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

Lord Trees Excerpts

Friday 5th September 2025 Lords Chamber

Moved by

[Lord Trees]

That the Bill be now read a second time.

[Lord Trees (CB)]

My Lords, I hope that noble Lords will know of my enduring commitment to animal welfare. As a veterinary surgeon and co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare, I have tried to be a vocal advocate on a range of animal health and welfare issues.

I am honoured to present the Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill to the House today. I thank all those involved with its successful passage in the Commons, notably the Member for Winchester, Dr Danny Chambers. It is a real pleasure to acknowledge Danny’s contribution, because I was privileged to be one of his academic teachers at the University of Liverpool’s veterinary school when he was a student and I the dean; I got to know him very well at that time. I was heartened to see how well the Bill was received in the Commons, and I am confident that it will achieve broad support in the House of Lords and that, together, we can tackle the illegal pet trade that causes such substantial welfare harm to our most popular pets.

It might be useful to outline briefly some of the history that has led us to the current situation. The Bill covers dogs, cats, and ferrets for two reasons. First and specifically, because they are all highly susceptible to rabies, a terrible and universally lethal viral disease, affecting both animals and humans. Because of their close contact with humans, those species are the most likely source of rabies infections in humans. Secondly, because of more recent criminal misuse of the existing travel rules, the welfare of our most popular pets is being seriously compromised. Before 2000, the UK kept our animals and us free of rabies by requiring all imported dogs, cats and ferrets to undergo six months of quarantine. However, with the advent of effective vaccines for dogs, cats and ferrets, and increasing human travel, substantial public pressure grew to replace quarantine with compulsory rabies vaccinations, thereby allowing people in the United Kingdom to take their pets abroad, often to Europe, and back without quarantine. Since then, however, there has been a huge increase in pet movements, and data from the Animal and Plant Health Agency shows that the number of non-commercial pet movements in 2011 of 100,000 rose to over 368,000 in 2024. That was compared with figures from a 1995 Hansard, which suggest that approximately only 8,000 dogs, cats or ferrets were imported per year before quarantine was abolished.

This huge increase gives rise to concerns that the less stringent pet travel requirements intended for genuine pet owners are being abused by commercial traders, who are moving pets for sale or rehoming, and taking advantage of the increased demand for pets, particularly dogs. Published sources have estimated that we need approximately 950,000 puppies per year in the UK to maintain our current dog population, but there is insufficient UK supply to provide those numbers. Sadly, but not unexpectedly, some of this demand is therefore being met through the illegal imports of young dogs. In 2021, for example, an investigation by FOUR PAWS International found that about 50% of puppy adverts surveyed on the UK’s Gumtree website were found to be of illegal imported origin.

Every responsible pet owner wants to give their new puppy or kitten the best start in life. However, it has become apparent that unscrupulous pet traders are exploiting loopholes in our pet travel rules. Often, these illegally imported animals have been raised in poor conditions abroad, transported for many hours in bad conditions and have arrived in their destinations not in the best of health and perhaps not vaccinated against various puppy diseases. These animals may thus have health and behavioural problems, and may not have socialised properly with humans, which can create serious problems both for the pet and, subsequently, for the owner. This Bill will close these loopholes by making it more difficult and less profitable for these traders to import animals under the guise of owners travelling with their own pets.

Including kittens alongside puppies in the Bill mirrors other key pieces of animal welfare legislation to ensure that there is parity for cats and kittens alongside dogs and puppies. The Bill’s changes to non-commercial pet travel rules also extend to ferrets. As I mentioned earlier, this species is susceptible to rabies, and, as a country, we take our biosecurity very seriously; it is paramount that we continue to protect our rabies-free status as well as improve the welfare of our pets.

On the non-commercial pet travel rules, the Bill will supplement the current rules and close loopholes. It will reduce the number of pets that can be brought into the country in a single commercial movement under these rules, from five per person to five per vehicle, and three per foot or air passenger. Currently, deceitful traders can claim ownership of up to five pets each. Therefore, if you pack a van with five people, you can perfectly legally bring 25 animals into the country under the current conditions. Reducing the number of pets permitted in a non-commercial movement will make it harder and less profitable for disguised trades to take place.

The Bill will also ensure that the non-commercial movement of a pet can take place only within five days of the movement of its owner. The new rules will ensure that pets can be moved only by an authorised person if the owner also completes the same journey within five days of their pet. This addresses a loophole that has been used by traders claiming to be authorised persons as a way of bringing animals into the country commercially for sale. By introducing a tighter link between the owner’s and the pet’s travel, the Bill seeks to ensure that authorised persons are used only by genuine owners for genuine, non-commercial pet movements and not for disguised trade.

The Bill also provides the Government with the discretion to determine that a movement should still be treated as non-commercial, even where it does not comply with the new requirements. This will, in effect, enable the Government to grant exemptions on a case-by-case basis, to ensure that groups with protected characteristics—for example, assistance dog users—are not adversely impacted, provided there is sufficient justification for the exemption. The ability to grant exemptions will also allow flexibility in emergency situations, such as when genuine owners are unexpectedly unable to travel within five days of their pet due to medical emergencies, natural disasters or other unforeseen circumstances. The Government have been clear that these exceptions will be granted only in very limited circumstances; they will be tightly controlled and subject to strict criteria to prevent misuse. I am sure the Minister will touch on this later in her response.

