:00:07. > :00:12.This programme contains some scenes viewers might find upsetting.
:00:13. > :00:13.Tonight, a journey through the ruthless
:00:14. > :00:18.That's the show bitch being passed over.
:00:19. > :00:21.We film those at the heart of the supply
:00:22. > :00:25.You've got a bitch inside, with young
:00:26. > :00:29.And expose the trade right on our doorstep
:00:30. > :00:31.We investigate the inner workings of a
:00:32. > :00:35.How does a partially sighted dog get past the vet
:00:36. > :00:39.And we ask what we're doing to Britain's favourite
:00:40. > :00:43.on lack of transparency, deceit, cruelty and
:00:44. > :01:06.It's early morning at an abandoned fish
:01:07. > :01:12.factory near the Scottish port of Cairnryan.
:01:13. > :01:14.A van from Northern Ireland arrives and
:01:15. > :01:22.Moments later, a car from Coatbridge,
:01:23. > :01:45.The man on the left, who arrived in the
:01:46. > :01:59.The supplier has travelled from a puppy farm in
:02:00. > :02:01.Northern Ireland with a consignment of dogs.
:02:02. > :02:04.Within an hour, the puppies will be advertised online by
:02:05. > :02:08.these dealers as pets bred in their family home.
:02:09. > :02:14.What you're witnessing is part of a new multi-million-pound industry.
:02:15. > :02:16.A growing and ruthless trade with animal cruelty
:02:17. > :02:29.Puppies are being bred on a scale never seen before.
:02:30. > :02:34.New breeds are commanding ever higher prices, with some
:02:35. > :02:38.I've spent the last six months investigating the
:02:39. > :02:56.A complex of barns in County Armagh, in
:02:57. > :03:03.Eric Hale is the biggest licensed dog
:03:04. > :03:10.His beagles are Kennel Club registered.
:03:11. > :03:15.They've even qualified for Crufts.
:03:16. > :03:18.And as I watch him over the next few months, I learn he
:03:19. > :03:20.is one of Britain's most prolific dog
:03:21. > :03:37.Hale starts with the night boat to Liverpool.
:03:38. > :03:40.The following day, he drives round the
:03:41. > :03:42.country, dropping the dogs off to the
:03:43. > :03:52.From large-scale sellers, to country lay-by dealers,
:03:53. > :04:01.We discovered he was licensed for 120
:04:02. > :04:06.With a puppy farm of that size, it's harder to control
:04:07. > :04:10.disease, but it's also harder to give each dog
:04:11. > :04:14.the human attention it needs if it's to be a happy family pet.
:04:15. > :04:21.have concerns about Hale and his business.
:04:22. > :04:29.We'd never be allowed to film openly in Hale's
:04:30. > :04:31.puppy farm, so I have to film at night, when there'd
:04:32. > :04:40.It's two in the morning and minus-six degrees.
:04:41. > :04:43.To try and get access to the barns means a long walk
:04:44. > :04:49.An hour later, and I'm at the puppy farm.
:04:50. > :05:00.We're filming this using night-vision cameras.
:05:01. > :05:05.The only way in is through a narrow gap and a
:05:06. > :05:22.The law requires suitable bedding.
:05:23. > :05:24.In some runs, there's little or none at
:05:25. > :05:31.Breeders must allow their dogs to behave
:05:32. > :05:34.normally and give them relief from boredom.
:05:35. > :05:37.But some of the behaviour I witness is disturbing to
:05:38. > :05:49.On the other side, what seems like the
:05:50. > :06:02.These dogs are either about to give birth or have just
:06:03. > :06:26.Along another corridor of kennels, I find more pups.
:06:27. > :06:28.I have to keep reminding myself that this place is
:06:29. > :06:33.which means it has been inspected by the authorities and
:06:34. > :06:47.Watching my footage are three of the country's most eminent experts
:06:48. > :06:53.animal welfare law and canine behaviour.
:06:54. > :07:00.You're not meant to use sawdust because
:07:01. > :07:04.The accommodation is barely adequate for
:07:05. > :07:11.There's not really adequate barriers to prevent
:07:12. > :07:17.That dog is trying to anaesthetise itself,
:07:18. > :07:19.essentially, to get out of the environment it finds
:07:20. > :07:25.No local authority should be licensing these
:07:26. > :07:32.If they are in there 24/7, then those dogs are
:07:33. > :07:41.We had watched the farm over several days and saw no sign
:07:42. > :07:48.of the dogs being routinely taken out of the barns.
