:00:11. > :00:12.This programme contains some scenes which some
:00:13. > :00:28.Tonight we film those at the heart of the supply chain. We've got a
:00:29. > :00:34.pitch inside with young pups. We investigate the inner workings of a
:00:35. > :00:38.multimillion pound industry. How does a partially sighted dog get
:00:39. > :00:43.past the vet checks? You tell me. And we ask what we're doing to
:00:44. > :00:49.Britain's favourite pet. This is an industry built on lack of
:00:50. > :01:07.transparency, deceit, cruelty, and animal suffering.
:01:08. > :01:17.It's early morning at an abandoned fish factory near a Scottish port. A
:01:18. > :01:34.van from Northern Ireland arrives and parks up. Moments later, a car
:01:35. > :01:44.follows suit. This woman is a dog dealer.
:01:45. > :01:59.The man on the left, who arrived in the van is her supplier.
:02:00. > :02:06.The supplier has travelled from a puppy farm in Northern Ireland with
:02:07. > :02:10.a consignment of dogs. Within an hour the puppies will be advertised
:02:11. > :02:16.online by these dealers as pets bred in a family home. What you're
:02:17. > :02:20.witnessing is part of a new, multimillion pound industry, a
:02:21. > :02:31.growing and ruthless trade with animal cruelty at the heart of it.
:02:32. > :02:36.Puppies are being bred on a scale never seen before. New breeds are
:02:37. > :02:42.commanding ever higher price was some pups costing upwards of ?1,000.
:02:43. > :02:44.I've spent the last six months investigating the darker side of the
:02:45. > :02:59.trade. My investigation begins here, a
:03:00. > :03:07.complex of barns in County Armagh in Northern Ireland. The owner has just
:03:08. > :03:12.arrived. Hale is the biggest licensed dog breeder in this part of
:03:13. > :03:17.the country. His beagles are Kennel Club registered. They've even
:03:18. > :03:21.qualified for Crufts. As I watch him over the next few months, I learn
:03:22. > :03:29.he's one of Britain's most prolific dog dealers. Every week he loads his
:03:30. > :03:37.van with crate after crate after crate of pups. A 20-hour journey
:03:38. > :03:43.begins. He starts with the night boat to Liverpool. The following day
:03:44. > :03:52.he drives round the country dropping the dogs off to the next link in the
:03:53. > :04:01.supply chain. From large-scale sellers to country lay-by dealers.
:04:02. > :04:08.Hale delivers to all. Hale is in the big league. He discovered he was
:04:09. > :04:13.licensed for 120 breeding pitches. It's hard to control disease, but
:04:14. > :04:18.it's hard to give each dog the human attention it needs if it's to be a
:04:19. > :04:23.happy, family pet. I hear some animal welfare agencies
:04:24. > :04:32.have concerns about Hale and his business. I want to take a closer
:04:33. > :04:36.look. We'd never be allowed to film openly in the puppy farm. So I film
:04:37. > :04:42.at night when there would be least chance of being spotted. It's 2am,
:04:43. > :04:48.and minus six degrees. To get access to the barns means a long walk over
:04:49. > :04:53.the hills in the dark. An hour later, and I'm at the puppy farm.
:04:54. > :05:03.We're filming this using night vision cameras.
:05:04. > :05:16.The doors are locked. The only way in is through a narrow gap and a
:05:17. > :05:24.long drop down into the kennels. Inside, the dogs. The law requires
:05:25. > :05:35.suitable bedding. In some runs there's little or none at all.
:05:36. > :05:40.Breeders must allow their dogs to behave normally and give them relief
:05:41. > :05:52.from boredom. Some of the behaviour I witnessed is disturbing to watch.
:05:53. > :05:53.There's another high wall. On the other side, what seems like the
:05:54. > :06:15.maternity wing. These dogs are either about to give
:06:16. > :06:30.birth or have just done. So -- done so. Along another corridor of
:06:31. > :06:35.kennels I find more pups. I have to keep reminding myself that this
:06:36. > :06:38.place is licensed. That means it's been inspected by the authorities
:06:39. > :06:48.and what they found deemed appropriate.
