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03-27-2006, 06:45 AM | #1 |
YT Addict Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Philadelphia
Posts: 257
| Gangsters smuggling 100,000 puppies a year into Germany Gangsters smuggling 100,000 puppies a year into Germany Roger Boyes, Berlin March 23, 2006 MORE than 100,000 puppies a year are being smuggled into Germany from eastern Europe in a hugely profitable racket by gangsters using similar methods to human traffickers. Although Germany is regarded as the main gateway, the animal trade is growing in many north European countries and attention was focused on it yesterday by a pathetic find at the Swedish port of Karlskrone. A batch of rottweiler and rhodesian ridgeback puppies were impounded after being discovered hidden in car boots on a ferry from Poland. The smell led customs investigators to the dogs. Three men and a woman have been arrested. Because the puppies, aged between six and eight weeks, were too young to be quarantined they were put down. Animal rights activists in Germany claim the illicit trade, designed to exploit a shortage of dogs, is booming. "In Poland, Hungary or the Czech Republic, you can buy a west highland or a yorkshire terrier for E40 ($67)," says Renate Zipp, of the League Against Animal Abuse. "Take them to Germany and you can pick up over E1500." Prices in Sweden are said to be higher, and the profit margins are even larger for puppies smuggled from Ukraine. There, gangs have set up breeding centres to feed the west European demand for fashionable dogs. Dog ownership in Germany is tightly regulated, involving supervised injections, microchips, canine identity cards and the payment of a regular dog tax. The rules make the acquisition of a dog highly expensive. But the dog smugglers avoid all this by placing personal advertisements in local German newspapers on behalf of the east European gangs. They present themselves as genuine breeders. "As soon as half-a-dozen prospective buyers have responded to the adv, the order is passed on," Steffen Seckler, of Germany's Animal Protection League, said yesterday. The east European breeders send their price lists to dog traders in Germany, and fake documents are drawn up to establish a pedigree for the animals and boost the price. The techniques are similar to those used by brothel-owners in Germany, who either order in young women from people-traffickers or who are offered possible prostitutes by gangsters trawling east European suburbs. They too are smuggled in vans across the Ukrainian-Polish border and given false papers. German police have found it difficult to determine the scope of the illegal dog business. But according to animal rights experts, at least 100,000 puppies are imported, some legally, and a large but unknown quantity of dogs have been brought into the country illegally by people posing as breeders. The demand is for fashionable dogs: small terriers (easily smuggled), labradors, golden retrievers and hunting dogs such as rhodesian ridgebacks. The animals are drugged when they are taken across borders. Ms Zipp has found evidence of Hungarian puppies being sold as far away as Spain. Animal activists say illegally acquired dogs are regularly sold in French and Italian pet shops and at car boot sales. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...E29677,00.html
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03-27-2006, 07:53 AM | #2 |
Yorkie Kisses are the Best! Donating Member | Those poor poor puppies...if they're drugging them...they must be losing alot of them to death and that's just as sick as smuggling them in the first place.....The horrors just never end for dogs. That's very sad to hear. |
03-27-2006, 08:15 AM | #3 |
Rosi & Poli's Mom Donating Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Washington State
Posts: 5,428
| That is just awfull, those poor puppies ! |
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