:07:49. > :07:50.In a statement, Eric Hale told us his
:07:51. > :07:51.kennels met all the requirements for a
:07:52. > :07:57.His dogs were well socialised, he said, and there was
:07:58. > :08:03.When they travelled, he would "regularly
:08:04. > :08:08.It's estimated that more than a third of
:08:09. > :08:10.all puppies bought today will have come
:08:11. > :08:17.from puppy farms - both licensed and unlicensed.
:08:18. > :08:21.Breeders like Hale supply dealers, some of whom also
:08:22. > :08:26.flout the regulations in the pursuit of profit.
:08:27. > :08:30.I discover one address Eric Hale often travels to is
:08:31. > :08:34.on the outskirts of Edinburgh.
:08:35. > :08:53.Here, he delivers in the dead of night.
:08:54. > :08:59.She has a number of other suppliers, as
:09:00. > :09:09.on the radar of animal welfare agencies around the
:09:10. > :09:13.Some dogs she has sold have been sick
:09:14. > :09:20.And she's been caught trying to smuggle dogs into
:09:21. > :09:21.Scotland from one of the biggest puppy
:09:22. > :09:23.farms in the Irish Republic - owned by
:09:24. > :09:31.I thought Eric Hale's operation was big,
:09:32. > :09:34.but I am told that Raymond Cullivan's puppy
:09:35. > :09:35.farm in the Irish Republic dwarfs it.
:09:36. > :09:37.Again, I choose the timing of my visit
:09:38. > :09:56.It's the early hours of the morning and
:09:57. > :09:59.I'm just over the border in County Cavan.
:10:00. > :10:03.It's minus-three degrees and pitch black.
:10:04. > :10:15.After a couple of miles' walk across the hills, I arrive.
:10:16. > :10:46.So loud, the camera's microphone can barely cope.
:10:47. > :10:48.Puppies from some of these breeds can
:10:49. > :10:57.fetch up to ?1,000 on the open market.
:10:58. > :10:59.These pipes are part of a drinking system
:11:00. > :11:03.normally seen in battery pig farming.
:11:04. > :11:05.The dogs have to press the spout at the end to get
:11:06. > :11:23.In other barns, a ramshackle collection of cages.
:11:24. > :11:38.It's one of the new fashionable crossbreeds.
:11:39. > :11:56.The pups can sell for more than ?800.
:11:57. > :12:05.Across the yard is another large barn.
:12:06. > :12:15.I am totally unprepared for what I find inside.
:12:16. > :12:22.Some of them are about to give birth.
:12:23. > :12:27.Some of them have just given birth.
:12:28. > :12:30.There's one here - I cannot tell you how fresh these
:12:31. > :12:40.Dogs giving birth in confined spaces,
:12:41. > :12:55.Little or no ventilation or daylight.
:12:56. > :13:00.All breaches of animal-welfare legislation in Ireland.
:13:01. > :13:07.Yet filled with pups, many bound for the UK market.
:13:08. > :13:09.Water bottles have been drilled through
:13:10. > :13:17.this bitch in here is having pups now.
:13:18. > :13:21.This one next door to it has got no heat lamp,
:13:22. > :13:23.the roof of it is slid over, there's nothing.
:13:24. > :13:28.It's only contact with the outside
:13:29. > :13:32.world - literally - is that water bottle here
:13:33. > :13:54.That means it will have been inspected
:13:55. > :14:12.I show our panel the footage of the larger barns.
:14:13. > :14:14.This is a production facility run on an industrial
:14:15. > :14:19.scale to produce a very valuable commodity.
:14:20. > :14:26.It is treating dogs as though they were agricultural animals.
:14:27. > :14:28.I then show them the barn with the illegal growing
:14:29. > :14:32.Yes, I am appalled, as any responsible dog
:14:33. > :14:37.The number of boxes there show the scale of the
:14:38. > :14:40.Have you ever seen anything like that?
:14:41. > :14:42.I haven't seen anything like that before, no.
:14:43. > :14:47.This looks like a major supply network
:14:48. > :14:51.It raises fundamental questions about the
:14:52. > :15:03.Cavan County Council told us that six
:15:04. > :15:07.carried out in the last twelve month period.
:15:08. > :15:12.direct evidence of any welfare problems".
:15:13. > :15:13.And it was "generally compatible" with the
:15:14. > :15:19.Neither Raymond Cullivan nor his daughter Lauren
:15:20. > :15:25.responded to our requests for comment.
:15:26. > :15:27.One breeding bitch on a puppy farm can
:15:28. > :15:32.If you have several hundred, as Cullivan does, you
:15:33. > :15:47.Marc Abraham is a vet and animal welfare campaigner.
:15:48. > :15:51.lots of dogs is as soon as you increase
:15:52. > :15:53.the production levels, you're most likely going to get
:15:54. > :15:59.We see puppies coming in under age, underweight.
