Si: To think of puppies in appalling conditions as people make money from them, it’s just.. HEARTBREAKING

process is entirely legal as the dog is sold via an agent and then delivered straight to the customer’s door, involving no licensed [inspected] breeding or selling premises in the UK.

It means the puppies are often transported under the Pet Travel Scheme, which stipulates that the puppies must be at least 15 weeks old, with a valid pet passport and vaccinations, including rabies.

A Mirror investigation last month laid bare the horrific conditions endured by some puppies imported in this way from Russia.

We told how up to five dogs at a time endure 48 hours of travel by air and road with a “nanny” who brings them over in a cramped cage. Longhaired puppies must often be shaved so their fur is less matted by excrement and urine from their long journeys.

The dogs are often “cleaned up” in a UK bolthole before being given to innocent customers.

Puppies are sourced from across Russia for as little as £300 and then sold on in the UK for as much as £6,000 – and the paperwork is at best unreliable and often fake.

Marc Abraham previously said of our investigation: “By the time they get to the end of their journey in England, they are a ticking time bomb of potentially life-threatening diseases. And, even if they survive – some will die on route or shortly after arriving. They will most likely have reduced life expectancy and require all sorts of potential therapies to fix them, whether that’s behavioural, medical treatments or surgical operations.

“And that’s just the pups. Imagine what condition their mums are in back in the puppy farms where there is zero breeder accountability?”

Campaigners have taken heart from last week’s decision by the Canadian government to temporarily cancel import permits for commercial puppies travelling from Ukraine that are less than eight months old.

It followed the death of 38 French bulldog puppies being legally imported in the hold of a flight from Kiev to Toronto on June 13, by Ukraine International Airlines.