Britain's Puppy Dealers Exposed Panorama

This programme contains some scenes which some

Tonight we film those at the heart of the supply chain. We've got a

pitch inside with young pups. We investigate the inner workings of a

multimillion pound industry. How does a partially sighted dog get

past the vet checks? You tell me. And we ask what we're doing to

Britain's favourite pet. This is an industry built on lack of

transparency, deceit, cruelty, and animal suffering.

It's early morning at an abandoned fish factory near a Scottish port. A

van from Northern Ireland arrives and parks up. Moments later, a car

follows suit. This woman is a dog dealer.

The man on the left, who arrived in the van is her supplier.

The supplier has travelled from a puppy farm in Northern Ireland with

a consignment of dogs. Within an hour the puppies will be advertised

online by these dealers as pets bred in a family home. What you're

witnessing is part of a new, multimillion pound industry, a

growing and ruthless trade with animal cruelty at the heart of it.

Puppies are being bred on a scale never seen before. New breeds are

commanding ever higher price was some pups costing upwards of ?1,000.

I've spent the last six months investigating the darker side of the

trade. My investigation begins here, a

complex of barns in County Armagh in Northern Ireland. The owner has just

arrived. Hale is the biggest licensed dog breeder in this part of

the country. His beagles are Kennel Club registered. They've even

qualified for Crufts. As I watch him over the next few months, I learn

he's one of Britain's most prolific dog dealers. Every week he loads his

van with crate after crate after crate of pups. A 20-hour journey

begins. He starts with the night boat to Liverpool. The following day

he drives round the country dropping the dogs off to the next link in the

supply chain. From large-scale sellers to country lay-by dealers.

Hale delivers to all. Hale is in the big league. He discovered he was

licensed for 120 breeding pitches. It's hard to control disease, but

it's hard to give each dog the human attention it needs if it's to be a

happy, family pet. I hear some animal welfare agencies

have concerns about Hale and his business. I want to take a closer

look. We'd never be allowed to film openly in the puppy farm. So I film

at night when there would be least chance of being spotted. It's 2am,

and minus six degrees. To get access to the barns means a long walk over

the hills in the dark. An hour later, and I'm at the puppy farm.

We're filming this using night vision cameras.

The doors are locked. The only way in is through a narrow gap and a

long drop down into the kennels. Inside, the dogs. The law requires

suitable bedding. In some runs there's little or none at all.

Breeders must allow their dogs to behave normally and give them relief

from boredom. Some of the behaviour I witnessed is disturbing to watch.

There's another high wall. On the other side, what seems like the

maternity wing. These dogs are either about to give

birth or have just done. So -- done so. Along another corridor of

kennels I find more pups. I have to keep reminding myself that this

place is licensed. That means it's been inspected by the authorities

and what they found deemed appropriate.

Watching my footage of three of the countries experts veterinary, animal

welfare law and canine behaviour Is that sawdust? You're not meant to

use that because it gets into food. This is barely adequate

accommodation for overnight. There's not really adequate barriers to

prevent disease. That dog is trying to anaesthetise itself essentially

to get out of the environment it finds itself in and cannot escape

from. No local authority should be

licensing these sort of conditions. If they're in there 24/7 those dogs

are seriously deprived. They're basically in jail. We'd watch the

farm over several days and saw no sign of the dogs being routinely

taken out of the barns. In a statement, Eric Hale told us his

kennels met all the requirement for a breeding establishment. He said

his dogs were well socialised and there was plenty of bedding of

various types. When they travelled he would regularly check, feed and

water the dogs. It's estimated that more than a third of all puppies

brought today will have come from puppy farms, both licensed and

unlicensed. Breeders like Hale supply dealers, some of whom also

flout the regulations in the pursuit of profit. I discover one address

Eric Hale often travels to is on the outskirts of Edinburgh. Here he

delivers in the dead of night. It's the home of this woman, Lauren

Cullivan, a licensed dog seller. She has a number of other suppliers as

well as Eric Hale. I discover that she is on the radar of animal

welfare agencies across the country. Some dogs she's sold have been kick

or died. She's been caught trying to smuggle dogs into Scotland from one

of the biggest puppy farms in the Irish Republic, owned by her father.

I thought Eric Hale's operation was big. I'm told this puppy farm in the

Irish Republic dwarfs it. I choose the timing of my visit very

carefully. It's the early hours of the morning

and I'm just over the border. It's minus three degrees. It's pitch

black. It's too dangerous to go on my own. The men with me are

security. After a couple of miles' walk across the hills, I arrive.