:16:00. > :16:01.We see them suffering from infectious
:16:02. > :16:03.diseases, and of course you also have behavioural
:16:04. > :16:07.So this tiny ball of cute fluff is actually a
:16:08. > :16:11.ticking time-bomb of disease, pain, suffering, and let's
:16:12. > :16:13.not forget the breeding bitch that it actually was born
:16:14. > :16:19.But what happens to the puppies next?
:16:20. > :16:21.Most end up being sold online, by dealers who'll often
:16:22. > :16:27.do their best to hide where the dogs have come from.
:16:28. > :16:30.These adverts are all for pups being sold across central Scotland
:16:31. > :16:45.And every advert implying the dogs have been born and brought up
:16:46. > :16:50.We make a few appointments to see the pups.
:16:51. > :16:56.Oh, hi there, can I speak to Kim please?
:16:57. > :17:06.Interestingly, nearly each and every time we get told to come
:17:07. > :17:10.That house there in this rather nice housing estate
:17:11. > :17:19.We send five undercover reporters to pose as
:17:20. > :17:29.Hiya, have I got the right place for the puggles?
:17:30. > :17:46.You may remember them from the handover of pups at the abandoned
:17:47. > :17:47.Their selling techniques are well-rehearsed,
:17:48. > :18:04.playing perfectly on the customer's emotions.
:18:05. > :18:06.In each case, we're told the pups have come
:18:07. > :18:20.I spend months following Dawn and Noel Smyth.
:18:21. > :18:23.Each week, they get a delivery of pups from their source,
:18:24. > :18:27.a driver for a puppy farm in Northern Ireland.
:18:28. > :18:37.This exchange takes place in a backstreet lay-by
:18:38. > :18:52.Other times, I watch them travel on the ferry as foot passengers,
:18:53. > :19:07.Asking to see the mother should be one way of proving your pup
:19:08. > :19:35.But back at their house, and Dawn Smyth is ready with
:19:36. > :19:38.However, I start to notice some of their adverts state the pups can
:19:39. > :19:44.Could this be part of a new tactic being used to deceive
:19:45. > :19:51.This investigator works undercover for animal welfare charities around
:19:52. > :19:53.the country, including the Ulster Society for
:19:54. > :20:02.the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Northern Ireland.
:20:03. > :20:08.What the dog breeders and the dog sellers have
:20:09. > :20:12.so you have a bitch, a mother dog which looks very
:20:13. > :20:16.like the similar type of pup which is up for sale in the same
:20:17. > :20:18.room and it creates the impression that this pup has
:20:19. > :20:20.come from the mother that's in the room.
:20:21. > :20:24.Often, it's just a show bitch, which is purely
:20:25. > :20:27.there to fool the public, the public who are paying cash
:20:28. > :20:32.for pups, which have come from a puppy farm.
:20:33. > :20:42.It looks like Noel and Dawn Smyth have bought into this new tactic.
:20:43. > :20:45.I watch Noel Smyth, a taxi driver, carry this adult Basset hound
:20:46. > :20:49.from the back of his cab and put it into the supplier's van.
:20:50. > :20:51.Dawn Smyth had advertised these Bassett pups the previous
:20:52. > :20:57.So this show bitch was now no longer needed.
:20:58. > :21:00.Dawn then transfers these white Bichon pups into the boot
:21:01. > :21:05.The supplier passes an adult Bichon from the van to Noel,
:21:06. > :21:16.who takes it and puts it into his taxi.
:21:17. > :21:23.Sure enough, within an hour of that handover, Dawn Smyth posts
:21:24. > :21:29.It states that mum is their family pet.
:21:30. > :21:35.We asked Dawn and Noel Smyth for a comment.
:21:36. > :21:43.Online sellers make up the larger part of the supply chain.
:21:44. > :21:50.But almost a fifth of all pups are sold through pet shops.
:21:51. > :21:53.It's the UK's biggest puppy superstore chain.
:21:54. > :21:55.Branches in Manchester and Leeds, both with an impressive
:21:56. > :22:04.Michelle and Claudia Williams bought a Norwegian Elkhound puppy, George,
:22:05. > :22:15.Not long after, a vet diagnosed him with a terminal kidney disease.
:22:16. > :22:17.You asked, why, didn't you, and she said "It's more
:22:18. > :22:20.than likely genetic, inherited from his mum and dad."
:22:21. > :22:27.I didn't think it would happen so fast.
:22:28. > :22:30.I was working, and she rang me up, and she said, "Mam, he's dying."
:22:31. > :22:32.And I said "Come on, we need to take him now."
:22:33. > :22:50.George had just turned one when he was put to sleep.
:22:51. > :22:53.Do you remember the name of the breeder?
:22:54. > :23:07.He owned this puppy farm we had filmed in Northern Ireland.
