FURTHER to last week's letter with regard to the article about licensing being refused for two 'puppy farmers,' I too was delighted that these two establishments have been refused licences.

Anyone who is involved with making these decisions should read a book that has recently been published called Saving Suzie Belle written by Janetta Harvey. This book will bring home to people the level of suffering that the brood bitches and stud dogs have to go through. It is about Suzie Belle a little five-year-old Schn­auzer rescued from a puppy farm.

These dogs are so traumatised mentally, emotionally and physically that they have ceased to be able to function. They are the living dead.

It can take months, if not years, to bring these dogs to a normal life which they have never known.

The one I rescued was a little Shih Tzu bitch. She was so frightened that when I picked her up she would immediately urinate and defecate. It took months for her to even begin to come out of her shell.

Anyone involved with making these decisions should visit the Many Tears rescue site where they will see pictures of dozens of ex-puppy farm dogs.

Read the write-ups for these dogs to how much damage these people do to these dogs. By chance I found myself speaking to a puppy farmer some years ago. She was quite happy to tell me that if a bitch would not stand to be mated she would give it a damn good hiding.

The dogs she kept were Yorkshire terriers. She was fully licensed and had been for years and probably still is. She also told me her stud dogs did not live much past five-years-old.

One way to stop a lot of puppy farmers would be to ban the buying and selling of litters of puppies. Also to stop puppies being sold in pet shops.

If you buy a puppy you should only be able to buy it if you see it with its mother. There should be a limit to the amount of breeding dogs anyone could keep.

The Welsh government will be having a debate on the breeding of dogs in June. And it is being brought up in Parliament next year.

This is the time to bring in strict laws to end this barbarism.

It is not just vets that need to report on these things – a vet does not know about dogs, vets know about ailments.

Dog behaviourists need to be involved to report on the dogs' mental and emotional state.

Dogs live closer to man than any other animal – they work for us, they comfort us, they protect us. We owe them a debt of gratitude that we could never repay.

But let us start here and release these, surely the most wonderful creatures God created from the misery of puppy farms.

Wouldn't it be good if the protesters would take their protest against puppy farming to Cardiff in June and to London next year?

– Anne Giddings, Monmouth.