Warning over illegally imported puppies heading to Merseyside

Illegally imported puppies have begun to arrive into Liverpool ahead of Christmas as presents but Merseyside Dogs Home warns owners to beware as many of these puppies won’t live a year.

Tony Buxton MRCVS the vet at the centre said “research has shown that poor breeding, separating pups from mum and then subjecting them to harsh traveling conditions reduces life expectancy, indeed many won’t survive the journey”.

Liverpool City trading standards have seized the first Christmas illegally imported pup, this Shih Tzu would have died had it not been for the intervention of staff at the home, getting it into care quickly.

The pup arrived late last Friday evening and was placed onto a drip for three days before making a recovery, the sad thing is that its ordeal does not end there. Being an illegal pup he now has to go into quarantine until he is fifteen weeks old.

Because of his status as an illegal import staff at the centre have not yet met him, Neil Dutton, a welfare officer at the centre who studied at Liverpool University said that “each year I am saddened by the activities in the puppy trade but it is led by demand of the public, if only they could stop purchasing emotionally and more logically these pups would not continue to suffer year after year.

Staff at the centre have name the pup Ziven, meaning life, as he is one of the lucky ones to be alive.

Paul Dunne, Trustee at Merseyside dogs Home says “dog owners are getting ripped off and enough is enough” “At the centre we are not against the breeding or the buying of puppies, imagine a world without dogs!”

“But when it comes to purchasing a new family member, one that you will love, you need to buy for longevity, a pup that lives ten to fifteen years not one that will barely live a year”.

The health of a pup during its formative months is important to its life span, many owners go in blind and buy with their hearts, an appealing ball of fluff, who can resist?

The advice from Merseyside Dogs Home is to research logically before you visit and don’t buy emotionally. They say Don’t pay cash, ask about parents, research the seller