Harassment towards a couple hoping to expand their kennels has forced them to cancel their plans and move to Wales.
Donna Phillips says she and her husband have been ‘driven out’ of their home by people opposed to their proposals to increase the capacity of the Long Crendon site from 18 kennels to 42.
She says they cannot find a suitable site in the area and so are having to leave jobs and her younger brother behind to go elsewhere.
Mrs Phillips said: “It was an extremely difficult decision but at the end of the day these dogs are rescue dogs and they are not suitable for rehoming. I’m not prepared to hand them over to anyone else because they are basically part of our family.
“My 16-year-old brother who lives with us is quite upset, but he’s got a girlfriend and a job here and he’s grown up round here and I can’t expect him to up roots just because I have got to.”
The couple have been living in Brill, with the dogs kept on a farmer’s land. A condition of the part-retrospective planning application was for them to have a mobile home at the Westfield Road site so they could be with the dogs all the time.
When the planning application was submitted the couple were accused of being puppy farmers, something they strenuously deny. There were also complaints about dogs attacking walkers and horse riders on nearby pathways and the noise of barking late at night. But John Brown, who owns the land, said he had not received any complaints before the application was submitted.
After withdrawing the application, Mrs Phillips said: “We have withdrawn the application because of how people have been kicking off. We are getting harassed all the time. The dogs are getting harassed.
“It’s absolutely ridiculous. It’s been hell. And just because we want to improve our dogs’ housing.
“We have been called puppy farmers and told we don’t care about or look after our dogs. It’s just got too much and we can’t take it anymore.
“We have been driven out by small-minded individuals.”
Mrs Phillips says only a few litters would have be born each year at the site and said they had the full support of the RSPCA.
They will now have to move by Christmas.