Let’s play a game – how many unlicensed puppy breeders are in your area?

Hello, I’m ‘John,’ one of the investigators at Naturewatch Foundation and I want to play a game with you – or maybe ‘conduct an experiment’ is a better phrase. It’s not a very scientific experiment, but hopefully it will be eye-opening – or it may just confirm what you already guessed. Either way, I think it’s useful.

First of all, think of a place in the UK. A town, city, or borough, just at random. I’m using the pretend town of Pupminster. We’ve created a fictitious website – petpeddler.co.uk.

Right, now we’re going to search for a puppy or dog, so click on ‘Pets,’ then click on the category drop-down menu and select ‘dog.’ Now enter your random location – in my case, Pupminster – and then click on the drop-down menu that says ‘Select’ and click on ‘All breeds.’

Done?

Now press ‘Search’.

I’ve got 827 dogs and puppies for sale in Pupminster.

Now click the ‘Sort’ box and select ‘Distance.’

Now you can have a bit of a play. On the left-hand side, there are various ways to refine your search, such as distance.

I’ve selected 10 miles, so now I have 153 adverts for litters of puppies and individual dogs within 10 miles of Pupminster.

By my reckoning, that’s a guesstimate of around 750-800 individual animals, depending on litter size and how many single adult dogs are for sale. That’s just within 10 miles of Pupminster.

Now for the next stage of the experiment: Google the council area for your location, specifically the Register of Licensed Dog Breeders. I’m afraid you’re a little bit on your own here as councils don’t put them all in the same place on their website; in fact, some don’t publish them at all, which is a whole new blog on its own!

Okay, let’s look at Pupminster’s register.

Just two licensed breeders.

Okay, maybe there is something wrong?

Let’s go back to petpeddler.co.uk. I’ve now clicked on a tick box near the bottom on the left-hand side that says ‘Breeder,’ under Advertiser type. So, this will refine the search down to advertisers who consider themselves to be a breeder. I now have 39 adverts.

Let’s refine again. Now I’ve clicked on ‘Only Kennel Club registered’ under ‘Trust and safety.’ I now have 21 adverts.

So, the results are in!

Just on petpeddler.co.uk, there are 153 litters of puppies and dogs for sale within 10 miles of Pupminster – 39 of those advertisers consider themselves to be breeders and 21 of those say they are Kennel Club registered. The highest price for a puppy within my search criteria was £3,500 each.

But there are only two businesses that have obtained a licence from the local authority.

Remember, if you breed three or more litters a year, OR make a profit from the selling of the dogs, it is YOUR responsibility to obtain a licence. It’s the law.

I may be wrong but, if you are selling puppies for up to £3500 each, you are in danger of making a profit!

Why not have a go yourself and tell us what you find?