of the hernia back up inside
to the abdomen,” the USPCA’s senior
vet told Sunday Life.
“That would be a pretty substantial
congenital abnormality. That will require surgical correction.
“Also, you were told the pup was eight
weeks old, well at that age they really
have all of their teeth — he’s only got a
couple of sets. The rest are still under
the gum, so he’s probably a bit younger
than what you were told.”
He will also require rehabilitative
treatment due to behavioural problems
HERNIA
— directly caused by being caged with
We handed over £220 in cash to Little other dogs since being born.
and we did not receive a receipt.
Examining the so-called vet card,
Our undercover team immediately handed over by Little, the USPCA vet
took the animal to the USPCA’s Animal said: “If your puppy takes sick tonight,
Hospital in Newry where he was exam- who do you contact here? There’s just
ined by a senior vet.
the name of the company that provide
And far from the clean bill of health the drugs.
allegedly given to it by the Co Tyrone
“The second thing is, the vaccine is
woman’s vet, the tiny pup was found to signed by whoever this is. There really
have a list of medical problems.
should be a vet stamp here.
“He has a large scrotal hernia on his
“Also, If the puppy is eight weeks,
side where you can actually push the the puppy should have had its first full
vaccine and not just its parvo shot.
“We would usually do a parvo shot
at six or seven weeks because we can’t
give them a full vaccine at that stage.
“So I am little confused as to why it
was given a parvo shot at eight weeks,
when it could have just been started on
the full vaccine.”
Earlier this month we returned to
Little’s sprawling home where this time
she was selling a litter of ‘schoodles’ –
shih-tzu/ poodle cross pups.
FEAR
Appearing at the door of her sprawling country home with two small, white
dogs — one male, one female — the
puppy farmer told our reporter: “I had
six of them and they are all very healthy
pups, very healthy.”
She again paraded out the same
female shih-tzu dog she brought out
to our undercover team five months
before, and again claimed that it was
the mother of the litter of pups. Again,
she also claimed it was the animal’s
first litter, and that the female dog had
26 October 2014 Sunday Life
NEWS I 5
www.sundaylife.co.uk
INVESTIGATION
Inside Little’s
puppy farm
ANIMAL CRUELTY:
Wilma Little has made
a fortune from breeding
sickly dogs in squalid
conditions (right)
Patricia Devlin
HOWLING through the bars of their
urine-soaked cages, these are the
designer dogs being sold off by a Co
Tyrone puppy farmer as “beautiful
house pets” reared in “a loving family
home”.
But as our exclusive footage from
inside Wilma Little’s puppy farm
shows, nothing could be further from
the truth.
Their beds consist of saw dust, and
the only heat they have is the October
sun shining through an opened wooden shed door.
It’s unlikely these animals have
ever seen the inside of a cosy family
home as Little makes out in her online ads, where she advertises pups
for up to £300 a time.
Inside one small section of this
shed, five cross breed pups are
caged inside the one pen.
There are pugs, poodles and shihtzus — all are unclean, and their fur is
unkempt.
Next to them is a fully grown dog,
who jumps into a plastic basket in
fear as the footage is recorded.
Just inches away, two tiny Chihuahuas scurry into the corner, while a
black and tan dog inside the same
pen barks over the top of a steel
panel, used to separate them from
the other dogs. Next to them, is one
small black and white terrier like dog.
ILLEGAL
player in NI’s illegal dog breeding trade
been “covered” by a pal’s male poodle.
Despite both shivering in fear on the
front door step of her home, she told
our reporter the timid animals were
“more used to children” than adults.
Pointing to the female pup, which
sat timidly with its head on its paws,
she said: “It doesn’t come near me, but
it follows my wee girl everywhere. It’s
more of a children’s dog.”
Claiming the dog had been “checked
over” and vaccinated, she handed our
reporter a health card — allegedly
signed, stamped and dated by a vet.
She added:”They’ve been parvoed
(received a parvo vaccination), wormed
and ‘fleaed’.”
Again, we handed over £220 in cash
to Little and then rushed the lethargic
and distressed pup straight to the USPCA’s Animal Hospital in Newry, where
staff were shocked at its condition.
Diagnosed with kennel cough — a
serious respiratory infection in dogs
— the tiny, white pup sold to our undercover reporter as a “very healthy”
house pet, also had an infection in its
nasal passage.
