Little Rascals Pets Ltd

Little Rascals Pets Ltd. Brant Broughton, Lincs

This is unbelievable, Little Rascals imported from the Republic of Ireland 399 puppies between December 2014 and October 2015.  Yet N Kesteven Council who are responsible for issuing Little Rascals their pet shop licence under the Pet Animals Act 1951 have not placed extra conditions on their standard licence conditions to take account the importation or selling of puppies from the premises.  The Council appeared to be oblivious to what I made reference to when questioned on this important issue. 

A Council spokesperson advised me that it is the responsibility of APAH (imports) and Trading Standards, then added the transporters of puppies are checked at the border!  Wrong it is only APAH and Trading Standards responsibility to the delivery point, the puppies’ arrival at Little Rascals.  The border checks of vehicles leaving the Republic of Ireland by ferry are spot checks only; there is no static border control.  Trading Standards does not check each and every consignment of puppies entering their destination in the UK as animal welfare has a low priority and the low risk factor of rabies from the Republic of Ireland does not make it cost effective to do so.

Under the pet shop licence conditions from the point of arrival of imported puppies at their destination (Little Rascals) it  is the Councils responsibility to ensure that every consignment of puppies details are entered into the Animals Register by the licence holder (Little Rascals) as part of the pet shop licence conditions.  The puppies’ details, where the licence holder purchased the puppies from and sold to must be entered.   The Register is open for inspection by Council officials by request and should be inspected as routine at the time of the pet shop licence renewal once a year. 

When I questioned a spokesperson at N Kesteven Council about this they could not confirm this occurred and the details of imported puppies were listed in the Animal Register, stating yet again that it was it was Trading Standards responsibility.    If this is the case then N Kesteven Council has no traceability of any of these 399 puppies once they had entered or left Little Rascals premises?  If so it is unacceptable for the following reasons.

A pet shop licence enables Little Rascals to sell puppies to both individual purchasers and to other dealers and pet shops. Without the puppies details entered into the Animal Register the Council does not know what has happened to the 399 puppies that were imported into Little Rascals over this 10 month period in question.  The same applies to APAH and Trading Standards.  So where did these puppies go, were they all sold during the 10 month period or soon after?  Were they sold to purchasers who visited Little Rascals premises, were they sold to other dealers or pet shops?  The Council were not able to clarify even though they renewed Little Rascals pet shop licence only last week. 

Why hasn’t the Council realized that Little Rascals was importing puppies into their premises over the past year and possibly longer and adjusted or added extra conditions to Little Rascals pet shop licence conditions to accommodate imported puppies to ensure they were entered in the Animals Register which is part of the licence conditions? 

Just looking at N Kesteven web site under their pet shop licence conditions proves that they have not taken this into account it refers to ‘stocking densities’ it states ‘puppies up to 12 weeks of age’.  Imported puppies cannot be imported and sold until over 15 weeks of age as they cannot have their rabies vaccination until 12 weeks of age then must wait for 22 days before transportation.  Why hasn’t N Kesteven Council noted that their pet shop licence conditions are not applicable to cover the criteria for imported puppies sold on their licensed premises?  

This is a massive loophole that is being exploited by puppy traders.  It can allow the unscrupulous to bring underage puppies into the UK and sell them under the nose of the Council by not stating their correct age.  No one is physically checking the puppies against their paperwork when they arrive at the ferry leaving the ROI or arriving at their destination in the UK. Too much trust is placed on all involved in the puppy trade to be honest unfortunately due to the high profits and quick turnover puppy trading has become an exceedingly lucrative business that are prepared to exploit the EU Legislation Balai Directive and compromise animal welfare.

If anyone reading the above in the last year has seen Little Rascals advertising for sale puppies over 15 weeks of age or purchased a puppy with a Passport from these premises or know of other premises such as dealers of pet shops that have been supplied with puppies by Little Rascals Pets Ltd I would like to hear from you please email puppyalert@btinternet.com

On Little Rascals web site they refer to their business of selling puppies as dog breeders of pedigree and designer cross breed puppies.  This is true they are but what they fail to announce alongside licensed dog breeder to keep about 200 dogs on their premises and are a licensed pet shop in addition to the puppies they breed they ‘buy in’ and import puppies to resell under their Pet Shop Licence. 

The Council is exceedingly irresponsible by not ensuring that they are fully aware of the activities of dogs breeders and pet shop licence holders within their area, it is too easy to tick boxes each year and automatically renew a licence, rather than to ensure that animal welfare is not being compromised by allowing premises to have too many dogs and puppies on the premises unaccounted for, Little Rascals is one such example there are many others.      

Consignments of puppies imported into Little Rascals Pets Ltd from the Republic of Ireland.

02.12.2014 = 59 puppies

04.12.2014 = 14 puppies

05.12.2015 = 33 puppies

05.03.2015 = 47 puppies

05.03.2015 = 03 puppies

31.03.2015 = 11 puppies

02.05.2015 = 33 puppies

02.05.2015 = 17 puppies

23.05.2015 = 28 puppies

18.06.2015 = 39 puppies

18.06.2015 = 08 puppies

30.07.2015 = 42 puppies

09.09.2015 = 41 puppies

10.10.2015 = 24 puppies

TOTAL = 399 puppies from 2^nd December 2014 to 10^th October 2015.