Urgent! End the illegal puppy trade across the EU today!

Millions of dogs are suffering from the illegal puppy. Puppies, often sick and unvaccinated, are taken hundreds of miles across borders with forged or non-existent identification and vaccination documents, posing a risk to both human and animal health. 

FOUR PAWS latest report reveals the annual demand for dogs in the EU is over 5.9 million, in an industry estimated to be worth over 4.6 billion Euro. With inconsistent laws across the union, poor enforcement and low traceability, the problem is huge.

But there is a solution! Right now, a committee of Members of the European Parliament are working on a draft law that could put an end to the illegal puppy trade. This is the opportunity of a lifetime, and could end the suffering of millions of dogs.

Take action now and ask your MEP to make the strongest law possible.

• To our honourable Members of the European Parliament

  You have the power to improve the Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on the welfare of dogs and cats and their traceability in order to make it a real game changer to efficiently stop the illegal puppy trade.

  Practical solutions are already in place, and now is the chance to ensure the proposal does mandate to make use of them.

  It is of utmost importance to ensure in the proposal, that:
  1. all dogs and cats need to be identified and registered.
  2. in the online trade, before any advertisement is published, it must be verified that each dog or cat is registered onto the advertiser.

  Only this way each dog and cat, and their future owners can be protected from illegal pet traders in the EU.

  Please read this new report by FOUR PAWS about the scale of the problem and available solutions: billion-euro-puppy-trade

  The report finds that the EU puppy trade is worth 4,6 billion euros, with the majority of the annually demanded puppies coming from unknown sources, allowing unscrupulous and illegal traders to cash in, using the insufficiently regulated online sales channels. Some single ad sites are flooded with over 2.000 new dog advertisements daily. The available solutions build on already existing laws, and can be scaled up for the whole EU, benefitting a fully regulated, traceable trade and animal welfare.

   

  I fully trust you consider the recommendations of Animal Welfare Organisations like FOUR PAWS, who have invested almost two decades of work to highlight the issue, develop solutions, and point to a strict EU-wide regulation as the most important element to end the illegal puppy trade.

  Thank you very much for your attention.
  Yours sincerely