Terrified of human contact because
it was only used to the presence of
other dogs, the distressed animal also
had urine burns on its tiny paws.
A senior USPCA vet also said the
schoodle was “riddled with worms”.
But just an hour before, crafty Wilma
Little told our undercover team a very
different story.
COMPLAINTS
In fact the “friendly” dog had been
suffering inside the battery farm shed
close to lying Little’s Garvagh Road
home.
Stephen Philpott from the USPCA
said his charity has been inundated
with complaints about Little.
He said: “In recent months, she has
been by far the person who the public
are complaining about the most. There
are others, numerous others, but she
is the one that is getting the most
complaints.”
On Friday we confronted Little with
the evidence we had gathered.
She admitted that she knew what
she was doing was illegal, but said
she was currently awaiting on a block
licence from her local council.
“We did have a licence you see,” she
said. “It went out of date and we had to
do a couple of things, I’ve paid for it (a
block licence), and we are just waiting
for the dog people to come out.”
When told about the condition of
the animals that Sunday Life bought
from her, she replied: “Right.”
And when told we had spoken to
other victims whose animals became
seriously ill, she replied: “I don’t get
many complaints because I tell the
people, if anything goes wrong, give
me a ring. I have said that to people.”
When asked why she uses so many
different names, and telephone numbers to advertise the dogs, she replied:
“My daughter puts them on (Gumtree)
for me. You are only allowed to use two
numbers, and that’s why.”
Sunday Life also asked how many
dogs she had sold in a year, after saying
that she had to “check the book”, she
confirmed she currently had 40 dogs
on her premises.
She added: “All our dogs are injected
every single year. As I said, anything
goes wrong with the pups, ring me and
I’ll sort money back. No problem. Noone has came to me with complaints.”
We also asked her to show us around
the shed where she admitted to breeding the dogs.
She declined, saying her husband
“told me not to.”.
Little added: “I have nothing to hide,
not a thing.”
pdevlin@sundaylife.co.uk
THE NEW LAWS ARE NOT PROTECTING DOGS SEE PAGES 6&7
She is on her own, so has the
luxury of having her own bowl of water
and food. The rest share in each pen,
covered with a scattering of sawdust,
probably caused by the dinner time
rush.
These scenes are nothing like the
pictures used by Wilma Little to sell
these production line dogs.
In one advert, Little, who uses various mobile numbers and identities
to avoid being detected as an illegal
breeder, called one litter of shih-tzu
crosses “balls of fluff” ready for their
“loving homes”.
“This footage is just typical of the
puppy farms I have seen,” USPCA
boss Stephen Philpott said after
seeing Sunday Life’s footage. “Par for
the course.”
“We are getting these types of
dogs into our animal hospital on a
twice weekly basis, and countless
complaints over the phone.
“Puppy farmers like Little will
portray themselves as something
completely different.
“They’ll use multiple phones, multiple numbers and this particular one
that you have experienced will say
they are from one part of the country
when they are from another.
“They’ll misrepresent the dog, they
will say it is something it is not. They
will portray the dog to have health
and veterinary work, when they
haven’t.”
The USPCA Chief Executive added:
“You see the lengths we go to here to
control disease, and we don’t have
anywhere near the amount of dogs
these people have.
“There’s an endemic problem with
these dogs, so many of them, coming
from this address, are sick and someone needs to go and sort it out.
“For all the animal welfare people,
we are asking them through your
newspaper, who is going to sort this
out?”
6 I NEWS
www.sundaylife.co.uk
Sunday Life 26 October 2014
SPECIAL
LAWS FAIL TO
}
Illegal puppy farms operate in
NI without fear of prosecution
PULLED
THROUGH:
Sookie
at home
By Patrica Devlin
THERE are at least five major puppy farms currently operating in Northern Ireland — yet
not one cruel breeder has been brought before the courts.
HOW PUPPY LOVE
TURNED TO AGONY
WHEN Belfast woman Tracey Cousins saw
a cute Jack Russell pup for sale online, her
heart melted.
“It was all very impulsive,” the 34-year-old
told Sunday Life. “I knew I wanted a dog and
I wanted to get one that day.
“When I saw these adorable, minuscule
pups, I just fell in love.”
The advert said the seller was in Dunmurry, but when Tracey phoned the number, the
woman said the dogs were actually located in
Dungannon, Co Tyrone.
“I thought that’s a bit
far, but she assured me
she’d meet me half-way
and suggested a filling
station in Lurgan.
