Why we need better laws to protect pets, their parents and potential owners

Right now there are several different pieces of legislation that place rules on what can and cannot happen in the pet trade. Despite the UK being known as a nation of animal lovers, our laws are not up to scratch and simply don’t give pets the legal protection they need to make sure animals that are bred, bought and sold are as happy and healthy as they have the right to be. At Blue Cross, we believe this urgently needs to change.

We recognise there are huge problems with the breeding and sale of all pets whether that is through pet shops, breeders or online. We help tens of thousands of sick and unwanted animals every year and are only too familiar with the suffering these pets often face from unscrupulous and unethical breeders and sellers.

Sadly, our animal hospital teams know only too well what it means to meet a puppy sick with parvovirus. Consoling a client whose kitten has died just days after they brought them home from a seller who seemed legitimate but couldn’t provide vaccination paperwork is part of our job. Helping a puppy farm victim to overcome their fears of people, other dogs, the sound of the washing machine, kettle, people laughing – in fact anything their breeders have failed to socialise them with – takes hard and dedicated work from our behaviour and rehoming teams. We take frightened and ill animals into our own homes overnight when we know it’ll help them; animal welfare work isn’t a job you can leave behind when you walk out of the door.

This is why we have campaigned long and hard for a complete overhaul of the current breeding and selling legislation across the UK.

What does the terminology mean?

Backstreet breeder (also known as backyard breeder): no recognised definition, but generally refers to a person(s), who breed and sell puppies, kittens or other animals with the sole aim of making money. Little thought is given to the welfare of the young pets or the parents. Pets are bred in someone’s home or garden and on a small scale.

Pet shop: in line with the definition in the Pet Animals Act 1951: a premises (including a private dwelling) of a business selling animals as pets. This may include a range of premises including garden centres, aquaria, traditional pet shops or private residences.

Puppy farm: refers to large scale breeding premises that produce high volume of puppies, intensive breeding, breeding facility separate to a main building, for eg sheds or barns.

Third party sales: generally referring to the sale of a pet by a person(s) that are not the same person(s) who have bred the pet, including pet shops, pet dealers, and animal rescue centres.

Problems with the pet trade

Online advertising

The internet has become the shop window of choice for the advertising of young pets, including puppies, and adult animals for sale or to be rehomed, to potential owners
Animals are also advertised using more traditional methods such as word of mouth, newspaper ads and ads in shop windows however the numbers of these adverts is limited compared to the vast scale of the online trade
Despite it being the main marketplace to trade in pets, no specific law covers the online trade in pets
Unlicensed (and therefore uninspected) traders are able to sell puppies, kittens, adult dogs and other animals online without any checks

Pet shops

It is currently legal for shops to sell puppies in the UK under the Pet Animals Act 1951. Pet shops must obtain a license from their local authority.
Dogs have a critical socialisation period between five and 12 weeks of age and they may struggle to cope with life as a pet if they are not introduced to experiences in this time. It’s difficult to meet this need in a shop environment.
Puppies have health and welfare needs that are difficult to meet in a shop environment due to facilities and staffing
Blue Cross believes there is sufficient evidence to suggest the welfare needs of puppies cannot be met in a traditional pet shop environment
A limited number of puppies are currently sold in physical high street premises in the UK. Our research found 90 premises were licensed to sell puppies however we know that not all of these shops were actively selling puppies.

Puppy farms

Puppy farms may sell directly to members of the public, to pet shops or to a puppy dealer
Puppy farms may have a residential building on the premises which can be used to sell the puppies from
Areas with hot spots of puppy farms include Wales and the Republic of Ireland
Large scale breeding establishments should be licensed by the local authority under the Breeding and Sale of Dogs Act 1973 in England and Animal Welfare (Breeding of Dogs) (Wales) Regulations 2014 Wales and therefore may operate legally. Illegal unlicensed puppy farms also exist.
Because of the potentially large number of animals at a premises at any one time, and the facilities in which puppies and breeding parents are kept, it is difficult to meet the dogs’ socialisation and welfare needs

Puppy smuggling

Puppy smuggling is the practice of bringing puppies in to the UK for the purposes of selling them. A lot of these animals are transported from Central and Eastern Europe as well as the Republic of Ireland. .
According to Defra, there have been significant increases in the number of dogs entering the UK under the non-commercial Pet Travel Scheme (PETS). These figures are still likely to be a vast underestimation of the actual number of dogs entering the UK because we know many sellers are bringing puppies in with no paperwork and are simply not declaring the animals on entry.
The PETS scheme, which was designed to allow owners to travel with their pets for non-commercial reasons, is used by commercial dealers of puppies to make large profits
HMRC believes puppy smuggling is on the increase because of the low risk, high yield nature of the trade. This means that puppy smugglers see the opportunity to evade detection and prosecution whilst making vast sums of money.
Young puppies spend many days in cruel and cramped conditions as they are transported across the continent. The current system does not allow inspections to take place to check on the health and welfare of breeding parents or offspring, meaning mistreatment of animals invisible.

