Profession called upon to ‘upskill’ owners against illegal puppy trade

Veterinary professionals have been urged to help “harness public demand” by helping prospective puppy owners avoid illegal traders.

The plea came as VMG Congress delegates were warned that tens of thousands of puppies a year are still being purchased without being seen with their mothers, breaching legal requirements.

Although the scale of the problem is thought to have broadly returned to pre-pandemic levels, analysis outlined at the Stratford-upon-Avon event found it still affects around 15% of puppies – potentially equating to around 110,000 individual animals a year.

‘Open goal’

RVC senior lecturer Rowena Packer said: “That’s the biggest open goal imaginable. This is something people need to be upskilled at and we, as a profession, need to help tackle the illegal puppy trade.”

The warning follows recent analysis by the Naturewatch Foundation which suggested that as many as 80% of dogs and puppies are still being acquired through unknown, unlicensed or illegal sources.

A show of hands among attendees at the 24 April session, which was intended to highlight red flags in the trade and consider ways of informing clients about the problem, indicated around half believed they were seeing illegal puppies in practice.

Meanwhile, earlier BVA survey data found one-fifth of small animal vets also thought they had also seen such animals within the previous 12 months.

‘Wild’ market

Vet Zoe Belshaw described the online market as “wild” and revealed the illegal puppy trade in Europe is now worth around €4.6 billion a year – a figure only surpassed by those for drugs and weapons.

She also praised the efforts led by vet and MP Danny Chambers to introduce tougher legislation in the area, but conceded there was a “massive problem” of public awareness, as well as limited legitimate supply channels.

She said: “We just don’t have enough people producing puppies of a high standard to satisfy demand.”

Concerns were also raised from the floor that clinicians were merely “the first port of call” after a puppy was acquired, rather than being consulted beforehand, and often had to counter assertions from breeders that were repeated by the animals’ new owners.

‘Arms race’

Although she acknowledged illegal puppies were often difficult to detect, Dr Packer argued that being able to inform the public of the illegal trade’s realities was essential in helping to tackle what she described as an “arms race” with the criminals involved.

She said: “Unless we can harness public demand, we’re not going to get anywhere.”

She highlighted adverts that claimed to offer customers pictures of puppies’ mothers instead of seeing them together as “not good enough” and “not even legal” among several points that could indicate an illegitimate sale.

Dr Packer also encouraged would-be buyers to be like “tyre kickers” and check both the wording of listings and any contact numbers to see if they are linked to multiple adverts.