Dutch authorities step up fight against puppy mills, illegal imports

The Dutch food and consumer product safety authority NVWA is stepping up its fight against illegal puppy mills and illegal dog imports. NVWA inspectors are getting extra authority to check if puppies are healthy, vaccinated, from healthy conditions, legally imported, and fine violators, AD reports.

According to the NVWA, illegally bred dogs are often born under appalling conditions, and mother dogs have to live in these conditions permanently. "There is great social indignation about this subject," spokesperson Rene Loman said to the newspaper. Now that fewer coronavirus restrictions exist, the NVWA will focus more on tackling illegal puppy traders. "That is necessary because things are getting out of hand in the Netherlands."

The NVWA noted a "significant growth" in the number of puppies born and imported to the Netherlands during the pandemic. The NVWA imposed dozens of fines and issued many warnings to illegal puppy traders in the past year. NVWA inspectors investigated a total of 189 reports of suspicious traders, finding wrongdoing in 154 cases. Forty-two cases involved no or incomplete vaccination. Twenty involved dogs imported without a dog passport or imported too young.

"Inspectors are given more powers and resources for strict inspections. What we see now is that in the current system, traders sometimes manage to find holes that they manage to crawl through. The new identification and registration will make it more difficult for those traders to deceive buyers," Loman said.