Shocking. Squalid.
These were the words used by Australian magazine Cleo to describe the conditions of the puppy farms and pet shops here and in Australia.
The investigative piece in the October issue went viral, shared online by animal activists and picked up by other publications Down Under.
The writer Rosie Squires made the allegations that Australian puppy farmers are making thousands of dollars selling dogs to pet shops in Singapore, where the animals are "forced to live in squalor and confinement".
The trouble is: Ms Squires did not visit these places herself. Nor did she make the trip to Singapore.
Instead, the main source for her story was based on the findings of Australian humane group Oscar's Law. The organisation fights for the end of puppy mills and promotes the adoption of rescue dogs, When approached, Ms Debra Tranter, 47, founder of Oscar's Law, told The New Paper that the group visited "all the puppy farms and pet shops located at Pasir Ris Farmway 2".
"The bigger ones like Ericsson Pet Farm and Pet Movers were very clean.
"However, the puppies were kept in glass cages with wired floors.
"At Ericsson, the puppies had no water at all and the heat was stifling," she said, adding that the Cleo report is "a fair reflection" of what she saw during her group's investigations in August.