:06:49. > :06:59.Watching my footage of three of the countries experts veterinary, animal
:07:00. > :07:10.welfare law and canine behaviour Is that sawdust? You're not meant to
:07:11. > :07:13.use that because it gets into food. This is barely adequate
:07:14. > :07:19.accommodation for overnight. There's not really adequate barriers to
:07:20. > :07:22.prevent disease. That dog is trying to anaesthetise itself essentially
:07:23. > :07:26.to get out of the environment it finds itself in and cannot escape
:07:27. > :07:32.from. No local authority should be
:07:33. > :07:36.licensing these sort of conditions. If they're in there 24/7 those dogs
:07:37. > :07:45.are seriously deprived. They're basically in jail. We'd watch the
:07:46. > :07:53.farm over several days and saw no sign of the dogs being routinely
:07:54. > :07:58.taken out of the barns. In a statement, Eric Hale told us his
:07:59. > :08:02.kennels met all the requirement for a breeding establishment. He said
:08:03. > :08:06.his dogs were well socialised and there was plenty of bedding of
:08:07. > :08:10.various types. When they travelled he would regularly check, feed and
:08:11. > :08:16.water the dogs. It's estimated that more than a third of all puppies
:08:17. > :08:21.brought today will have come from puppy farms, both licensed and
:08:22. > :08:25.unlicensed. Breeders like Hale supply dealers, some of whom also
:08:26. > :08:38.flout the regulations in the pursuit of profit. I discover one address
:08:39. > :08:40.Eric Hale often travels to is on the outskirts of Edinburgh. Here he
:08:41. > :09:00.delivers in the dead of night. It's the home of this woman, Lauren
:09:01. > :09:08.Cullivan, a licensed dog seller. She has a number of other suppliers as
:09:09. > :09:15.well as Eric Hale. I discover that she is on the radar of animal
:09:16. > :09:19.welfare agencies across the country. Some dogs she's sold have been kick
:09:20. > :09:24.or died. She's been caught trying to smuggle dogs into Scotland from one
:09:25. > :09:32.of the biggest puppy farms in the Irish Republic, owned by her father.
:09:33. > :09:41.I thought Eric Hale's operation was big. I'm told this puppy farm in the
:09:42. > :09:43.Irish Republic dwarfs it. I choose the timing of my visit very
:09:44. > :10:02.carefully. It's the early hours of the morning
:10:03. > :10:07.and I'm just over the border. It's minus three degrees. It's pitch
:10:08. > :10:12.black. It's too dangerous to go on my own. The men with me are
:10:13. > :10:16.security. After a couple of miles' walk across the hills, I arrive.
:10:17. > :10:39.It's a massive complex of barns. Inside, the first Baranau, scores of
:10:40. > :10:44.dogs. The first barn, scores of dogs. And a wall of noise, so loud
:10:45. > :10:53.the camera's microphone can barely cope. Puppies from some of these
:10:54. > :10:59.breeds can fetch up to ?1,000 on the open market.
:11:00. > :11:06.These pipes are part of a drinking system, normally seen in battery pig
:11:07. > :11:15.farming. The dogs have to press the spout at the end to get water. In
:11:16. > :11:32.other barns, a ramshackle collection of cages.
:11:33. > :11:44.Barn after barn, cage after cage. This is a puggle, one of the new
:11:45. > :11:58.fashionable cross-breeds. The pups can sell for more than ?800.
:11:59. > :12:08.Across the yard is another large barn.
:12:09. > :12:25.I'm totally unprepared for what I find inside. These boxes are filled
:12:26. > :12:32.with dogs. Some of them are about to give birth. Some of them have just
:12:33. > :12:39.given birth. There's one here I cannot tell you how fresh these dogs
:12:40. > :12:45.are. They are this big. These boxes are illegal. Dogs giving
:12:46. > :12:55.birth in confined spaces, unable to move round freely. No space away
:12:56. > :13:01.from the pups. Little or no ventilation or daylight. All
:13:02. > :13:04.breeches of -- breaches of animal welfare legislation in Ireland. Yet
:13:05. > :13:13.filled with pups, many bound for the UK market. Water bottles have been
:13:14. > :13:19.drilled through the sides of the boxes. That heat lamp is only on
:13:20. > :13:25.because this bitch in here is having pups now. This one next door to it
:13:26. > :13:32.has no heat lamp. The roof is slid over, there's nothing, no air holes.
