Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill

Baroness Hodgson of Abinger Excerpts

Friday 5th September 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Con)]

My Lords, I welcome this Bill, so ably introduced by the noble Lord, Lord Trees. His veterinarian background gives him great knowledge of and expertise in animals and animal welfare.

I declare an interest as a lover of animals and the proud owner of two dogs and a horse. The thought of animal cruelty is absolutely abhorrent, as is the thought that criminal gangs can dupe new owners into buying sick pets, so I am delighted to support this Bill. Animal welfare is a cause very close to my heart; I spent nine years on the Farm Animal Welfare Council, and I am an honorary BVA associate.

As the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, just said, it is so good to speak on an issue where there has been so much cross-party support, both in the other place and on these Benches today. It carries on the work agreed under the last Government and the former Conservative MP for North Devon, Selaine Saxby, who led the last version of the Bill until it failed simply due to the general election. This Bill has attracted a wealth of backing from the public. I thank the Countryside Alliance, the BVA, the Dogs Trust, Battersea Dogs & Cats Home and other organisations for all their briefings.

As we know, the British are a nation of animal lovers. Dog ownership skyrocketed during Covid. As we heard from the noble Lord, Lord Trees, it has become difficult to fulfil demand in recent years as we do not have enough dog breeders in the UK. If people cannot find an animal in the UK, they look to bring one in from abroad.

As we have heard, the Bill seeks to address animal welfare criminality in the pet trade, and to protect consumers by stopping the illegal trade. Over recent years there has been much in the press, particularly about puppy smuggling and its abuses; my noble friend Lord Black spoke eloquently about the smuggling of cats as well. I gather that in 2023 around 320,000 dogs were imported under travel pet schemes. It can be a very lucrative operation; therefore, it definitely needs strict controls to clamp down on it. However, we must emphasise to the general public that it is perfectly possibly to import a puppy legally, as many people do.

A number of the pets that arrive here, having been smuggled into the UK, are in poor health or traumatised. I welcome the sensible new clause on pre-testing to avoid diseases entering the UK. At the moment, the UK is rabies-free; it is extremely important that it remains so.

The Bill also addresses loopholes around horrid mutilations that are now illegal in the UK, such as ear cropping, tail docking and cats having their claws removed. Like my noble friend Lady Sugg and the noble Lord, Lord Grantchester, I have received many emails from people who are worried about older animals that have already had their ears cropped and have had a most terrible start in life and who want to give them a new home. Perhaps that could be addressed in the implementation of the Bill, with strong guidelines put out.

Nothing can be more heartbreaking for a family than acquiring a pet only to find that it is very unwell or that it dies young. Pets that are unsocialised from a young age, especially dogs, can also develop difficult behavioural problems or, in some cases, become dangerous. I put on the record, however, the importance of having thorough, thought-through and consulted-on secondary legislation in due course. Can the Minister tell us whether the department already has teams working in parallel on secondary legislation drafts so that they can be brought forward quickly? Like others, I emphasise that we want this Bill to pass and to be implemented so that we can stop this terrible, illegal trade.

To conclude, this Bill builds on the work of the previous Government in strengthening UK animal welfare. I wholeheartedly support it.