The defendant had been dealing in various pedigree dogs for over ten years. Nevertheless, she was on trial today for the fraudulent trade in puppies. As it turned out in the trial, the defendant sold mixed breed dogs as pedigree dogs in several cases. Worse still, some of the puppies sold were infected with Giardia, an intestinal parasite, and at least one pup contracted kennel cough when it was sold. Prosecutor Küffer charged the accused with «extremely criminal and professional action». For the public prosecutor’s office, there were many indications that the dogs were not bred in-house, but came from the Czech Republic. In his closing arguments, he asked for two years and eight months in prison without parole. The district court finally sentenced the accused to two years and six months in prison without parole, as well as a fine of 8,290 euros. The verdict is not yet legally binding.
The international animal protection foundation was present at the trial and is pleased with the verdict: «It is a victory that this unscrupulous puppy trader was exposed and convicted. But as the trial also showed, the accused did not act alone, but was part of a network. The illegal puppy trade is a multi-million dollar business involving criminals from all walks of life. We urgently need better legislation that vigorously counteracts the illegal puppy trade. The federal government urgently needs to improve the German animal protection law and introduce a labeling and registration obligation for all dogs and cats so that their origin can be traced at any time. In addition, an identity check for those offering animals must be mandatory on all sales and classifieds platforms. This is the only way criminals can be tracked down and used for criminal prosecution,” says employee Saskia Dauter.
Find out more information about the illegal puppy trade here.