The Naturewatch Foundation has uncovered concerning practices at some canine fertility clinics (CFCs), including:

• Allowing people with no veterinary training or supervision to carry out invasive procedures on dogs, including artificial insemination and blood tests.
• Illegally supplying and administering prescription veterinary medicines and other controlled substances.
• Actively encouraging the selective breeding of flat-faced dogs to produce puppies with increasingly extreme features.
• Connecting to unlicensed dog breeders and the illicit puppy trade.
• Faking credentials to make their businesses appear trustworthy and legitimate.

Although illegality at individual CFCs can be reported to the police and dealt with, other CFCs will pop up to replace them and this terrible industry will continue to operate across the country.

I have written to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Thérèse Coffey, and asked her what the Government is doing to clamp down on this sector and protect the wellbeing of dogs in the UK. I have posted a copy of this letter below for you to see.

More widely, I am pleased that in 2021 the Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Bill finally became law and increased the maximum penalty for animal cruelty offences to five years imprisonment. This is something that campaigners and Opposition MPs had been advocating for over several years.