Jia Xu Dong gets nine months' jail after RSPCA found 100-plus dogs abandoned in 40-degree heat. The magistrate says puppy farming should be abolished.
A Perth puppy farmer who left more than 100 dogs in squalid conditions at a Canning Vale property during a summer heatwave has been sent to prison, with the magistrate saying the practice of puppy farming "should be abolished".
Jia Xu Dong was sentenced to nine months' jail and fined $5000 for breaching court orders, the ABC reports. He had pleaded guilty to 36 charges of animal cruelty and two charges of breaching a court order.
Warning: this story contains details of animal cruelty.
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The case began in December 2024, when a City of Canning ranger alerted the RSPCA after dogs escaped from the property. Inspectors found puppies and adult dogs including cocker spaniels, corgis, French bulldogs, golden retrievers and groodles.
According to the ABC, there was a build-up of faeces, some dogs had fresh wounds from fighting, about 15 had dental problems, and others had matted coats, embedded grass seeds, conjunctivitis, ear infections or malnutrition. The court heard Dong had abandoned the animals "in the heat", with temperatures above 40 degrees, and gone to Albany.
About 20 per cent of the dogs had to be put down.
Photo: Mike Tinnion via Wikimedia Commons (CC0). File photo, not one of the dogs in this case.
Magistrate Sandra De Maio rejected Dong's claim that he was a "hapless lover of dogs who sold puppies accidentally born", finding he was clearly involved in selling them. Puppies were sold from a house in Como that she described as a "showroom".
"I simply do not believe a word he says. His story changes like the tides." - Magistrate Sandra De Maio
The court heard Dong bred 366 live puppies between 2021 and 2025; the RSPCA put the figure at 390 and estimated he could have made $1.17 million from sales. During one two-month trip Dong made to China, 65 puppies were born.
The magistrate said Dong had been treating wounds with honey, would only let the RSPCA take the dogs if they paid for them, and was "uncaring of their welfare and indifferent to their pain".
RSPCA WA says up to 80 per cent of the dogs have been saved and rehomed. Senior inspector Jayde Palin welcomed the jail term outside court.
"Knowing that there are 70 to 80 per cent of dogs that I have helped that are now in the homes they've deserved ever since they were born ... I think that makes the job worthwhile." - Jayde Palin, RSPCA WA senior inspector
Photo: Johannnes89 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). File photo, not one of the dogs in this case.
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The sentence lands days before new WA animal welfare laws take effect on Monday, requiring pet shops to source dogs only from rescue organisations. The ABC reports no pet shops have yet applied to do so.
The story drew strong reaction on r/perth, where it was one of the most upvoted posts of the day, with many users saying nine months was too light for the scale of the cruelty.
Sources: ABC News, r/perth.
Hero photo: Scott via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0). File photo of a golden retriever puppy, not one of the dogs in this case.
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