Small scale breeding

Currently, if this type of breeder is not considered to be breeding dogs as a business then law enforcers can allow them to operate without a licence
The current threshold used for determining whether someone is running a dog breeding business, and requires a license, is five or more litters in a year
If a breeder does not require a licence then they cannot be inspected
A small scale breeder does not necessarily imply good welfare and could be causing as much suffering to the bitch, dog, and puppies as a puppy farm
It is important to note that Blue Cross research found evidence of serious welfare concerns at the premises of licensed small scale breeders

What Blue Cross wants to see

Blue Cross has conducted extensive research into the scale of the problems with the UK pet trade. You can read our findings in our Unpicking the Knots report.

Our findings, along with frontline experience at our animal hospitals and rehoming centres around the country – where we pick up the pieces resulting from the breeding and sale of puppies, kittens, dogs, cats, rabbits and other animals, who have suffered ill health or terrible welfare every day – have led us to the following conclusions below.

Our research has shown there are significant problems with both the licensed and unlicensed trade in puppies. The only solution that will have any meaningful effect is to tackle all aspects of the trade at source, and provide a comprehensive licensing system that ensures visibility of anyone who is breeding or selling a puppy.

The government has stated that puppies are the latest victims of organised crime with evidence to suggest that the puppy trade is now behind only drugs and arms in terms of scale and activity. This is supported by Blue Cross research which shows that some individuals are making upwards of £1,000,000 over two years, from advertising and selling puppies.

We would like to see:

Urgent action to be taken to update the Pet Animals Act 1951 to take into account the huge problems associated with the online sale of pets
Increase sentences for those caught trafficking puppies to act as a deterrent
More prosecutions of breeders and sellers who compromise welfare
A registration and licensing system for anyone breeding or selling animals through any means: from home breeders to large-scale breeding establishments, pet shops and online sellers
Mandatory inspections carried out on all licensed premises
An easily accessible centralised and transparent database of anyone breeding and selling would reduce pressure on local authority resources, improve animal welfare, and boost consumer power
Statutory welfare guidance for local authorities
More resources for local authorities – including expert-led training and funding - to ensure enforcers are able to act effectively
Government investment in initiatives to raise public awareness of how to responsibly source a puppy and education in schools on animal welfare

Why we don’t think a ban on third party sales goes far enough

A ban on the third party sales of puppies, as recommended by the EFRA committee, will not solve the issue of poor welfare standards in puppy breeding and would be impossible to enforce with local authority resources already stretched to their limits.

We believe a system that tackles the problem at source – with registration and licensing for anyone breeding or selling animals through any means – would be the most effective way to ensure animal welfare. Blue Cross provides health and welfare support for the majority of pet species, not only dogs, so we want a law that helps not only puppies, but all other species of animal that are bred and sold as pets too.

We don’t think a ban on third party sales would go far enough to have a meaningful effect, and could cause the illegal puppy trade to flourish. This type of ban would not place any legal requirements on breeders to uphold good welfare standards either. With no means of ensuring the welfare of the pets in this invisible trade, buyers would be even more at risk of ending up with sick pets bred in poor conditions. Additionally, given previous proposals, any exemptions for rehoming charities could open up a loophole for unscrupulous breeders to set themselves up as ‘rescue organisations’.

Introducing an effective registration and licensing system would make breeders and sellers more visible and traceable, improving animal welfare and offering greater protection for the public when buying a puppy.

We did not actively campaign or lobby government on third party sales. Our lobbying focuses on Blue Cross campaign priorities. We did produce a joint position with Dogs Trust that set out our stand on third party sales and this was sent to Defra.

Why registration and licensing would work best

Changing the law to require anyone who breeds a pet to be licensed would make the breeder known and visible to law enforcers so they can be inspected. Making it illegal to sell any pet without a licence makes the law transparent and easy for the public to follow.
Inspections of breeders by trained enforcers would mean the welfare needs of the animals (under the Animal Welfare Act 2006) can be checked, and failings acted on to protect the animals being bred from and sold
A legal requirement to state clearly the licence number on all adverts for the sale of animals, and linking the number to a central and transparent database of licensed breeders, would allow the public and authorities visibility of the breeder, make it easy to report poor animal welfare, and give buyers increased consumer power should anything go wrong
These measures would result in improved health and welfare for pets