Tory MP Urges People To "Think Carefully" Before Buying Puppies

People are being urged to “ask questions” about where their puppies are coming from, as a new committee report highlights the increasing prevalence of unregulated canine fertility clinics and the widespread illegal trade and importation of pets.

A new report by the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee has set out a number of issues with the pet trade and welfare of animals in the UK, including the use of canine fertility clinics linked with the trend for ‘designer dogs’ with inbred lifelong health issues and dogs bred to have “aggressive traits”.

The inquiry exposed a major rise in canine fertility clinics, increasing in number from less than 40 in 2020 to over 400 in 2023. These clinics often involve people without veterinary qualifications carrying out illegal surgical procedures such as caesarean sections on dogs.

The report published a number of recommendations for Government, including launching a public awareness campaign to discourage buying ‘designer pets’, closing a major legal loophole which allows the importation of animals that have been inhumanely mutilated (such as ear cropping and tail docking in dogs and declawing in cats), and reducing the number of dogs and cats that can be imported by an individual into the UK. The committee also recommended implementing a ban on the importation of puppies and kittens under six months old, and banning the importation of pregnant dogs in the last third of their gestation.

It also warned that the shelving of the government's Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill last year has “stalled progress on key animal welfare issues” and that DEFRA must therefore ensure that every provision from the Bill should be brought into force during the current Parliament, perhaps