The municipality of Best had known for years that too many dogs were kept on the site of a controversial dog breeder in Best and that the company did not comply with the zoning plan. Yet no action was taken. This is evident from research by Omroep Brabant. In the meantime, the breeder is still active and still offers dogs for sale online to this day.
The municipality determined in 2023 that the dog breeder’s business activities did not fit within the zoning plan. The municipality could have known this as early as 2001, but it was overlooked at the time. This is evident from documents that Omroep Brabant requested from the municipality of Best via a Woo request.
Omroep Brabant recently published several stories about the dog breeder. Several victims said that they were misled when purchasing a puppy. For example, it was said that the dogs grew up in a home environment, while in reality they were barely socialized and were covered in fleas. Dozens of puppies also turned out to be infected with the intestinal parasite Giardia. In several cases even a seriously ill puppy was sold.
Dogs for years
The controversial breeder has been breeding dogs on his property for decades. Documents show that in 2001 an environmental permit was based on 85 dogs. In 2016 there were already 110 dogs. However, there is no permit to deviate from the zoning plan.
According to lawyer Ger Kranendonk of BrandMR, such a permit is necessary in addition to an environmental permit. “In 2001, the Environmental Management Act applied to an environmental permit and the Spatial Planning Act to deviations from the zoning plan. These permits are separate from each other.”
Never consciously deviated from zoning plan
The municipality also acknowledges, although only years later, that dog breeding is in conflict with the zoning plan. In an internal email from 2023 – the breeder has been keeping dogs for 22 years – an official writes after a report that the activities do not fit within the applicable zoning plan.
According to the municipality, the internal investigation shows that environmental permits have been granted in which dogs are mentioned, but that ‘there has never been a conscious deviation from the zoning plan’, which means that the municipality has not given approval for this.
Inspection
In addition to the fact that there is no permit, the breeder also keeps many more dogs than he reported. This was already noted in 2015. Later, during an inspection in 2023 by the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA), 106 adult dogs and 82 puppies were counted at the breeder. That is 78 more dogs than the breeder had specified in the environmental permit.
In addition to the number of dogs, more violations were noted. For example, there was no complete administration and no protocol stating that the health of dogs is monitored daily, diseases are prevented and sick animals are cared for.
In April this year, the NVWA visited the address, together with the police and the municipality. The breeder appeared not to meet the requirements for animal welfare and hygiene on several points. This concerned, for example, the storage and housing of the animals, the municipality said at the time.
And now?
The municipality has been in discussions with the entrepreneur since the end of April to look for a suitable solution. “The current permit situation requires further coordination,” a municipal spokesperson previously indicated.
In the meantime, the breeder remains active on Marktplaats. This year alone, he posted ads for 21 different litters, each with a unique birth date. In the advertisements he does not mention how many puppies were born per litter or what the distribution is between males and females.
The breeder also repeatedly uses the same photos in different advertisements. This is remarkable, since reusing photos is prohibited according to Marktplaats.
This video from Crime Explained explains why it is so difficult to stop ‘horror breeders’.