Officers track down illegal puppies being sold in Nottinghamshire

Puppies being illegally brought in to the country and sold to unsuspecting customers have been tracked down in Nottinghamshire.
In 2020, 11 dogs were found to have been brought in illegally in Nottinghamshire.In 2020, 11 dogs were found to have been brought in illegally in Nottinghamshire.
In 2020, 11 dogs were found to have been brought in illegally in Nottinghamshire.

Many are brought in from Eastern Europe, and there are links to organised crime, with dogs selling for thousands of pounds.

Because they are sold without proper jabs, microchips or paperwork, some have to be placed into quarantine until they are old enough to receive rabies inoculation.

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In 2020, 11 dogs were found to have been brought in illegally in Nottinghamshire.

Care worker Beverly Standen, 58, bought Kaz – a beagle puppy – online for £1,500 after she had been saving with her partner for a couple of years.

But just three weeks after she got it, she learned it had been brought in illegally, and had to be taken into quarantine until it could have its jabs.

Although the dog had been advertised as being microchipped, it turned out to have only a Romanian microchip, and was too young to have been properly vaccinated.

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So just days after she collected the puppy, Kaz had to be taken from her new home to kennels to be put in quarantine, leaving Miss Standen with a further £1,200 bill.

She said: “I was at work and they phoned my partner and said they were coming to pick the puppy up, because it had a Romanian chip and had most likely been brought in from abroad.

“I know it’s our fault, because we didn’t do enough checks but we didn’t know anything about microchips or anything like that.”

Fiona Needham, team manager at Nottinghamshire Trading Standards, said they receive tip-offs from a range of sources and then go out to investigate.

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She said: “At the moment, because of lockdown there is such a demand for puppies and dogs that the prices have gone through the roof for them. So as soon as you get something that’s worth more money than what it was, then people will try to circumnavigate the systems for how they should be bringing them into the UK.”

Geoff Young, trading standards officer at Nottinghamshire County Council, added: “It’s a known fact that where there is easy money to be made, organised crime will be there.

“If a dog seems a bargain in terms of price then there’s usually a reason for that. It is very distressing, you don’t want to have your dog taken off you when you’ve just bought it, especially a little puppy.”