Sick puppies feared to have been bred in appalling conditions are being sold for thousands of pounds by crooks at a motorway service station.
Buyers have paid up to £3,000 for pets thought to have come from breeding farms.
Many had the deadly, highly infectious canine parvovirus, along with worms and other diseases. Sellers advertising on well-known websites tell buyers to go to a car park at Maidstone Services on the M20 in Kent.
One of the crooks, a tanned man in his 40s who wears a surgical mask and black gloves, is said to use aliases including Graham, Alan and Steve.
Mae Goodwin, 21, from Tenterden in Kent, paid £2,150 in cash for a Cavalier King Charles spaniel she called Barney – and it died of a virus eight days later.
She said: “It’s just heartbreaking. The people selling these puppies must be caught.”
Charities have had 25 reports from buyers, most in the past six months, with five dogs dying soon after being bought.
They believe the crooks are operating in a gang. The RSPCA and charity Animal Protection Services have launched a probe.
APS chief Jacob Lloyd said: “These are some of the worst cases I have ever seen.”
It comes after dozens of dead puppies were found in the cargo hold of a flight bound for Canada this month.
Puppy carcasses were among the dead and dying French bulldogs found on the Ukrainian Airlines plane when it landed in Toronto.
The grisly scenes have prompted horror, as animal welfare activists highlight the black market for dogs in Canada.
The Canadian Food inspection Agency (CFIA) is investigating following the find on a recent flight from Ukraine, reports CBC.
