Our views on key issues

We chair the Pet Advertising Advisory Group (otherwise known as PAAG). This group was created in 2001 to combat growing concerns regarding the irresponsible advertising of pets for sale, rehoming, and exchange. It comprises animal welfare organisations, trade associations and veterinary bodies. Defra, DAERA in Northern Ireland, the Welsh Government and the Scottish Government have endorsed PAAG’s work.

We are also the Secretariat for the EU Dog & Cat Alliance, chaired by Dogs Trust Ireland, through which we engage with EU policymakers, and call for EU action to build a better Europe for cats and dogs.

Read on to find out more about our work to influence government policy to help us improve the lives of dogs everywhere.

Since 2014, Dogs Trust has been exposing the widespread abuse of the Pet Travel Scheme (PETS). The scheme, intended for use by people taking their pets on holiday, has long been used as a cover by unscrupulous traders, who have taken advantage of the simple set up to illegally import thousands of puppies and heavily pregnant mums from Central and Eastern Europe into Great Britain for sale.

Continual delays to introducing legislation which could effectively tackle the trade has meant puppy smuggling has thrived for too long. This has resulted in the ongoing suffering of countless puppies and pregnant mums.

We want to see:

1. An increase of the age at which puppies can be imported to six months
2. A ban on the non-commercial transport of pregnant dogs in the last 30% of their gestation period (more than 42 days pregnant) as a minimum
3. A complete ban on the commercial movement of pregnant dogs
4. A ban on the importation and sale of dogs with cropped ears and docked tails for cosmetic reasons
5. Tougher penalties for smuggling puppies to deter deceitful sellers
6. A reduction of the number of pets that can be brought into the country to three per vehicle

Find out more and how you can support us.  

We believe an improved and robust registration and licensing system is required to tackle unscrupulous breeders and sellers.  

We believe that anyone breeding, selling or transferring the ownership of a puppy (a dog up to 6 months old), regardless of any financial transaction or gain, should be required to be registered.

In addition, anyone breeding, selling or transferring the ownership, regardless of any financial transaction or gain, of more than one litter of puppies should require a licence. It should then be a mandatory requirement for any advert to include the individual’s unique registration or licence number.

Due to our serious concerns around the sale of dogs, we believe that all forms of advertising, including online, should be verifiable.

We are calling for the introduction of registration of dog breeding alongside the licensing system and the creation of a centralised, publicly accessible list of all registered and licensed breeders and sellers. These measures would allow buyers to be able to check the legitimacy of any breeder or seller.

This would allow a simplified system that would be easily accessible for purchasers to verify where they are buying a dog from in an increasingly online, nationwide marketplace.  

There is a vital need to overhaul the existing Dangerous Dogs legislation. One of the biggest failures of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991, which applies to England, Wales and Scotland, is the emphasis on breed-specific legislation, which evidence suggests is not effective in reducing the number of dog bites.  

We have serious concerns about how subjective the interpretation of the standard for identifying American Bully XL and Pit Bull Terrier types can be, and how a dog can be deemed ‘dangerous’ based on conformation alone.

We are also concerned about the impact of the current legislation on dog welfare. This includes concerns about the protracted periods seized dogs can spend in kennels during the court process, the conditions for the keeping of exempted dogs and the number of prohibited dogs that are euthanised because they cannot be rehomed.  

We are calling for breed-specific legislation to be repealed and replaced with preventative legislation on dog control which is breed-neutral. 

Alongside other charities, we’re calling for a total end to greyhound racing. We have significant welfare concerns for racing greyhounds, at every stage of their lives, and want to see an end to the unnecessary and completely preventable deaths of hundreds of dogs every year.

Before this, we worked with the greyhound industry for a number of years to try to improve the welfare of dogs involved in the sport. While this had led to some improvements, we believe there are still significant welfare issues for racing greyhounds which have not, and cannot, be resolved. Greyhound racing is inherently dangerous for the dogs involved. Running at speed around oval tracks causes significant injury to many dogs, and in some cases the injuries are so severe that it is necessary to euthanise the dog. 

Easy access to fireworks and poor enforcement of existing legislation is having a detrimental impact on dog welfare. We want to see restrictions around the sale of fireworks, limiting them to licensed, public occasions and organised events only.

We recommend the introduction of a licensing system whereby fireworks can be sold for use at licensed venues only. Local Authorities should take the location of public displays into consideration when granting them a licence and require that they are well publicised in the surrounding area.  

The Scottish Parliament passed the Fireworks and Pyrotechnic Articles (Scotland) Act 2022. The Act will introduce a fireworks licensing system, as well as restrictions on the days in which people can use and purchase fireworks.

The Act also creates new powers for Local Authorities to designate fireworks control zones. We are working to ensure that this legislation protects vulnerable dogs as robustly as possible.