PUP TO NO GOOD

ALMOST 1,200 smuggled puppies have been seized at UK borders in just two years, the Sunday Mirror can reveal.

We uncovered the figure after an undercover charity probe publicised an appalling trade in designer dogs by ruthless foreign crooks.

Vehicle-loads of tiny pups – many far younger than the ages on their paperwork – are transported here from Eastern Europe in heartbreaking states of distress.

The trade is masterminded by criminals cashing in on the craze for pedigree pets seen on telly reality shows and for owners desperate to show off their cute pooches on Instagram.

Most of the dogs were found abandoned at ports in sweltering lorries, drugged to sneak them past checkpoints.

Many were too young to legally enter the country and few were vaccinated against serious diseases like rabies and tapeworm.

Dogs Trust campaigner Paula Boyden says the legislation designed to protect animals is failing adding: “Illegally importing puppies needs to end now. We urge the Government to increase the penalties.”

We obtained figures from the Government’s Animal and Plant

Health Agency under freedom of information laws.

The figures show that in the two years to January, 1,117 illegal puppies were intercepted in the UK.

A complete breakdown of where all the pups were seized was not available but well over half were found at two major ports in Kent – 377 at Dover and 360 at the Channel Tunnel entry point in Folkestone. It means on average almost two illegal puppies a day are being smuggled on to our shores.

NETWORKS

And the true total of dogs going through the trafficking pipeline is far higher, as many make it through undetected or die somewhere along the horrendous journey.

The evil trade is part of a Europe-wide organised crime racket netting bootleg breeders hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Gangs exploiting lax border controls are feeding demand for fashionable breeds such as French and English bulldogs, pugs, chow chows and dachshunds.

So-called “handbag dogs” which are so tiny they can be carried around can be bought in Eastern Europe for as little as £20 and sold for £1,200 here – so even small-scale operators can make thousands every week.

Last year the canine welfare charity Dogs Trust spent six months probing one of the criminal networks. It discovered a web of crooked puppy farmers, vets and handlers in Lithuania and Poland were greedily exploiting the system.

And it claimed four-week-old puppies with umbilical cords still attached had been subjected to a gruelling, 30-hour journey to the UK.

Footage recorded by the charity’s investigators showed dogs kept in squalor, with poor hygiene standards and commonplace mistreatment of puppies and mothers alike.

In the clips, the puppies are crammed into tiny cages which are then piled up and stuffed inside vans. One smuggler was recorded boasting how he nets 1,000 euros, around £890, for each dog sold.

Under UK Pet Passport & Import Regulations it is illegal to bring unvaccinated puppies under 12 weeks into the country.

The rules do permit the importation of up to five dogs, provided they are at least 15 weeks old, microchipped and have proof of receiving rabies and tapeworm vaccinations.

However the footage shows that faking documents to dodge these rules is key to the smuggling operation.

A handler in Poland is filmed boasting that dogs can be made to appear however old buyers want them to be. He adds: “If it’s two months, it can be made three. If it’s three, then four.”

He holds up one puppy as a good prospect for smuggling because it has teeth, which would suggest it is older than it is.

He says: “They took away five Yorkies from me at the English border because they were too young.

“He looked into the papers, saw that it stated that the dog was four months old and it barely had teeth. In reality it was two months old.”

Video taken in Lithuania shows a woman claiming to be a vet offering the investigator sedatives to silence the dogs.

In subtitles translating what she is saying, she talks about waiting “for about half an hour or 40 minutes” and then advises: “When you are about to enter the checkpoints at the border inject the medication 10-15 minutes beforehand

then wait a bit. It is a very strong sedative. The puppy will be able to hear everything but it won’t cry or make any noise. It will look like it’s sleeping.”

She also offers the investigator medication to make the puppy “wake up” after clearing the checkpoint, urging: “Wrap it up and put somewhere it won’t be seen”.

When asked about the risks of smuggling into the UK and if it happens often, she shrugs: “Everything happens.”

The footage also appears to show a Lithuanian handler passing on falsified paperwork – and agreeing to supply the buyer with vaccinations to administer after arrival in Britain. A clip shows the handler bragging: “The vet gave me the vaccine so I could vaccinate it myself, and stamped the passport in advance.

“You can put into your cosmetic bag and you can only vaccinate it once you’re in the UK. You only will have to mix the vaccine liquids and inject it.”

INFECTED

A total of 836 intercepted puppies were put in quarantine by Dogs Trust through its Puppy Pilot scheme between November 2015 and last month.

The shocking haul included seven Cane Corso pups with infected wounds after their ears and tails were cropped and docked, apparently using scissors and vodka as an anaesthetic. In another case a litter of puppies was kept in a dark cupboard under the stairs of a house in Eastern Europe.

Their only glimpse of light was when a potential buyer came to view them.

Happily almost all the dogs rescued via Puppy Pilot have since been rehomed.

As the menace of smuggling persists, Dogs Trust has issued advice to Brits to be cautious about who they buy from.

The charity’s Veterinary Director Paula Boyden said: “We would urge everyone to do their research before buying a puppy. And we urge the Government to make the Pet Travel Scheme more robust and effective.

“We don’t want to see families experience the heartbreak of buying an illegally imported puppy that is unwell, poorly socialised and then risk having to pay significant sums in vet and quarantine bills.”

The Animal and Plant Health Agency, which works closely with Dogs Trust and Kent County Council to rehome pups, said: “We take the issue of illegal trafficking of puppies very seriously and are gathering intelligence to help us understand the size of the problem.”