Puppies smuggled into UK in wicker baskets covered by clingfilm
A LITTER of puppies smuggled to Britain in a 30-hour journey from Eastern Europe still had their umbilical cords attached, undercover investigators revealed yesterday.
The five English bulldogs were just four weeks old when they were seized by officials at Dover – 11 weeks below the legal age for transportation.
The smugglers had brought surgical tools to insert the legally required microchips into them on arrival.
The puppies needed urgent medical attention following their discovery in March, but after a period in quarantine all have been rehomed by Dogs Trust.
Their 1,000-mile journey from Lithuania was revealed by the charity, which set up an undercover investigation to highlight the horrors of puppy smuggling from Europe.
It said animal cruelty laws were flouted by the foreign criminals.
Dogs Trust filmed the conditions the puppies are bred in and the long, cramped trips they are forced to make across Europe to Britain, where they are often sold for more than £1,000 each.
Footage also showed smugglers being shown how to inject the puppies with a sedative before arriving at Customs so their illicit cargo sleep while checks are carried out, making them less likely to be found.
Dogs Trust told how a litter of four four-week- old pugs was seized in May at Dover, having been transported from the Czech Republic in a small wicker basket with film wrapped over it.
There was just one small breathing hole in the top of the basket and vets found that none of the puppies had been weaned, indicating that they had been taken from their mother far too
‘Trafficking by corrupt dealers’
young. One of the pugs died after its arrival.
From 2012, the number of puppies entering the UK soared after requirements for all dogs to spend six months in quarantine before arrival were lifted.
Paula Boyden, veterinary director for Dogs Trust, said this ‘effectively invited corrupt dealers to traffic puppies without the required treatments’, adding: ‘Urgent action is needed to stop the puppy smuggling scandal.
‘The number of prosecutions is far too low and the lack of visual checks at ferry ports and borders is unacceptable. We want to see stronger deterrents, including prison sentences.
‘The Government must revise pet travel legislation when the UK leaves the EU.’
She said Dogs Trust had paid for the quarantine costs of more than 500 illegally imported puppies since 2015 and found them new homes, adding: ‘Until Dogs Trust stepped in, seized puppies were at risk of being put to sleep or turned away at the borders.’
Its investigators saw puppies in a packed van from Lithuania confined to pet carriers stacked with other packages with no air conditioning in temperatures of 25C (77F). They were given water twice and not fed at all. Vets in Poland and Lithuania were filmed faking pet passports and rabies vaccination records.
Most puppies intercepted by the Dogs Trust arrived from Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia and Romania. More than 95 per cent were too young to travel and 6 per cent died later due to poor health, malnutrition and dehydration.
The puppies smuggled in are bred in large numbers in horrific conditions in Central and Eastern Europe by corrupt breeders. So-called designer dogs such as pugs, dachshunds and English and French bulldogs make up 82 per cent of those intercepted at the border.