“She pulled up with two
kids and one little girl was
sitting holding two of the
wee pups in her arms,”
Tracey told Sunday Life.
“I don’t know if that’s a
sick she could hardly hold her
ploy or not, but when I saw
head up.
the two of them I just thought
“As soon as the vet looked
that I couldn’t separate them.
at them, she told me immedi“They were £120 each and
ately that both of them were
I just ran over to the bank
riddled with lice,” said Tracey.
machine and got the money
“I handed them over the
out and handed it over.”
vet card that Little gave me,
Tracey didn’t know it, but
showing that they had their
parvo jab.
she had just handed over
£240 to puppy farmer Wilma
STICKER
Little for two dogs that would
“The vet obviously didn’t
turn out to be seriously ill.
think to test for it because
She said: “When I got them
the sticker was there, and it
home they wouldn’t eat for
me, they were very lethargic, had been dated and signed
but I just thought it was the
by another vet.
“So she told me to leave
stress of the journey.
“The next morning I went
Sasha there, and gave me upto get some proper dog food
dates through the day about
from the vets, and I left both
how she was doing.”
of them in the kitchen, I
Sadly, little Sasha didn’t
had put down papers and
last through the night. The
everything.
next day Tracey’s second pup
“When I came back home
Sookie, took seriously ill.
the entire floor was covered
“Honestly, she was shrinkwith diarrhoea and vomit.
ing before my eyes,” she said.
“Both of them were hudLittle Sookie tested posidled together and very ill.”
tive for parvo - a highly conTracey immediately rushed
tagious, killer disease spread
her new pets to a vet.
among dogs and prevalent in
By this stage the smallest
puppy farms.
pup of the two, Sasha, was so
It wasn’t long before she
That’s despite new laws specifically put in place by Agriculture Minister Michelle O’Neill to crack
down on rogue breeders.
The Welfare of Animals (Dog Breeding Establishments and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations
(NI) 2013 came into force in April last year, which gave council the powers to tackle unscrupulous breeders.
The maximum penalty for breeding dogs without a licence or failing to comply with proper conditions
is a six-month jail term and/or a £5,000fine.
Following our investigation into Emma Little, we contacted all 26 council areas in the province and
asked each if any enforcement
action had taken under the new
laws.
Just one council, Dungannon
and South Tyrone, confirmed
that a “pending” prosecution was
in place.
Another council — Banbridge
— suspended one licence, then
decided the breeder did not require one.
COMPLAINTS
SHOCK: Tracey with
Sooki, and Sookie
(left) and Sasha when
they had parvo
realised that the woman from
whom she had bought her
dogs wasn’t the caring animal
breeder she had first thought.
“When I phoned and told
her that Sasha had died, and
Sookie was seriously ill from
parvo, her character completely changed.
“She was very dismissive
and just said: ‘They can’t
have parvo, they’ve had their
injection’.”
Luckily, little Sookie pulled
through — but only after
three weeks in intensive vetinary care, and hundreds of
pounds worth of vet bills.
Tracey hopes others will
learn from her mistakes.
“The biggest advice I
could give is please don’t use
Gumtree to buy a dog.
“There are thousands of
wee rescue dogs that need
homes, its not about money,
just give them a good home.
“It’s us that’s keeping people like this in business.
“We want the wee cute
puppies, the weecute things,
so these people are breeding
them for us.”
“One pending prosecution in
a year in a country where puppy
farming is epidemic is just not
good enough,” USPCA chief Stephen Philpott told Sunday Life.
“It just shows that the legislation isn’t being used pro-actively.
“They cannot say there are no
complaints, because when weget
the complaints we tell them to get
straight on to their local council.”
He added: “We also have a
problem with councils enforcing
this legislation, as the licensing
of those premises is being looked
after by councils.”
Kennel Club Secretary Caroline
Kisko welcomed the new regulations, but voiced disappointment
that Stormont had snubbed their
offer of help.
Caroline said: “We were disappointed with the NI government’s
decision not to utilise the resources of the Kennel Club’s Assured
Breeder Scheme [ABS].”
The KC already inspects dog
A DOG’S LIFE: Inside one
of NI’s many puppy farms
CONCERNS: USPCA’s Stephen Philpott
REGULATIONS: Michelle O’Neill
breeders as part of the scheme
and offered to share resources.
