9:50am Thursday 15th May 2008
By Scott McPherson
Owners of the Kington St Michael Kennels have hit back at claims they are excessively breeding dogs.
The allegations came from the Border Collie Rescue organisation after 14 dogs, including collies, and a rottweiller were taken to Oak Tree Farm, near Chippenham, from an animal sanctuary in West Wales.
But the owners say they only took the dogs to rehome them and don't breed large numbers of dogs anymore.
Co-owner Sally Griggs said: "This is all in the past and we just want to move on.
"We are now focusing on the rehoming side of things and don't even breed that many dogs anymore.
"I don't know why this person seems to have a grudge against us when we have never even met.
"We just want to get on helping to rehome these dogs and leave all this behind us.
"The rottweiller, which has been neutered, would have been put down if we had not saved it because it was quite aggressive.
"The RSPCA has no problems with us whatsoever and have said we are doing a good job."
The farm was raided last October after the RSPCA received reports the dogs were living in squalid conditions.
During the raid 24 dogs were seized and removed from the site, but all of them have since been returned.
Kathy Clements from Border Collie Rescue said: "I have concerns about this and will be checking everything out with the RSPCA.
"With the track record of the facility I think we owe it to the dogs to find out what is going on there.
"None of the dogs have been neutered and so we are left wondering whether or not they will be used to breed.
"Collies are one of the hardest dogs to rehome and so to take 14 seems rather a lot to me."
A spokesman for the RSPCA said: "We can confirm that we have received a report to investigate this incident, which we have.
"We have found nothing untoward going on at the farm and no indication that the dogs were being used for breeding purposes.
"Our investigations have come to a close in this particular case but we take any report of animals in distress very seriously."
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