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

Louie French Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 15th March 2024 Commons Chamber

[Mr Louie French (Old Bexley and Sidcup) (Con)]

I will speak for only a short time today. Let me start by congratulating my hon. Friend the Member for North Devon (Selaine Saxby) on all her campaigning and her championing of this Bill. She has been fantastic all the way through, and the Bill will help us to meet our manifesto commitment to crack down on the illegal smuggling of dogs and puppies.

I also put on the record my thanks to my hon. Friend the Member for Penrith and The Border (Dr Hudson) for all the incredible expertise that he has shared over the two years that I have been in this place. Like many other colleagues present, I have learned a great deal from his veterinary experience.

The United Kingdom and this Conservative Government can be proud of our record on animal welfare. We have some of the strongest protections in the world. Colleagues are right to highlight the excellent progress that has been made and, while we have been in government, we have already made microchipping mandatory for dogs and cats, helping to reunite lost pets with their owners; protected service animals by introducing Finn’s law; and tightened the sales of puppies and kittens with Lucy’s law. We have also introduced tougher sentencing for animal cruelty, an issue that many of my constituents are passionate about. We have banned the use of wild animals in circuses, and introduced one of the toughest bans in the world on ivory sales. However, we can and must go further.

Since being elected to this place, strengthening animal welfare protections has been a priority of mine. Indeed, I made my maiden speech during the passage of the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022 on this issue, which is a priority of mine not only as an animal lover, but because of the great passion that many of my constituents in Old Bexley and Sidcup have for their pets. Over the course of my two years in this place, I have received well over 3,000 emails from constituents on animal welfare and related issues. That is almost four emails every single day. From the range of animal welfare charities that I work with, as well as from the thousands of constituents who continue to contact me, I know that they are increasingly concerned about the emerging markets, which involve the importation of heavily pregnant dogs and cats, and those that have been mutilated.

Of course, we would all have liked to see the Bill sooner, but I am glad that it has the support of the Government, as well as mine. It aims finally to end that barbaric practice and trade. The Bill will rightly ramp up the fight against the cruel puppy smuggling trade and will bring an end to the suffering of the countless dogs caught up in it, which often come from eastern European countries.

Since 2014, Dogs Trust—a brilliant charity that I have met multiple times—has been doing fantastic work to advance the protection of dogs in particular, and it has been exposing the widespread abuse of the pet travel scheme. The scheme was designed for those taking their own pets on holiday with them, but instead it has been used as a cover for those who smuggle puppies across borders. Luckily for many of those poor dogs, Dogs Trust has taken care of more than 3,000 illegally imported puppies, which, if they had been sold to unsuspecting members of the public, would have made approximately £4.5 million for criminal importers.

From my own visits and from my work outside this place, I know that Battersea Dogs & Cats Home in London also does fantastic work in this area. My hon. Friend the Member for North West Norfolk (James Wild), who is sat in front of me, talked about the importance of rescues, and we should always try to take a rescue whenever we can.

We can all list the many brilliant veterinary groups and charities in this area, such as Battersea, Cats Protection, Four Paws, the RSPCA and of course the brilliant Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation. Rather than continue to list them all, Mr Deputy Speaker—I know you have a particular interest in this area from your fantastic work over the years—I would instead say thank you to each of them for the wonderful work they continue to do in raising awareness in this place and across the country for those animals who need our protection. Whether it be in Old Bexley and Sidcup or North Devon, across the United Kingdom we are a nation of animal lovers.

I am sure that many of my constituents would agree word for word with my hon. Friend the Member for North Devon when she says that pets are family, not property. It is horrific to hear stories of puppies being smuggled across the border and the poor conditions they have to endure. That is why, on behalf of my constituents in Old Bexley and Sidcup, I welcome the Bill and will continue to support it at every stage of its journey on to the statute book.