FOUR PAWS calls for harsh punishments:
“Illegal puppy trade is not a trivial offense”
Hamburg. The Halle Regional Court (Saale) is hearing one of the largest court cases on the illegal puppy trade from May 5th. A total of six defendants have to answer for several acts of commercial fraud on eight scheduled trial days – damages of more than 40,000 euros are involved and some of them face several years in prison. FOUR PAWS has been researching these cases for years and is in close contact with affected puppy buyers. The Global Foundation for Animal Welfare is calling on the court to fully investigate the individual cases and impose appropriate penalties on the illegal puppy traders.
According to the court's announcement, the defendants are accused of selling puppies to bona fide buyers between November 2019 and June 2021 and deceiving them about their breed and origin. Sales are said to have taken place regularly via classified advertising platforms. The defendants are said to have deliberately claimed, untruthfully, that the puppies were dogs of a certain breed born in Germany that could be raised as family dogs. Instead, the animals are said to have come from a Czech forced breeding of various mixed-breed dogs, some of which were purchased from Eastern Europe, and contrary to the documents presented (Vaccination passports, health certificates, EU pet passports) in many cases have been in poor general condition. According to the court, the buyers are said to have suffered damage totaling 42,340 euros. If convicted, you face a prison sentence of six months to ten years.
“Illegal puppy trade is not a trivial offense”
“The court case in Halle is hopefully a decisive first step in breaking up this alleged nationwide puppy trafficking ring and convicting the defendants appropriately. Illegal puppy trafficking is a criminal business on the backs of helpless animals and the structures behind it are often impenetrable. The fact that six defendants have to answer here offers the Halle regional court the unique opportunity to send a clear signal! Because illegal puppy trafficking is not a trivial offense, but often involves organized gang crime “Many victims: the defenseless puppies, abused mothers and unsuspecting buyers,” says Birgitt Thiesmann, expert on illegal puppy trade at FOUR PAWS.
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