It's a massive complex of barns. Inside, the first Baranau, scores of

dogs. The first barn, scores of dogs. And a wall of noise, so loud

the camera's microphone can barely cope. Puppies from some of these

breeds can fetch up to ?1,000 on the open market.

These pipes are part of a drinking system, normally seen in battery pig

farming. The dogs have to press the spout at the end to get water. In

other barns, a ramshackle collection of cages.

Barn after barn, cage after cage. This is a puggle, one of the new

fashionable cross-breeds. The pups can sell for more than ?800.

Across the yard is another large barn.

I'm totally unprepared for what I find inside. These boxes are filled

with dogs. Some of them are about to give birth. Some of them have just

given birth. There's one here I cannot tell you how fresh these dogs

are. They are this big. These boxes are illegal. Dogs giving

birth in confined spaces, unable to move round freely. No space away

from the pups. Little or no ventilation or daylight. All

breeches of -- breaches of animal welfare legislation in Ireland. Yet

filled with pups, many bound for the UK market. Water bottles have been

drilled through the sides of the boxes. That heat lamp is only on

because this bitch in here is having pups now. This one next door to it

has no heat lamp. The roof is slid over, there's nothing, no air holes.

Its only contact with the outside world, literally, is that water

bottle here going right into the side of this.

We leave everything as we find it. This place is licensed. That means

it will have been inspected and declared fit for purpose.

I show our panel the footage of the larger barns. This is a production

facility run on an industrial scale to produce a very valuable

commodity. It is treating dogs as though they were agricultural

animals. I then show them the barn with the illegal growing boxes. You

have gone quiet. I'm appalled, as any responsible dog owner would be,

I think. A number of boxes there show the scale of the operation.

Have you ever seen anything like that? I haven't seen anything like

that before, no. It is not just the odd one or two. This looks like a

major supply network that you are filming here. It raises fundamental

questions about the local authority's role. I would suggest

that it is failing. The County Council told us that six inspections

of the business had been carried out in the last 12 month period. They

had not encountered any direct evidence of any welfare problems and

it was generally compatible with the current legislation. Neither Raymond

Cullivan or his daughter, Lauren, responded to our requests for

comment. One breeding bitch on a puppy farm

can produce ?5,000-worth of pups a year. If you have several hundred,

as Cullivan does, you could be earning big money. But it comes at a

cost. Marc Abraham is a vet and animal

welfare campaigner. The problem with producing lots of dogs is as soon as

you increase the production levels, you are most likely going to get a

reduction in welfare standards. We see puppies coming in underage,

underweight, we see them suffering from infectious diseases and you

also have behavioural problems, so this tiny ball of cute fluff is a

ticking time bomb of disease, pain, suffering and let's not forget the

breeding bitch that it was born from. What happens to the puppies

next? Most end up being sold online by dealers who often do their best

to hide where the dogs have come from. These adverts are all for pups

being sold across Central Scotland by different dealers. Steph, Kim,

Don, Megan, D and Dawn, most dogs costing upwards of ?400. Every

advert implying the dogs have been born and brought up in a family

home. We make a few appointments to see the pups.

Interestingly, nearly each and every time we are told to come to the same

address which is that house over there, in this rather nice housing

estate on the outskirts of Glasgow. We send five undercover reporters to

pose as separate potential buyers. This is Noel Smith and this is his

wife Dawn. You may remember them for the handover of pups at the

abandoned fish factory. Their selling techniques are well

rehearsed, playing perfectly on the customer's emotions.

In each case we are told the pups have come from a family home, but

have they? I spend months following Dawn and

Noel Smith. Each week, they get a delivery of

pups from their source, a driver from a puppy farm in Northern

Ireland. The handovers vary. This exchange

takes place in a back-street lay-by at Belfast Docks.

Other times I watch them travel on the ferry as foot passengers,

returning with pups in carriers. Asking to see the mother should be

one way of proving your pup isn't from a puppy farm. But back at their

house and Dawn Smith is ready with an answer for our undercover team.

However, I start to notice some of their adverts state the pups can be

seen with their mum. Could this be part of a new tactic being used to

deceive the more careful customer? This investigator works undercover

for animal welfare charities around the country including the Ulster

Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Northern

Ireland. What the dog breeders and the dog sellers have decided to do

now is, they get a show bitch so you have a bitch, a mother dog, which

looks very like the similar type of pup which is up for sale in the same

room and it creates the impression that this pup has come from the

mother that's in the room. Often, it's not. Often it is just a show

bitch which is purely there to fool the public. The public who are

paying cash for pups which have come from a puppy farm. It is all one big

lie? It's a deception. It looks like Noel and Dawn Smith have bought into

this new tactic. I watch Noel Smith carry this adult Basset Hound from

the back of his cab and put it into the supplier's van. Dawn Smith had

advertised these pups the previous week and all were sold, so this show

bitch was now no longer needed. Dawn transfers these white pups into the

boot of the taxi. The supplier passes an adult from the van to

Noel. He takes it and puts it into his cab. It is their new show bitch.

