More great news!! The council has confirmed that no appeal was received during the appeal period for this puppy farm. This puppy farm proposal is now officially rejected and closed.
Great news!! Sunshine Coast Council councillors voted strongly in favour of a motion to REJECT the puppy farm application for Diamond Valley Kennels puppy farm at Landsborough that would have housed 60 breeding dogs and produce hundreds of puppies every year.
There were some very heartening comments from several councillors as the matter was discussed on Thursday morning. Councillors also noted their strong objection to puppy factories, with many councillors having their own adopted dogs, and the council also being committed to “adopt, don’t shop” as per their recently endorsed Management Plan for Domestic Animals (Cats and Dogs). The councillors also noted that under planning laws however, animal welfare is not a valid reason for objecting to a development, as this is a matter for the state under the current laws, so the objection was based on several planning grounds. Councillors noted that it is the responsibility of state government to step up and ban puppy farms so that these applications never even make it to council. We agree! We encourage supporters to contact their state MP regarding this issue, urging them to support a ban on puppy farms. We will be doing further work on this issue in the near future.
Thank you to the 1000 or so supporters who emailed the councillors over the last few days. And thank you as well to Oscar’s Law, No Puppy Farms Qld, Animal Justice Party, and PETA Australia who have also been actively fighting this development.
Read more and share the great news on Facebook here.
It is still possible that the applicant could appeal this decision, and we will continue to monitor this closely.
If you’re interested in the full details, you can watch the video recording of the debate here. The meeting agenda, related documents and the minutes once available, will be here. You can also read media coverage in Sunshine Coast Daily (paywalled) and ABC news.
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PREVIOUSLY…
The Sunshine Coast Council’s planning officer has recommended that an application by Diamond Valley Kennels for a new dog breeding facility (puppy farm) be approved with approval for 60 breedings dogs (excluding puppies), plus boarding kennels and a cattery (MCU18/0311).
Public consultation on this application took place in mid-2020, with an estimated 400,000 objections received – most via Oscar’s Law. Unfortunately, planning regulations do not take into account animal welfare issues, but the councillors can when they vote on this.
The application will go to vote at the full Sunshine Coast Council meeting on Thursday 14 October. Please contact all councillors before Thursday.
Please urge councillors to consider the impact this facility would have on the welfare of these dogs and puppies, what this would mean for the supply of additional puppies into the community and who will bear the cost, as well as the damage to the reputation of the Sunshine Coast.
For maximum impact please use your own words, be polite and respectful, and include your address (or at least suburb, state, postcode). You may also wish to follow up with a phone call to councillors.
Additional information: Meeting agenda and planning documents; Development-I portal (full planning documents); Councillor contact details.
UPDATE: Thank you to the more than 1000 of you who wrote emails to the councillors over the last few days. As noted above, the Sunshine Coast Council considered and ultimately voted to REJECT the puppy farm application on Thursday morning (14/10/21). You can thank councillors for making the right decision, as well as for their compassionate and considered debate.
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