The palgrave international handbook of a 33

Breeding and Selling of Companion Animals

21

that it is being seen with its mother. Dealers will use different mobile
numbers and aliases for different breeds in internet adverts to give the
impression that this is a small-scale operation, when all the numbers will
go back to one central address. In many cases the consumer is being misled
into buying an animal that has had a poor quality of life and welfare. By
hiding poor care, such deception removes the ability of consumers to make
good purchasing decisions. This removes one barrier—consumer pressure—
to poor breeding and sale, and thereby make it more likely puppies will be
bred, transported and kept in harmful conditions. It also means that consumers inadvertently purchase animals who will cost them more financially
and emotionally, in ways for which they may be unprepared (for example,
not having the financial resources or expertise in dog care). Consequently,
the dog may be passed on or abandoned, leading to further abuse.

Prevalence
This section focuses on how common the aforementioned harms and poor
practices are. It focuses broadly on two areas: breeding and importation.
However, whilst we know a lot about the health and welfare problems faced
by puppies, to date there has been little information on where these animals
are coming from, how they get to market and why prospective buyers
continue to buy these animals, thereby perpetuating the trade.
There are no accurate figures available on the extent of the UK puppy
market but estimates can be made. For example, in the UK, given an
estimated population of 9 to 10 million dogs and an average life-span
of 12 years, this would equate to just over 700,000 dogs needed to replace
those deaths. The UK Government (Defra 2012) estimated that at least
560,000 puppies were born in England. The extent of the illegal trade is
unknown, but a gauge can be made by taking away the numbers of puppies

whose sources are known (around 500,000) from those that could be coming
on to the market (between one and two million).
Another way to estimate prevalence of the trade is through its value,
although many measures estimate the total trade, making it hard to differentiate legal and illegal trades. For example, all puppy breeding in Northern
Ireland, alone, is worth £160 million pounds (BBC Scotland 2015). In
England, one group of dealers, who were operating illegally (that is, without
a sales license, without declaring their income, believed to be importing illegally
and found guilty of animal welfare offences), were thought to be taking in
£8,000 pounds per week. Another group of dealers were importing up to