A new investigation has uncovered a series of breeders throughout the UK who crop puppies’ ears to increase the selling power of bulldog breeds.
In a documentar y produced by BBC Wales, a number of breeders were found on social media using pictures of crop-eared puppies in their adverts.
Ear cropping is an illegal practice in the UK which involves clipping part of a dog’s ear flap to make the dog look stronger and, according to some, more appealing.
Read more: Cardiff Dogs Home appeals to people to reject the stigmatisation of bull breeds
Although illegal in the UK under the Animal Welfare Act with a new bill in process to also ban the importing of dogs with cropped ears and docked tails, as it stands right now, it is not illegal to import these mutilated dogs.
The documentary uncovers several breeders producing fraudulent pet passports to imply the procedure was done abroad.
One told the BBC it created a “striking” look for American bullies.
He offered to sell an undercover journalist a puppy for £13,000, and said it would come with a pet passport and a microchip.
During a video call on the documentary, the breeder held up a puppy, and pointed to his ears, saying: “That will all come off. Another man just takes care of it, brings back the paperwork.
“If questions are asked you basically say that’s how you bought it, from an Irishman.
“It came from Europe and that’s all you know.
“All of my dogs have been done by him and let’s just say as long as you get it done at the right age, it looks 10 out of 10.”
Although he backtracked later in the documentary, saying that while he would “like to have dogs’ ears removed” it was illegal and he had “never arranged for it to be done”.
Another Cardiff based breeder told an undercover journalist that he could arrange cropping and supply a foreign pet passport and microchip.
He said: “To get the ears and the passport and the chip is normally around £500, my vet gets them from Turkey.
“I’ve taken dogs to shows in Ireland, Spain, and obviously I’ve had to cross borders, and I’ve taken these passports and I’ve got through every time. Never had a problem.”
Vanessa Waddon, founder of Hope Rescue in Llanharan, explained puppies can increase in value by £1,500 with cropped ears.
Hope Rescue took in eight puppies this year from an illegal ear cropping breeder, six of which had ears already cropped.
She explained the worrying trend is encouraged by some celebrities posting images of cropped-eared dogs, citing footballers, singers and stars of reality TV who might be unknowingly influencing the trend.
She said: “Whenever celebrities post things online, people inevitably think ‘oh that dog looks nice maybe I’ll get one like that.’
“While they may have imported the dogs legally, there are people cropping illegally in the UK to meet demand.”
A spokesperson for the Welsh government explained they have a five year Animal Welfare Plan for Wales in place to cut out illegal dog breeding including new regulation and was monitoring developments closely.
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