:13:33. > :13:36.Its only contact with the outside world, literally, is that water
:13:37. > :13:46.bottle here going right into the side of this.
:13:47. > :13:58.We leave everything as we find it. This place is licensed. That means
:13:59. > :14:09.it will have been inspected and declared fit for purpose.
:14:10. > :14:18.I show our panel the footage of the larger barns. This is a production
:14:19. > :14:25.facility run on an industrial scale to produce a very valuable
:14:26. > :14:28.commodity. It is treating dogs as though they were agricultural
:14:29. > :14:34.animals. I then show them the barn with the illegal growing boxes. You
:14:35. > :14:38.have gone quiet. I'm appalled, as any responsible dog owner would be,
:14:39. > :14:42.I think. A number of boxes there show the scale of the operation.
:14:43. > :14:46.Have you ever seen anything like that? I haven't seen anything like
:14:47. > :14:51.that before, no. It is not just the odd one or two. This looks like a
:14:52. > :14:57.major supply network that you are filming here. It raises fundamental
:14:58. > :15:03.questions about the local authority's role. I would suggest
:15:04. > :15:07.that it is failing. The County Council told us that six inspections
:15:08. > :15:12.of the business had been carried out in the last 12 month period. They
:15:13. > :15:17.had not encountered any direct evidence of any welfare problems and
:15:18. > :15:22.it was generally compatible with the current legislation. Neither Raymond
:15:23. > :15:27.Cullivan or his daughter, Lauren, responded to our requests for
:15:28. > :15:32.comment. One breeding bitch on a puppy farm
:15:33. > :15:37.can produce ?5,000-worth of pups a year. If you have several hundred,
:15:38. > :15:40.as Cullivan does, you could be earning big money. But it comes at a
:15:41. > :15:50.cost. Marc Abraham is a vet and animal
:15:51. > :15:54.welfare campaigner. The problem with producing lots of dogs is as soon as
:15:55. > :15:59.you increase the production levels, you are most likely going to get a
:16:00. > :16:03.reduction in welfare standards. We see puppies coming in underage,
:16:04. > :16:08.underweight, we see them suffering from infectious diseases and you
:16:09. > :16:13.also have behavioural problems, so this tiny ball of cute fluff is a
:16:14. > :16:16.ticking time bomb of disease, pain, suffering and let's not forget the
:16:17. > :16:24.breeding bitch that it was born from. What happens to the puppies
:16:25. > :16:28.next? Most end up being sold online by dealers who often do their best
:16:29. > :16:34.to hide where the dogs have come from. These adverts are all for pups
:16:35. > :16:43.being sold across Central Scotland by different dealers. Steph, Kim,
:16:44. > :16:47.Don, Megan, D and Dawn, most dogs costing upwards of ?400. Every
:16:48. > :16:52.advert implying the dogs have been born and brought up in a family
:16:53. > :17:04.home. We make a few appointments to see the pups.
:17:05. > :17:12.Interestingly, nearly each and every time we are told to come to the same
:17:13. > :17:19.address which is that house over there, in this rather nice housing
:17:20. > :17:22.estate on the outskirts of Glasgow. We send five undercover reporters to
:17:23. > :17:40.pose as separate potential buyers. This is Noel Smith and this is his
:17:41. > :17:42.wife Dawn. You may remember them for the handover of pups at the
:17:43. > :17:52.abandoned fish factory. Their selling techniques are well
:17:53. > :18:05.rehearsed, playing perfectly on the customer's emotions.
:18:06. > :18:09.In each case we are told the pups have come from a family home, but
:18:10. > :18:16.have they? I spend months following Dawn and
:18:17. > :18:27.Noel Smith. Each week, they get a delivery of
:18:28. > :18:28.pups from their source, a driver from a puppy farm in Northern
:18:29. > :18:42.Ireland. The handovers vary. This exchange
:18:43. > :18:51.takes place in a back-street lay-by at Belfast Docks.
:18:52. > :18:55.Other times I watch them travel on the ferry as foot passengers,
:18:56. > :19:11.returning with pups in carriers. Asking to see the mother should be
:19:12. > :19:16.one way of proving your pup isn't from a puppy farm. But back at their
:19:17. > :19:37.house and Dawn Smith is ready with an answer for our undercover team.
