Smuggling: Kittens and Puppies Debate
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Lord Trees
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Smuggling: Kittens and Puppies
Lord Trees Excerpts(2 years, 11 months ago)
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Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Con)
My Lords, the proposal that we have put forward involves banning the import of heavily pregnant dogs for welfare reasons. We do not think that that needs to extend to pregnant dogs as a whole.
Lord Trees (CB)
My Lords, the smuggling from abroad is driven by the high demand for puppies unmet by conventional breeding establishments in the UK. While I support the Government’s efforts to clamp down on illicit importations, should we not be addressing the root cause of this problem and, recognising that dogs are social animals, encourage large-scale, high-health, high-welfare dog breeding in the UK? This would end the serious animal welfare and biosecurity problems caused by criminal smuggling.