A leading animal charity has warned that the popularity of lockdown dogs has left an unprecedented number of puppies dead or dying.
The Scottish SPCA says it is has been inundated with pleas from worried owners who have unwittingly bought puppies at death’s door.
The coronavirus pandemic has seen a huge increase in demand for pets as people embrace spending more time at home.
The Scottish SPCA says many of the dogs are suffering from conditions that become deadly if they are not treated early enough, such as worms and parvovirus.
Dodgy dealers are failing to worm and vaccinate their pups before selling them on at huge profits.
One undercover officer with the charity’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) said: “At the moment we are getting four calls every day from people who have bought a puppy that turned out to be sick. That is unprecedented and has got worse since the start of 2021.
“The conditions they get are indicative of puppy farms. Most puppies have worms when they are young but treatment cures it.
"These dogs – bred in horrific conditions in puppy farms – are not being treated when they should be and, when they are sold, the condition has become irretrievably deadly.
"The same goes for parvovirus, which is an indicator of puppies being kept in poor conditions.
“The puppy has cost £1500 to £2000 and then the new owner ends up paying £1000 in vet fees just for the dog to die. It’s an expensive mistake but one a lot of people are repeating.
“The angering thing is our message about how to buy dogs is being ignored by some people.
"They are contacting them via free-ad websites and meeting them in car parks. Why are owners handing over £2000 to someone in a car park to buy a puppy without knowing anything about it?
" You wouldn’t do it with a secondhand car so why do it with a living creature?”
Last August, we revealed how the cost of designer dogs had soared due to the pandemic. The cost of popular breeds such as French bulldogs had increased from £1600 to £2500 but now cost about £3000.
The Scottish SPCA said it believed many of the dogs were coming from farms in Ireland via
Northern Ireland before being sold in Scotland by an established network of puppy dealers.
The undercover investigator added: “I was involved in a raid at one of these dealer’s homes last week in Glasgow. We seized eight puppies and out of them four have already died.”
Mike Flynn, of the Scottish SPCA, said: “The SIU is being inundated with new investigations. Pups can suffer from parvovirus, worm burden or infection, all of which can be deadly.
“Diseases like this are common among badly bred puppies due to the unsanitary and cramped environment they are raised in.
“They may also have been taken from mum too early or mum is too weak from overbreeding to provide her young with the essential nutrients.”
Parvovirus is a contagious virus dogs suffer and is highly contagious. It is spread via faeces and can kill nine out of 10 dogs if untreated.