:19:38. > :19:44.However, I start to notice some of their adverts state the pups can be
:19:45. > :19:51.seen with their mum. Could this be part of a new tactic being used to
:19:52. > :19:55.deceive the more careful customer? This investigator works undercover
:19:56. > :19:59.for animal welfare charities around the country including the Ulster
:20:00. > :20:04.Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Northern
:20:05. > :20:09.Ireland. What the dog breeders and the dog sellers have decided to do
:20:10. > :20:14.now is, they get a show bitch so you have a bitch, a mother dog, which
:20:15. > :20:18.looks very like the similar type of pup which is up for sale in the same
:20:19. > :20:22.room and it creates the impression that this pup has come from the
:20:23. > :20:27.mother that's in the room. Often, it's not. Often it is just a show
:20:28. > :20:31.bitch which is purely there to fool the public. The public who are
:20:32. > :20:39.paying cash for pups which have come from a puppy farm. It is all one big
:20:40. > :20:46.lie? It's a deception. It looks like Noel and Dawn Smith have bought into
:20:47. > :20:51.this new tactic. I watch Noel Smith carry this adult Basset Hound from
:20:52. > :20:54.the back of his cab and put it into the supplier's van. Dawn Smith had
:20:55. > :21:02.advertised these pups the previous week and all were sold, so this show
:21:03. > :21:10.bitch was now no longer needed. Dawn transfers these white pups into the
:21:11. > :21:17.boot of the taxi. The supplier passes an adult from the van to
:21:18. > :21:25.Noel. He takes it and puts it into his cab. It is their new show bitch.
:21:26. > :21:30.Sure enough, within an hour of that handover, Dawn Smith posts this
:21:31. > :21:36.advert online. It states that mum is their family pet. Their deception is
:21:37. > :21:43.complete. We asked Dawn and Noel Smith for a comment. They didn't
:21:44. > :21:48.respond. Online sellers make up the larger part of the supply chain but
:21:49. > :21:57.almost a fifth of all pups are sold through pet shops. This is Dogs 4
:21:58. > :22:07.Us, it is the UK's biggest puppy superstore chain, with branches in
:22:08. > :22:12.Manchester and Leeds, both with a impressive celebrity clientele. This
:22:13. > :22:18.dog was bought for ?575 last year. Not long after, a vet diagnosed him
:22:19. > :22:23.with a terminal kidney disease. I asked why has he got this? She said
:22:24. > :22:27.it is more than likely genetic, inherited from his mum and dad, mum
:22:28. > :22:32.or dad. I didn't think it would happen so fast. I was working and
:22:33. > :22:40.she said, "Mam, he's dying." I said, "We need to take him now." Didn't I?
:22:41. > :22:49.She said, "No, mam." I will never forget that. We could see this pain.
:22:50. > :22:54.And then in the end you agreed. George had just turned one when he
:22:55. > :23:01.was put to sleep. Do you remember the name of the breeder? Eric Hale.
:23:02. > :23:08.Yes. Is that right? That was it, wasn't it? Yes. Eric Hale, remember
:23:09. > :23:11.him? He owned this puppy farm we filmed in Northern Ireland, the one
:23:12. > :23:17.the experts said shouldn't be licensed. These are Norwegian elk
:23:18. > :23:24.hounds, the same breed as George was. Hale is a supply to Dogs 4 Us
:23:25. > :23:27.and he has been for years. I receive a phone call from someone who wants
:23:28. > :23:35.to talk to me about their time working for the company. This woman
:23:36. > :23:40.worked for Dogs 4 Us for four years, working her way up to deputy store
:23:41. > :23:45.manager, leaving in 2012. She told me the store would take in pups from
:23:46. > :23:50.dealers at younger than eight weeks, too young to be transported under UK
:23:51. > :24:04.law. How young could some of them then be? Way too young, no teeth, no
:24:05. > :24:10.teeth. I have seen some pups that have looked five weeks. She said
:24:11. > :24:15.some pups arrived with a virus, potentially fatal and often found in
:24:16. > :24:23.puppy farms. Many a time I have sat in the back cradling a dog while the
:24:24. > :24:28.dog is dying. Nicola Robinson had an acrimonious departure from Dogs 4 Us
:24:29. > :24:31.four years ago. She admits assaulting a colleague as she walked
:24:32. > :24:35.out. She was angered, she says, by the way the business was operating.