Sure enough, within an hour of that handover, Dawn Smith posts this

advert online. It states that mum is their family pet. Their deception is

complete. We asked Dawn and Noel Smith for a comment. They didn't

respond. Online sellers make up the larger part of the supply chain but

almost a fifth of all pups are sold through pet shops. This is Dogs 4

Us, it is the UK's biggest puppy superstore chain, with branches in

Manchester and Leeds, both with a impressive celebrity clientele. This

dog was bought for ?575 last year. Not long after, a vet diagnosed him

with a terminal kidney disease. I asked why has he got this? She said

it is more than likely genetic, inherited from his mum and dad, mum

or dad. I didn't think it would happen so fast. I was working and

she said, "Mam, he's dying." I said, "We need to take him now." Didn't I?

She said, "No, mam." I will never forget that. We could see this pain.

And then in the end you agreed. George had just turned one when he

was put to sleep. Do you remember the name of the breeder? Eric Hale.

Yes. Is that right? That was it, wasn't it? Yes. Eric Hale, remember

him? He owned this puppy farm we filmed in Northern Ireland, the one

the experts said shouldn't be licensed. These are Norwegian elk

hounds, the same breed as George was. Hale is a supply to Dogs 4 Us

and he has been for years. I receive a phone call from someone who wants

to talk to me about their time working for the company. This woman

worked for Dogs 4 Us for four years, working her way up to deputy store

manager, leaving in 2012. She told me the store would take in pups from

dealers at younger than eight weeks, too young to be transported under UK

law. How young could some of them then be? Way too young, no teeth, no

teeth. I have seen some pups that have looked five weeks. She said

some pups arrived with a virus, potentially fatal and often found in

puppy farms. Many a time I have sat in the back cradling a dog while the

dog is dying. Nicola Robinson had an acrimonious departure from Dogs 4 Us

four years ago. She admits assaulting a colleague as she walked

out. She was angered, she says, by the way the business was operating.

She showed me files of customer complaints which she had kept from

her time there. They showed dogs were sold which became sick or died

and cross-breeds sold as pedigrees. This one sold as an American cocker

spaniel. What's this one? They sold a Bichon that was not a Bichon.

Lameness. Heart murmur. Oh my goodness... Partially-sighted cocker

spaniel. How does a partially-sighted dog gets past the

vet checks? You tell me. On this web page, Dogs 4 Us claims all its

pedigree puppies come from licensed breeders and are completely

traceable. Is this actually the case? Last year, Chelsee Healey

bought Reggie from Dogs 4 Us. Where did you think he had come from? This

is really bad. I didn't give it a second thought. I should have looked

into it a little bit more. I mean, I didn't. It never crossed my mind to

ask where his mum was, no. She asks me to try and find out where Reggie

came from. His paperwork lists the breeder at an address in North

Wales. But no-one of that name lives here. I ask the council. There is no

breeding licence for that address. Remember, on the web page, Dogs 4 Us

says all its breeders are licensed and traceable. We put the

allegations to Dogs 4 Us about the sale of sick dogs and cross-breeds

sold as pedigrees. It says the allegations are based on testimony

from a disgruntled ex-employee who was dishonest, had a criminal record

and harboured a grudge against the company. About Reggie's missing

breeder, it says whilst the majority are licensed, it is allowed to deal

with some who aren't. Dogs 4 Us says all are still traceable. I have

spent months investigating the puppy trade and have been shocked by the

conditions I have witnessed and by the extent of deception used by some

dealers. It is clear the authorities are struggling to keep up. As my

investigation closes, I go on a call-out with an officer from the

animal welfare charity, the Scottish SPCA. He's been told that something

has been spotted at the side of the road. I'm not prepared for what I'm

about to see. You may find some of this footage distressing. Oh God!

These pups are just weeks old. Dumped by a dog dealer when he

realised they were either dead or dying. I wish people could see this

and realise that actually buying these dogs is feeding the trade. You

may be rescuing one dog, but what you are doing is causing misery for

the next litter. If you are looking for any evidence of the consequences

of the puppy trade, look no further, this is it. Four dead pups at the

side of the road. In 2016, we should be better than

this. We shouldn't be farming dogs on a mass scale. They feel pain.

They feel suffering. They feel fear. And the only people benefitting are

the irresponsible breeders and the dog dealers.

Hello, I'm Riz Lateef with your 90 second update.

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