:23:08. > :23:10.The one the experts said shouldn't be licensed.
:23:11. > :23:14.These are Norwegian Elkhounds, the same breed as George was.
:23:15. > :23:24.I receive a phone call from someone who wants to talk to me
:23:25. > :23:27.about their time working for the company.
:23:28. > :23:34.This woman worked for Dogs 4 Us for four years,
:23:35. > :23:37.working her way up to deputy store manager, leaving in 2012.
:23:38. > :23:40.She told me the store would take in pups from dealers
:23:41. > :23:42.at younger than eight weeks, too young to be transported
:23:43. > :23:49.How young could some of them then be?
:23:50. > :23:53.Way too young.
:23:54. > :23:59.I've seen some Shih Tzus that looked about five weeks,
:24:00. > :24:02.then you're having to, sort of, give them some Lactol
:24:03. > :24:05.as well, to try and wean them yourself in kennels.
:24:06. > :24:07.She said some pups arrived with parvo virus.
:24:08. > :24:11.Potentially fatal, and often found in puppy farms.
:24:12. > :24:13.Many a times, I've sat in the back cradling a dog
:24:14. > :24:24.Nicola Robinson had an acrimonious departure from Dogs 4 Us
:24:25. > :24:29.She admits assaulting a colleague as she walked out.
:24:30. > :24:32.She was angered, she says, by the way the business
:24:33. > :24:36.She showed me files of customer complaints, which she had kept
:24:37. > :24:39.They showed dogs were sold, which became sick or died.
:24:40. > :24:46.This one sold as an American cocker spaniel.
:24:47. > :24:56.Oh, they sold a Bichon Frise that wasn't a Bichon Frise.
:24:57. > :24:59.Lameness, hip dysplasia, oh, there's loads.
:25:00. > :25:03.Look there's loads, heart murmur, hip dysplasia,
:25:04. > :25:08.So that was a common thing?
:25:09. > :25:14.how does a partially sighted dog get past the vet checks?
:25:15. > :25:22.On this web page, Dogs 4 Us claims all its pedigree puppies "come
:25:23. > :25:26.from licensed breeders and are completely traceable".
:25:27. > :25:34.Last year, actress Chelsee Healey bought Reggie for ?900 from Dogs 4
:25:35. > :25:42.This is really bad, but I didn't even give it a second thought.
:25:43. > :25:45.I should have looked into it a little bit more but,
:25:46. > :25:55.It never even crossed my mind to ask where his mum was.
:25:56. > :25:59.Chelsee asks me to try and find out where Reggie came from.
:26:00. > :26:01.His paperwork lists the breeder at an address in North Wales.
:26:02. > :26:14.There's also no breeding licence for that address.
:26:15. > :26:17.Remember, on the web page, Dogs 4 Us says all its breeders
:26:18. > :26:26.We put the allegations to Dogs 4 Us about the sale of sick dogs,
:26:27. > :26:32.It says the allegations are based on testimony from "a disgruntled
:26:33. > :26:34.ex-employee", who was dishonest, had a criminal record and "harboured
:26:35. > :26:43.About Reggie's missing breeder, it says that whilst the "majority
:26:44. > :26:45.of breeders are licensed", it is allowed to deal
:26:46. > :26:53.But, say Dogs 4 Us, all are still "traceable".
:26:54. > :26:55.I've spent months investigating the puppy trade, and have been
:26:56. > :26:58.shocked by the conditions I've witnessed in licensed puppy farms,
:26:59. > :27:06.and by the extent of deception used by some dealers.
:27:07. > :27:13.It's clear the authorities are struggling to keep up.
:27:14. > :27:16.As my investigation closes, I go on a call-out with an officer
:27:17. > :27:22.from the animal welfare charity, the Scottish SPCA.
:27:23. > :27:23.He's been told that something has been spotted
:27:24. > :27:29.I am not prepared for what I am about to see.
:27:30. > :27:33.You may find some of this footage distressing.
:27:34. > :27:44.Dumped by a dog dealer when he realised they were either
:27:45. > :27:55.And realise that, actually, buying these dogs is feeding the trade.
:27:56. > :27:58.So you may be rescuing one dog, but what you are doing
:27:59. > :28:02.is you are causing misery for the next litter.
:28:03. > :28:05.If you are looking for any evidence of the consequences of the puppy
:28:06. > :28:07.trade, look no further, this is it four dead pups,
:28:08. > :28:18.In 2016, we should be better than this.
:28:19. > :28:22.We shouldn't be farming dogs on a mass scale.
:28:23. > :28:27.They feel pain, they feel suffering, they feel fear.
:28:28. > :28:31.The only people benefiting are the irresponsible breeders