Poor enforcement of existing laws by Department of Agriculture & Local Authorities highlighted.
Ireland’s shocking multi-million-euro puppy trade was exposed by a BBC investigation broadcast on Tuesday night last. The Spotlight programme showed how thousands of pups, some sick and dying, and often crammed into boxes, are being smuggled into Scotland, same having begun their life under most unsatisfactory conditions.
The BBC investigation team revealed 25,000 to 30,000 pups from the Irish Republic are being smuggled from puppy farms and backstreet breeders here in Ireland, into Scotland and mainland UK each year, through the Port of Belfast in Northern Ireland.
Undeniable video footage, same of which depicted upsetting scenes, were shown of these unfortunate animals; some seriously ill even before they had begun their journey; some travelling without food and water; some gasping for air, some cowering in terror. Many die because of the squalid conditions in which they are bred, while others die after being purchased by unwitting families. t was fairly established that most of these dogs come from the Irish Republic.
Mr Brian Gillen, head of the Dublin SPCA, told the ‘Spotlight’ team that there was, he believed, more money in smuggling pups, than in smuggling drugs, yet there are no real penalties if discovered puppy smuggling.
The Irish Government has yet to introduce any real penalties and if those in the puppy trade smuggle 100 pups at an asking price of £1,000 per pup in many cases, you have £100,000. Back-street breeders are using back garden sheds to breed because there is so much easy money to be made, if animals are smuggled in the boots of vehicles, or concealed in stifling cargo.
Most smugglers are never caught or identified, but for those who are, fines are minuscule within the Irish Republic. When one named dealer was stopped by Gardaí in the Tipperary area, we understand from this broadcast that he had 50 to 60 puppies.
EU regulations ban the export of pups aged under 15 weeks, in an effort to ensure they have been fully vaccinated against disease. Puppy smuggling gangs are now using UK microchips and passports while inserting the chips into the dogs to disguise their initial origins
Poor enforcement of existing laws by the Department of Agriculture and by Local Authorities, ensure that the distressful and heart-rending scenes which were highlighted by the BBC on Tuesday night last, will continue sustained and uninterrupted.
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