New animal welfare bill tackling puppy imports becomes law in the UK

More than a year ago, Danny Chambers - vet and MP for Winchester - tabled a motion to close loopholes in the Animal Welfare Act that were allowing the import of mutilations not allowed in the UK. The government this week announced that the "puppy smuggling" Bill received Royal Assent and is now law.

Why did we need a puppy smuggling bill?

The motion put forward was to tackle concerns over the 2,000% increase in reported ear-cropping cases over the past decade, the 600% rise in pregnant dogs illegally smuggled into the UK over the past three years. So-called "puppy smugglers" were using legal loopholes to exploit dogs. Concern was growing amongst vets in the UK that dogs were being exported, mutilated, and then re-imported, often illegally,, and the BVA’s Voice of the Veterinary Profession survey revealed that 1 in 5 UK small animal vets had seen puppies they believe to have been imported illegally into the country in the last year. Many such vets added their voices to public support for the legislation.

Danny Chambers, who introduced the legislation via a Private Members' Bill, said "“As a vet, I’ve treated many dogs with cruelly cropped ears or docked tails, leaving them physically scarred and emotionally traumatised."

What's included?

The new law aims to close legal loopholes by: 

• raising the minimum age at which dogs and cats can be imported into the UK as pets from 15 weeks to 6 months. This prevents smuggling of underage puppies with insufficient rabies protection and reduces imports-for-sale overall as the older animals are less saleable.
• banning the import of dogs and cats over 42 days of pregnancy
• prohibiting importing of dogs and cats that have undergone mutilations (such as ear-cropping, tail-docking, and declawing of cats) unless these were undertaken for welfare reasons documented by a vet (eg rescue animals with damaged tails)
• limiting how many "pet" animals may be imported to no more than 5 animals per vehicle, or 3 per foot/air passenger, unless they're following commercial rules (preventing vans being stacked with pets)

• requiring that the registered owner travels with the pets, or within 5 days of the pets arriving

In essence, it's designed to prevent situations many vets and animal charities in the UK were concerned about - large vans stuffed full of animals being imported without proper vaccination and under poor conditions.

Animal welfare minister Baroness Hayman said “We’re strengthening the rules on pet travel to help ensure that animals imported into the country for sale are healthy, treated with care and transported humanely."