:24:36. > :24:39.She showed me files of customer complaints which she had kept from
:24:40. > :24:47.her time there. They showed dogs were sold which became sick or died
:24:48. > :24:58.and cross-breeds sold as pedigrees. This one sold as an American cocker
:24:59. > :25:11.spaniel. What's this one? They sold a Bichon that was not a Bichon.
:25:12. > :25:16.Lameness. Heart murmur. Oh my goodness... Partially-sighted cocker
:25:17. > :25:21.spaniel. How does a partially-sighted dog gets past the
:25:22. > :25:27.vet checks? You tell me. On this web page, Dogs 4 Us claims all its
:25:28. > :25:30.pedigree puppies come from licensed breeders and are completely
:25:31. > :25:40.traceable. Is this actually the case? Last year, Chelsee Healey
:25:41. > :25:43.bought Reggie from Dogs 4 Us. Where did you think he had come from? This
:25:44. > :25:49.is really bad. I didn't give it a second thought. I should have looked
:25:50. > :25:56.into it a little bit more. I mean, I didn't. It never crossed my mind to
:25:57. > :26:02.ask where his mum was, no. She asks me to try and find out where Reggie
:26:03. > :26:08.came from. His paperwork lists the breeder at an address in North
:26:09. > :26:17.Wales. But no-one of that name lives here. I ask the council. There is no
:26:18. > :26:24.breeding licence for that address. Remember, on the web page, Dogs 4 Us
:26:25. > :26:29.says all its breeders are licensed and traceable. We put the
:26:30. > :26:33.allegations to Dogs 4 Us about the sale of sick dogs and cross-breeds
:26:34. > :26:37.sold as pedigrees. It says the allegations are based on testimony
:26:38. > :26:42.from a disgruntled ex-employee who was dishonest, had a criminal record
:26:43. > :26:50.and harboured a grudge against the company. About Reggie's missing
:26:51. > :26:55.breeder, it says whilst the majority are licensed, it is allowed to deal
:26:56. > :26:58.with some who aren't. Dogs 4 Us says all are still traceable. I have
:26:59. > :27:06.spent months investigating the puppy trade and have been shocked by the
:27:07. > :27:10.conditions I have witnessed and by the extent of deception used by some
:27:11. > :27:18.dealers. It is clear the authorities are struggling to keep up. As my
:27:19. > :27:22.investigation closes, I go on a call-out with an officer from the
:27:23. > :27:26.animal welfare charity, the Scottish SPCA. He's been told that something
:27:27. > :27:33.has been spotted at the side of the road. I'm not prepared for what I'm
:27:34. > :27:41.about to see. You may find some of this footage distressing. Oh God!
:27:42. > :27:46.These pups are just weeks old. Dumped by a dog dealer when he
:27:47. > :27:54.realised they were either dead or dying. I wish people could see this
:27:55. > :27:58.and realise that actually buying these dogs is feeding the trade. You
:27:59. > :28:04.may be rescuing one dog, but what you are doing is causing misery for
:28:05. > :28:08.the next litter. If you are looking for any evidence of the consequences
:28:09. > :28:17.of the puppy trade, look no further, this is it. Four dead pups at the
:28:18. > :28:23.side of the road. In 2016, we should be better than
:28:24. > :28:28.this. We shouldn't be farming dogs on a mass scale. They feel pain.
:28:29. > :28:32.They feel suffering. They feel fear. And the only people benefitting are
:28:33. > :29:05.the irresponsible breeders and the dog dealers.
:29:06. > :29:09.Hello, I'm Riz Lateef with your 90 second update.
:29:10. > :29:12.Guilty of manslaughter for a road rage killing.
:29:13. > :29:14.Matthew Daley has a history of mental illness.
:29:15. > :29:20.He stabbed 79-year-old Donald Lock to death after a minor shunt
:29:21. > :29:24.Smuggling into prisons in England and Wales is on the up.