Stop the Central Coast Puppy Factory

Following on from our peaceful public protest outside the Central Coast Council’s Wyong office on Friday 14 October, we need to continue and increase the momentum of our opposition to the Central Coast puppy factory.

In 2019, Mr Kris Lewis of FindAFrenchie relocated from the Liverpool Local Government Area to Palm Grove, on the Central Coast, where he established his intensive and commercial French bulldog breeding facility at 604 Ourimbah Creek Road Palm Grove, without Central Coast Council (CCC) planning consent.

Since then, this facility has continued to operate despite numerous complaints, compliance breaches and retrospective approvals. The facility is still operating despite the Central Coast Local Planning Panel (LPP) 15-month trial period planning consent having expired in March 2022.

For over three years, local residents have had their rights to peaceful amenity obliterated and their valid concerns and complaints largely ignored. There has been no animal welfare consideration or oversight for the dogs, and numerous examples of CCC failing to execute its own compliance policy.

While law-abiding citizens do the right thing, others failing to adhere to NSW legislation and planning consent conditions are not being penalised or facing any consequences – as has been clearly demonstrated with the history of this CCC puppy factory. Rather, lawbreakers are being rewarded and their unlawful behaviour is ignored and condoned, and they find shelter behind our woeful planning system, which protects their rights but ignores the rights of the neighbours and these intensively bred and confined dogs and puppies.

This is why we need you to join us in stopping this puppy factory.

The residents of the CCC are under state government imposed Administration, and denied a representative Council until 2024. This undermines the very principles of democracy and the role councillors play in community representation and advocacy. NSW Planning laws and the applicable planning instruments should uphold the principles of community engagement in the decision-making process – we have the right to participate in what impacts us on a local level and on broader important community concerns like animal welfare.

In the Central Coast, however, important planning decisions have been transferred to non-elected government-appointed LPPs. These planning panels are state level instruments with appointees not necessarily cognisant or even sympathetic to the views of the local community. These planning panels have demonstrated insensitivity to broader community expectations on numerous occasions.

The Palm Grove puppy factory demonstrates a history where community views and important animal welfare considerations have been ignored in spite of around 1,200 objections being lodged with CCC. The broad NSW public are strongly opposed to puppy factories. These views are based on ethical considerations and align with contemporary public expectations about how we regard and treat animals.

As the CCC finalises its report and recommendations for the LPP, we need you to help us send decision-makers a strong message that puppy factories are not okay, and that we are frustrated and angry with the three-year lack of animal welfare consideration and oversight of the dogs, the loss of local rights to peaceful amenity, the largely ignored ongoing complaints, and the numerous examples of CCC failing to execute its own compliance policy.