Shropshire vet warns puppy trafficking is the new crime wave

From the start, the dog appears to be off its food, but you put that down to nervousness about its new surroundings.

As the weeks go by, it starts to develop breathing difficulties and eventually you become so concerned that you take it to the vet – only to learn that it is a sick animal which has been smuggled from eastern Europe by an organised crime gang.

Shropshire vet David Martin today revealed how puppy smuggling is becoming an increasingly popular activity for gangs, who can make thousands of pounds a week.

He said: "It is something I come across an awful lot,"

"The puppy dealers have given up drug dealing and cigarette importing because there's as much money to be made and considerably less risk.

"In my practice I would say that five per cent of the dogs I see are not quite from where the buyer thought."

Mr Martin, of Brownlow Veterinary Group in Ellesmere, works with the police and the RSPCA in cracking down on the epidemic of puppy-smuggling which has swept parts of the UK over the past few years.

But he today admitted that until there are stiffer penalties, there will always be criminals willing to chance their arm in the pursuit of massive problems.

He said: "The big dealers are making £25,000 to £30,000 a week. I've seen evidence that some gangs are selling 800 puppies over a six-month period for between £500 and £1,000 a dog."

Over the past few years there have been great strides in regulations regarding animal welfare in Britain.

However, the introduction of pet passports and the relaxation of quarantine regulations in 2012 has led to a growing black market in animals smuggled from eastern Europe and the Republic of Ireland, which are often bred in appalling conditions and are at risk of serious illness from the moment they are born.

Mr Martin says it is possible to buy a puppy for £50 in Ireland or eastern Europe and sell it for a huge profit in this country.

These illegally imported dogs are much more likely to have health problems than those bought from legitimate dealers.

He said: "Most of them are presented with serious gut problems, serious parasite problems, and some are having serious breathing difficulties. There are huge welfare issues, but the penalties that are available to courts are laughable."

The Dogs Trust, which has a centre at Roden, near Shrewsbury, has spent six months investigating the growing illicit puppy trade. It involved secret filming of vets issuing false papers in eastern Europe and show the appalling conditions they are being bred in. Chief executive Adrian Burder said: "Puppies are being trafficked illegally into the UK without the required vaccinations on a daily basis."

He said the trust's first investigation focused on just Lithuania and Hungary. But he added that contacts across Europe stressed that this was an escalating problem all over the EU.

"Six vets in Lithuania and Hungary admitted falsifying the information on pet passports and 15 breeders or dealers we met in both countries confirmed they regularly transport underage puppies into the UK," said Mr Burder.

As part of its investigation, the trust had little difficulty persuading an unscrupulous vet to supply a fake pet passport with false birth dates.

The passport included a certificate that all vaccinations – including rabies – had been carried out.

The charity then used the papers to smuggle a stuffed toy, which had been fitted with a dog microchip, into the country on three separate occasions without anybody noticing that the dog was not real, or that the chip did not match the papers.

The charity also filmed 15 breeders or dealers who had sold puppies in the UK below the age of 12 weeks – the youngest they can legally be injected for rabies.

Four vets from Lithuania and two vets from Hungary were also filmed admitting that they had falsified pet passports.

Laura Vallance, head of public affairs at the Dogs Trust, said:

"A lot of these dogs are coming from countries that do still have rabies, but they could be carrying other diseases too. We want to see Defra get a bit more of a grip at the border.

"We'd like to see visual inspections so the people enforcing the legislation know the puppy in the crate matches the passport."

The trust's veterinary director Paula Boyden said the investigation had also discovered puppies being bred in horrendous puppy farm conditions in Romania.

"Posing as buyers planning to sell the puppies in the UK, we were sold 'pedigree' Russian toy terriers in Lithuania," she said. "After a month of having the puppy in our care, it was clear that the puppy was not pedigree. We had the puppy examined by a show judge, who said the puppy was not pure bred."