Today's Edition
London (PA Media/dpa)
A bill that aims to stop animal smuggling and cruelty cleared the UK's House of Commons on Friday after cross-party support.
Legislation put forward by Liberal Democrat MP Danny Chambers will reduce the number of animals for non-commercial entry into the UK, ban the import of puppies and kittens under six months old or heavily pregnant dogs and cats, and introduce a halt on the import of dogs and cats who have been "mutilated."
The lawmaker's Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill was supported by the government, and will now proceed to the House of Lords on its passage to becoming law.
Chambers said: "As a vet, I've seen the devastating consequences of puppy smuggling. It's unimaginably cruel to separate puppies and kittens from their mothers at a very young age, and then bring them across borders in substandard conditions where they're then sold for maximum profit by unscrupulous traders who prioritise profit over welfare."
He added: "Careful consideration has been given to setting these limits, balancing the need to disrupt illegal trade with minimising impact on genuine pet owners. To underpin this, only an owner, not an authorised person, will be permitted to sign and declare that the movement of a dog or cat is non-commercial.
"Crucially, the bill places a duty on the government to use these regulation-making powers to first deliver three key measures - a ban on the import of puppies and kittens under six months old, a ban on the import of heavily pregnant dogs and cats that are more than 42 days pregnant, and a ban on the import of dogs and cats who've been mutilated."
He criticised the influence of social media on the increased demand for dogs with docked ears, and a party colleague hit out at the platforms' role in publishing animal abuse.
Labour MP Peter Lamb directly named Meta, which owns Facebook, as a company that publishes content featuring animal abuse.
He said: "There are far too many groups online which are dedicated to animal abuse. Constituents of mine have been involved in attempts to try and shut these groups down over the years.
"They'll also often find that instead of finding support on the part of social media companies, to try and address these problems, instead it is they who are reported and face their own accounts being shut down by those perpetrators."
Environment minister Emma Hardy said: "These measures represent a crucial step forward in our collective efforts to tackle the pet smuggling trade."
Hardy added: "We want to see fewer low-welfare operations supply pets to the GB market and fundamentally less animals to suffer because of this."
She continued: "As set out in the government's manifesto, we are committed to ending puppy smuggling and delivering a better future for our animals and I am pleased to say that this bill does just that.
