Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Dogs Trust report entitled Puppy smuggling - when will this cruel trade end?, what assessment he has made of the risk posed by the illegal importation to the UK of puppies and dogs from Serbia and other third countries.

Defra takes the health and welfare of pet animals coming to the UK very seriously. We share the view expressed by Dogs Trust in their most recent report about puppy smuggling that this is an abhorrent practice that harms the health and welfare of the animals involved. Moreover, we are determined to put an end to the illegal trade in puppies by adopting a zero tolerance approach to those that seek to exploit the Pet Travel Scheme (PTS) for the purpose of profit.

The latest Dogs Trust investigative report highlighted the activities of unscrupulous traders who import puppies from third countries, such as Serbia, using falsified passports that conceal the true age and country of origin of the puppies, presenting a risk to the health of pets and people in the UK.

The Animal Plant and Health Agency’s Intelligence Unit continues to gather information on those importing puppies illegally to quantify the scale of the problem and allow targeted disruption of their activities. Furthermore, Defra is engaged in a process of evaluating the risks to animal health and welfare that illegal imports of dogs pose, and developing long term strategies to better tackle them. We look forward to working with Dogs Trust on the evidence they have gathered to help inform our analysis.