Last year, a joint investigation by The Sun-Herald and animal rights group Oscar’s Law exposed a puppy farm near Inverell, where conditions were so deplorable, dogs were living inside old portable water containers. 

Their only purpose, to pump out never ending litters of “pure bred” pups being sold online for as much as $1500 each.

Resulting raids by NSW Police and the RSPCA confirmed a string of animal welfare breaches. Dogs were rescued. Notices were served. 

Eight months on, not only have those squalid conditions worsened, the government inquiry has tabled recommendations which, if approved next month, do not empower the RSPCA to close non-compliant sites or seize dogs because they are found at such locations.

RSPCA chief executive Steve Coleman said that when inspectors arrived at the location last Thursday, they were told the business was “closing”.

He said that under the current legal framework, there was “nothing” stopping the proprietor from “re-establishing” elsewhere.

“We eagerly await the government’s response to the inquiry because what we don’t want to see is an opportunity for someone else to relocate, set up without a DA and then sail under the radar for six months, 12 months or five years, as so many others have,” he said.

After The Sun-Herald’s original expose last May, the RSPCA removed 16 neglected dogs from the factory. 

The veterinary reports for those animals detailed a host of preventable health issues, including mammary tumours, ear infections, fluid on the lungs, deformed feet, rotten teeth and one dog suffering a twisted spine. 

While the RSPCA served the Inverell breeder with a “notice to comply”, she is still operating without DA approval. Her online adverts, meanwhile, continue to mask a house of horrors.

In one classified currently appearing on Trading Post, she describes a pair of “much loved” pugalier babies both “raised in our home” around “small children”.

But when the NSW and Queensland branches of Animal Liberation inspected the property last weekend alongside Oscar’s Law, they found no attempt had been made to improve conditions. 

Oscar’s Law founder Debra Tranter observed approximately 70 dogs residing in rat-infested housing with no clean sleeping areas or bedding provided. 

Some were still floundering in old water tanks. Elsewhere, puppies were huddled in wall cavities littered with sharp, rusty old nails protruding from the wood. Floors were littered with faeces and urine. One wall was leaning at a 45-degree angle and part of the roof had caved in. Ms Tranter reported that the only water available to the animals was filthy and, in some cases, “green”.

In Victoria, all rogue breeders who fail to apply for a licence or comply with the relevant code are faced with having their animals seized by the RSPCA – regardless of welfare issues.

But in a letter to NSW Primary Industries Minister Niall Blair last week, Ms Tranter said “cruelty” was “slipping through the cracks of weak and ambiguous government legislation”.

Despite the current proposal for a licence system in NSW, backyard breeders would still retain all animals if found to be operating in the shadows.

“Even the recommendations from last year’s parliamentary inquiry, if accepted by this government, would not do anything to save the dogs on this illegal puppy factory,” she told Mr Blair, adding: “The situation in NSW is unacceptable. When values and attitudes change to such a degree that a law is no longer acceptable to the majority of people, then the law needs to be changed.”

Mick Veitch, shadow minister for primary Industries, said last Friday “more could and should be done on the issue of puppy farms”.

A spokeswoman for Mr Blair said the government was “currently considering” the inquiry recommendations and will table its response to Parliament before February 27.