In addition, the Bill will introduce a regulation-making power to restrict the low-welfare movement of animals into the UK. The first time the Government use this power, they must do so to restrict the bringing into Great Britain of puppies and kittens below six months old, heavily pregnant dogs and cats, and dogs and cats that have been subjected to non-exempt mutilations, such as cropped ears.

On the minimum age of import of six months, we currently see puppies arriving that are eight weeks old or younger, despite current rules prohibiting that This can have health and welfare implications for the animals and, indeed, it transgresses current rabies vaccination requirements. Puppies and kittens can be aged more accurately at six months old, enabling this limit to be successfully enforced.

On pregnancy, if this restriction were not introduced, traders might respond to the restrictions by importing more pregnant pets instead. Therefore, the new regulations to be brought forward by the Bill will prevent dogs and cats that are more than 42 days pregnant—that is two-thirds of the normal gestation—being brought into the Great Britain. At that stage, pregnancy is much more easily judged—for example, by abdominal swelling and mammary gland development.

Finally, the Bill will introduce a power to restrict the bringing into Great Britain of dogs and cats with non-exempted mutilations such as cropped ears and docked tails, and declawed cats. These mutilations are illegal here in the UK, unless they are performed under specific exemptions. If we were to allow animals that have suffered mutilations to be brought into Great Britain, that would undermine the enforcement of the prohibition in the UK.

The main enabling power provides flexibility to introduce exemptions to these prohibitions via secondary legislation. That is a very important point to note; however, such exemptions must be carefully considered to avoid creating loopholes that could be exploited.

The Bill introduces a limited power to create criminal offences. These may be created for breaching any of the three prohibitions I have just set out, for breaching any other restrictions or prohibitions that may be created under the main enabling power, for breaching any conditions attached to exemptions to such prohibitions, or for breaching the requirement to carry out checks on animals being brought into the UK.

To aid authorities in enforcement, criminal offences that may be created may also include obstruction offences. The Bill will strengthen the current enforcement regime by introducing powers to make regulations in regard to dogs, cats and ferrets that have been seized or detained. These regulations will enable enforcement bodies to recoup costs associated with care and accommodation, and to rehome animals in cases where they have been abandoned. That is extremely important, because it is very costly to hold on to animals that have been seized. The Bill also provides powers to make regulations which enable monetary penalties to be imposed, in order to strengthen compliance and deter unlawful activity.

The changes the Bill makes to the non-commercial pet travel scheme—including amending the limits on the number of animals permitted to be brought into Great Britain in a single non-commercial movement, and introducing an express requirement for travel to align closely with the owner’s movements—will apply in England, Wales and Scotland. The Bill grants regulation-making powers that extend across all four nations of the UK: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. However, the duty to enact the prohibitions the first time the enabling power is used does not apply to Northern Ireland. I stress that movements within the UK are unaffected by the Bill.

The Bill is a significant step forward in preventing this cruel trade and will significantly improve animal welfare. It is supported by multiple relevant organisations, including the British Veterinary Association, the RSPCA, the Dogs Trust, FOUR PAWS International, Battersea, our Animal Sentience Committee, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee in the other place, and many others. Two similar Bills in the past few years have not successfully completed their passage through Parliament, for various procedural reasons. In a further consideration of this Bill, let us make this third time lucky. I beg to move.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Trees (CB)]

My Lords, I thank everybody who has contributed to this fairly short but extremely entertaining and good debate about this Bill. There have been some excellent contributions. The passion and enthusiasm for improving animal welfare is a wonderful thing and a great credit to the House.

In my introduction, I acknowledged the contribution of Danny Chambers, which has been amplified, quite rightly, by the noble Baroness, Lady Grender. I also thank another Member in the other place: Dr Neil Hudson, a veterinary surgeon as well as MP for Epping Forest. He has his hands rather full at the minute, but he has been a constant and great supporter of this Bill and animal welfare in general. I also thank the Bill team, led by Hayley Atkin, who is sitting in the Box, and my own veterinary researcher Fiona Shuttleworth, for all their hard work in preparing the work to help the passage of the Bill through this House. I of course also acknowledge the terrific support of the Minister, the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman.

I emphasise three take-home messages, although there were a lot more, which will no doubt come up in subsequent discussions. We must try to get this Bill through. We do not want to delay it; if it has to go back to the Commons, it will surely die. There will be ample opportunity to discuss many of the issues in the development and tabling of secondary legislation. That is the second big message: please, can we get to the secondary legislation as soon as possible? Thirdly, when—I hope—the Bill is passed, enforcement will be critical. In fact, the Minister has emphasised that, and I know that she is very well aware of the urgency of moving to secondary legislation as soon as we can to get that in place.

This not the end but I hope that, as someone once said, it is the beginning of the end of this particular Bill. If anybody wants to discuss issues informally in the future, I hope they will please contact me. My door is always open; I am very happy to discuss the issues as we move towards secondary legislation. I beg to move.

Bill read a second time and committed to a Committee of the whole House.