Caroline said: “We have previously offered inspection training
to local authority enforcers in
Northern Ireland, but this was
not accepted at that time.
“This offer remains open to all
local authorities.”
In response to the criticism,
a spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture said: “The
department is confident that
these enforcement powers and
penalties will act as a deterrent
to those taking part in illegal dog
breeding activities and send out a
clear message that such activities
will not be tolerated.
“However, legislation alone will
not stop illegal ‘puppy farming’.
“This will take a concerted
effort by members of the public,
future dog owners, and enforcement agencies working together
to identify breeders, licensed or
unlicensed, who put financial gain
before the welfare needs of their
dogs and pups.
COMPLY
“The department would therefore encourage anyone, including
welfare charities, who have specific evidence of an unlicensed
dog breeding establishment, or
a licensed establishment that is
failing to comply with licence
conditions, to provide this to
councils to allow enforcement
action to be taken.”
pdevlin@sundaylife.co.uk
I
26 October 2014 Sunday Life
NEWS I 7
www.sundaylife.co.uk
INVESTIGATION
PROTECT DOGS
~
RESCUED: Patricia
Devlin with Floyd
when he was
brought to the
USPCA and (left)
in his new home
RESCUED FROM
A LIFE OF HELL
HER gut riddled with parasites and
her tiny paws covered in urine burns,
this is the suffering puppy bred purely for profit by heartless Wilma Little.
Named by caring USPCA staff as
Lily, the 11-week-old poodle cross,
is now on the road to recovery after
Sunday Life rescued it from the Co
Tyrone woman’s puppy mill - and she
is looking for a forever home.
Diagnosed with kennel cough, a
canine respiratory infection similar
to bronchitis, she will soon have a
clean bill of health after receiving
the love, care and medical treatment
she so badly needs at the USPCA’s
Animal Hospital.
But it will take this tiny animal a lot
longer to get over the psychological
problems caused by spending most
of her life cruelly caged with other
dogs.
In May we also rescued Floyd, a
tiny Maltese cross pup, advertised
on Gumtree by Little.
He too was brought up inside the
bleak conditions of the Co Tyrone
puppy mill, and had a list of health
problems.
Today, the seven-month-old dog is
thriving in a loving new home.
SUFFERED
And despite still needing surgery
to fix the serious scrotal hernia he
has suffered since birth, he has
made a full recovery from the horrors of being brought up in a puppy
farm.
Sadly for staff at the charity’s
hospital, cases like Lily and Floyd are
not unusual – in fact, they are very
common.
Puppy farming in Northern Ireland
is widespread as unscrupulous
breeders hide behind lax laws that
allow them to over-breed
dogs without punishment.
The USPCA will again
be running its anti-puppy
farming advert (right) in
the run up to Christmas
– the busiest time of the
year for money-hungry
puppy farmers.
“Puppy farming in
Northern Ireland is at
epidemic proportions,” the
USPCA’s Stephen Philpott told Sunday Life. “And Christmas time is the
busiest time of the year for these
people, and what we are saying to
them is, don’t get caught out.
“First thing is, you shouldn’t buy
dogs off Gumtree; go to a registered
breeder. Secondly, you shouldn’t be
buying any puppy without its mother
present, and its father if you can do
it, but definitely its mother.
LOOKING FOR
LOVE: Lily is
waiting to find
a new home
“The third thing, a
good breeder will let you
see where the dog is
born. A registered breeder won’t have any problem
letting you see where the
dog was born and raised.
Puppy farmers won’t let
you see that.”
CRUELTY
The animal charity chief
added: “This isn’t just about animal
cruelty and animal suffering, this is
a scam.
“And like all scams the unsuspecting public is the victim.
“And by the time they find out, it is
too late — usually after the animal,
bought as a present for a delighted child, dies a horrible and slow
death.”
He added: “It is the number one
complaint we get now down our
telephone lines.
“People who have bought a dog,
and we have to tell them all they can
really do is go to their solicitor.
“When you buy something that its
not what it says it is, all you can do is
go to a solicitor and get your money
back.”
It’s not clear yet whether Lily will
have a home for Christmas this year,
but Stephen and the staff at the
USPCA are hopeful that despite her
poor start in life, she will find her
forever home very soon.
n If you would be interested in
giving Lily a secure and loving home,
please contact the USPCA via email
on enquiries@uspca.co.uk
Please include your full name,
address, and contact number, with
a brief description of why your home
would be suitable.