EXPOSED: The £100m criminal gangs behind that cute Christmas pup
Rabies risk as UK pet lovers are duped into buying unvaccinated dogs from Lithuania
ILLEGALLY imported designer dogs are being sold to an unsuspecting British public in the run-up to Christmas, a Mail on Sunday investigation has revealed.
Families desperate to buy breeds popular with celebrities, such as pugs and French bulldogs, are being duped into buying underage puppies that have been smuggled into the country and could be carrying rabies and other diseases.
The demand for designer dogs, which charities estimate is worth £100million to criminal gangs and crooked vets, is expected to peak in the nine weeks up to Christmas.
Dogs younger than 15 weeks should not be brought into the country for health reasons. But sellers are flouting this law by using pet passports with bogus dates of birth, because very young dogs are cuter and easier to sell for huge profits.
The Mail on Sunday worked with the Dogs Trust charity to expose the sale of a puppy which appears to have been smuggled into Britain with a fake passport and without following the regulations required to keep Britain rabies-free.
An undercover reporter accompanied by a registered vet bought a French bulldog through an advert on Gumtree. The ad, posted by a man named Doyle, said the bitch, offered for £975, was nine weeks old.
When our team met the seller last week in East London, he said the dog was born in the UK. But when asked for proof it had had the required vaccinations, he produced a Lithuanian pet passport.
Dogs entering the country must have documentation showing date of birth, country of origin and date of inoculations. And they must be at least 15 weeks old, to allow 21 days for a rabies jab to take effect.
The puppy’s passport said her birth date was June 9, 2015, suggesting she was 19 weeks old. But our vet immediately had suspicions, while the seller claimed she was ‘ten weeks, maybe 11 weeks old now. She’s had her full vaccinations.’
The Mail on Sunday was able to buy the dog, which we have named Sunday. She was taken into the care of the Dogs Trust, where deputy veterinary director Runa Hanaghan examined her. She said: ‘Her pet passport, which we believe to be fraudulent, correctly identified her with a Lithuanian microchip and stated that she was 19 weeks old. We believe this not to be true.
‘Based on the puppy’s size and weight, we believe her to be only 12 to 13 weeks old. This puppy was sold without any consideration of the risk of disease to humans or other dogs.’
Sunday was taken into quarantine kennels. There, vets will age her and give her a rabies shot and other jabs before she can be rehomed.
There are around nine million dogs in the UK and 900,000 new pets are bought every year. But experts fear that more than 420,000 may have been imported into Britain – many of them illegally.
In July, The Mail on Sunday revealed how crooked Eastern Europe vets were happy to provide fake documents for cash.
As well as rabies, the illegal dogs have to be treated against a tapeworm that can cause life-threatening liver problems in humans.
Often buyers only find they have been duped when their dog becomes ill and they go to a vet. Then they find their pet has to spend weeks in quarantine, which, along with vets’ bills, can cost more than £600.
Last night, when told he had sold the dog to an undercover journalist, Doyle admitted lying about having the puppy from birth, but maintained that he himself had been duped.
He said: ‘I bought the puppy in good faith when she was about three weeks old from another guy who gave me the passport. I wanted to keep the puppy but I couldn’t, so I sold it on in good faith.’
A Dogs Trust spokesman said: ‘With an ever increasing desire for designer puppy breeds which are now available at the click of a button, we want people to think twice about the commitment of dog ownership.’