Vile Hungarian market flogs pedigree pups on the cheap for smuggling even though cramped conditions makes them ill
A TINY trembling puppy is yanked roughly from his cage by the scruff of his neck and dropped into my arms.
He shivers and blinks blankly at me through inflamed, weeping eyes.
His nose is running and under all his fluff he feels like a bag of bones. He’s in a very bad way.
This sad, sick little furball is actually a pedigree Chihuahua worth up to £2,000 in Britain.
But at the notorious puppy market in the Hungarian town of Pecs, he could be bought for just £95.
And the sorry state of his health is the last thing on the dealer’s mind.
When I challenge the seller he just shrugs and laughs: “He must have caught a cold.”
The 12-week-old puppy is one of hundreds crammed into crates and car boots, ready to be shipped to the UK.
We have ticking time bomb on our hands
Strict laws are meant to ensure dogs exported from the EU to Britain are healthy and well cared for.
They should be at least 15 weeks old, micro-chipped, vaccinated against rabies, treated for tapeworm, and have a pet passport.
But none of this is a problem, according to the puppy dealer.
He says: “I know a vet that can help you travel in a few days.
“They will give him a passport and change the date of birth and the date of the vaccines so he is good to travel.”
Pedigree dogs are big business and huge profits can be made — especially by those who could not care less about the pets’ welfare.
It is believed as many as 100 criminal gangs are bringing in dogs from Eastern Europe and Ireland in an illegal industry worth more than £100million a year.
Smugglers can earn as much as £35,000 a week.
I am at the Hungarian market, which is held every Sunday, with animal charity Four Paws.
The charity’s head of programmes, Cordelia Britton, tells me: “The market in Pecs is known to be a meeting point for puppy dealers from many parts of Europe.
“The dogs are regularly under-age and it’s not unheard of for puppies as young as five weeks old to be smuggled over.
“At this age they should still be with their mothers. It can be a traumatic trip to the UK, and they face being caged in the back of a car for as long as 30 hours.
“Many of the dogs are already unwell. They have been raised on puppy farms and can suffer with conditions that go hand-in-hand with this, including parvovirus and kennel cough.
“This little Chihuahua doesn’t look good at all.”
The puppies are stuffed in the back of car boots in cages and baskets and it is obvious that many of the animals are desperately sick.
There is a chill in the air and many of the pups, probably parted from their mothers for the first time, are shivering and shaking.
One 12-week-old pug is clearly struggling to breathe through his runny nose, and a Bernese mountain dog appears to be paralysed — unable to move anything but its eyes, which are darting frantically from side to side.
A tiny bichon frise is caked in her own faeces.
A German shepherd pup is crying in misery, prompting her irritated seller to kick her repeatedly.
One of the bigger traders has a selection of pugs, French bulldogs and German spitz for sale.
An Italian man nods to him, hands over a wad of cash and bundles all five of the Spitz puppies into a cardboard box.
The dealer gestures to him and says: “If you want to know how to get puppies abroad he will know. He is taking them back to Italy.”
Another man is selling two tiny white Chihuahua pups for £125 each. He happily admits they are only nine weeks old but insists they are fine away from their mum.
He tells me: “They are big boys. They are independent now.”
When I ask about taking them to the UK, he admits: “They are too young but many vets will help you change the dates when you get the passport.
“Don’t worry about the dates in this document — it goes in the trash can and is forgotten.”
An undercover probe by The Dogs Trust in 2015 exposed vets from Hungary and Lithuania who helped smugglers by creating false passports and falsifying papers.
The poor health of these pups means that the unsuspecting Brits who buy them are in for massive vet bills and possible heartbreak.
But these animals pose an even greater danger to the UK, say animal charities.
It is feared that puppies from Eastern European markets such as Pecs could bring in fatal diseases such as parvovirus, kennel cough and even rabies.
Many of the dogs are underage when given rabies vaccinations, rendering the jab ineffective.
Lindsey Scanlon, 44, of the group French Bulldog Saviours, said: “It’s a case of when, not if, we see a case of rabies in the UK.”
She cares for hundreds of rescued bulldogs at her centre in Wakefield, West Yorks. She added: “The amount of dogs I am seeing with hereditary problems and other diseases, because of the way they were farm-bred in Europe, convinces me we have a ticking time bomb on our hands.”
The Dogs Trust is working with port authorities in Dover to care for illegal arrivals from the EU.
But only a small proportion of illegally transported dogs are thought to be detected, since checks are sporadic and officials may struggle to assess a dog’s age.
Veterinary director Paula Boyden said: “I suspect we’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg.
“In the lead-up to Christmas the ages of puppies being smuggled in plummeted. We saw puppies as young as six weeks coming in.”
She is hoping to see tougher laws. Currently, the small percentage of smugglers who are caught are usually treated leniently — having puppies seized or being refused entry.
Those that are prosecuted are likely to see just a few months inside. The maximum jail term for animal cruelty is six months.
This makes the puppy trade hugely appealing to crooks who might otherwise be smuggling drugs or cigarettes.
Vet David Martin of the Brownlow Group in Ellesmere, Shrops, said: “These puppy dealers have given up drug dealing because there’s as much money to be made and considerably less risk.”
And once pups are in the UK, dealers have a variety of sneaky tricks to dupe dog-loving Brits into thinking they’re getting a happy, home-bred pup.
Convincing adverts are posted on sites like Gumtree and Preloved. The crooks even rent or borrow “show homes” to make it appear that the puppy has been raised in a family environment.
Experts say potential buyers should always visit the puppy with its mum more than once.
And Four Paws’ Cordelia warned: that if you suspect a puppy may be from a dodgy source, do not buy it even if it tugs at your heartstrings.
She explained: “There is obviously an instinct to save a traumatised puppy but by buying a smuggled animal you are fuelling the trade and causing more suffering further down the line.”
