APRIL 2023
Online Pets Sales Awareness week April 10th - 16th
Welcome to our April blog. As we head towards Online Pet Sales awareness week, our focus this month is on illegal breeders, sellers, puppy farmers and the way they operate their trade through the selling platforms. The Online Pet Sales Awareness week was launched by Justice for Reggie to highlight the importance of the need for regulation of online animal sales, and to shine a light on the lack of current legislation putting animal welfare at risk every single day. The awareness week will have 7 days of advice and information on the selling of animals online, and how to spot fake adverts and scammers - all linking to the illicit puppy trade. Please keep an eye on our Facebook page!
Hope Rescue Meeting
Ahead of the much awaited meeting at Hope Rescue on 12th April, we are excited to share with you the huge step forwards in working closely with other organisations and stakeholders to improve animal welfare. There will be many attending, including some of the online selling platforms who also want to show their commitment. More of this will be shared in our next blog.
The Suffering
It is estimated that one in four buyers could be buying a dog or puppy reared in appalling and horrific conditions by illegal breeders. Nevertheless, they go to great lengths to cover up their vile trade through many of the well-known selling platforms. Unlicensed breeders continue to dominate the market but at a cost - while the dogs and puppies suffer from health defects, infectious diseases and behavioural issues. And what you don’t see is the mothers who are locked away and forced to breed over and over living in their own filth. Then there are the rescues having to pick up the pieces from the dogs who are damaged mentally and physically when they are no longer useful.
In 2019, the RSCPA stated that £2.5 million profit was made illegally from the pet trade, and the market now is believed to be worth £13 million. The online puppy trade is booming and an eye watering 2.4 million dogs are traded each year across three of the major European classified sites that advertise dogs. The UK has the second highest dog population in Europe and 3 million UK households bought a pet during the coronavirus pandemic. It is not known how many illegally bred puppies are sold in the UK but to put it in perspective, less than 12% of puppies born every year are bred by licensed breeders and 88% born to unlicensed breeders – clearly something needs to be done to stop these illicit breeders from flooding the online market.
What is an unlicensed breeder?
Briefly, unlicensed and illegal breeders often keep puppies in terrible conditions, in very small and cramped dirty spaces, deprived of basic needs such as food and clean water. Their welfare needs are never met such as vaccinations, flea and worming treatments. Then there are the sellers and dealers posing as breeders when in reality they are the ones moving the puppies around hoping for a quick sale. They operate purely for the maximum amount of profit and minimal effort. These individuals are often involved in other crimes such as tax avoidance. Designer breeds sometimes sell for up to £5,000 or more – easy money to be made. A licensed breeder is subject to regular welfare inspections and they have a limit of litters that they can produce each year. There are also strict regulations on the ages of the mothers who can breed – for example, female dogs should not be bred from under 12 months of age, or after 7 years. After this age, they are at risk of being injured or dying during pregnancy.
The Justice for Reggie Investigation team
The Justice for Reggie team are constantly working hard to weed out the illegal breeders and sellers by checking the adverts on the selling sites for signs of poor breeding. We continue to find numerous adverts of puppies pretending to be home bred when upon further investigation, they are not. These adverts are duly reported to the selling sites and in some cases the local trading standards and licensing departments. We are so proud to say that to date; we have helped to secure formal investigations and a few prosecutions with the local authorities. Some examples of our findings include the following –
Fake adverts claiming to show photos of the puppies but selling a completely different litter
Puppies with no mums to be seen or using ‘stooge’ fake mums to hide the real mums as maybe stolen or riddled with diseases
Sellers saying they are licensed, or stealing other breeder’s licensing details
Sellers stating they are the breeders
Using fake addresses and burner phones
Sellers stating puppies have been vaccinated when they haven’t,
Sellers asking buyers to switch communications to WhatsApp
Sellers offering to meet in other locations to sell the puppies
Sellers lying about the puppies’ age and are really younger than what they say there are
The Booming Pet trade
There is strong evidence that online selling of puppies has increased despite advice on pet buying available on many sites. Over 92% of pets are sold online with most sellers taking little or no responsibility in the sale. The puppy trade continues to grow allowing scammers, rogue breeders and cruel puppy traders to cash in whilst the animals live a miserable life hidden away in horrific conditions.
It is shocking to find that latest statistics discovered that one in four new owners bought their puppy without seeing its breeding environment or their mother, and in many cases having their puppy delivered to their home or to another location. That is because many buyers have been cleverly duped into thinking they are buying from a family home, where in reality they had been brought in ‘last night’ and taken to fake addresses. Many puppy-farmed pups soon become sick and die as we found with the tragic cases of Reggie, Luna, and others shared on our Facebook page.
(With kind permission from Petkeen)
What Actions Are Being Taken?
The government introduced several animal welfare laws such including Lucy’s law, which means that anyone wanting to buy a puppy or kitten MUST buy direct from the breeder, and the mother and puppies MUST be seen interacting together in the place they were born. However, this illegal trade continues to thrive with illegal breeders operating in a low risk high reward business. It is still a tragedy that is greatly ignored, partly due to lack of Government resources and the many loopholes in the system. The threat of hefty fines and a prison sentence is not a deterrent for the greedy sellers and dealers judging by what we continue to witness each day on the selling sites. The Government has been urged to regulate online selling platforms and provide a safe place for the animals and the buyers. We need Reggie’s law to be included in the Animal Welfare (kept animals) Bill that provides a wide range of measures to protect animals, but the Government has unfortunately stalled this.
We know that all businesses need to grow and keep up with consumer demands but selling sites can play a huge part in demanding PROPER identification from a seller (currently they only need a burner phone and email address), which will definitely go a long way to improve animal welfare conditions. In addition, maintaining strong links with our third party organisations would help stop this cruel trade.
Stop and Think Before Buying a Pet
So if you are considering buying that cute little puppy online, spare a thought for where they have come from as you could be fuelling the illegal puppy trade. The RSCPA has excellent advice and information for those of you thinking of buying a puppy or dog. Alternatively, consider adopting from one of the many wonderful rescue centres across the country. And remember when searching through the adverts, if something doesn’t look or feel right, report it to the local trading standards. More of this will be shared on our Facebook page during the Online Pet Sales Awareness Week.
‘A dog is not a thing. A thing is replaceable. A dog is not. A thing is disposable. A dog is not. A thing doesn’t have a heart. A dog’s heart is bigger than any ‘thing’ you can ever own’ ~ Elizabeth Parker~
http://www.rspca.org.uk/whatwedo/endcruelty/investigatingcruelty/organised/puppyfarming
http://www.gov.uk/government/news/lucy’s-law-spells-the-beginning-of-the-end-for-puppy-farming
http://petkeen/com/dog-statisitics-uk/