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The plans include raising the age at which puppies can be imported, from 15 weeks to six months. There would also be a ban on importing heavily pregnant dogs and those with cropped ears or docked tails.

The proposals, which are being put out for consultation, aim to safeguard the welfare of thousands of dogs and puppies brought into the UK each year.

More than 66,000 were commercially imported last year, but incidents of low-welfare conditions and smuggling are up, said the Environment Department.

The number of puppies intercepted for not meeting the UK’s pet import rules jumped from 324, in 2019, to 843 in 2020.

Incidents include the case of six puppies seized at Dover, covered in sticky oil and suffering from diarrhoea, and four tiny eightweek-old beagles found hungry and dehydrated in an abandoned vehicle in London.

Raising the minimum age for importing puppies aims to ensure they are not separated from their mothers too early, which can put them at risk of illness or death.

The RSPCA has reported a 620 percent rise in dogs found with cropped ears in the past five years, It is a painful process, banned in the UK, which involves surgically altering or removing a dog’s outer ears to make it look aggressive.

Animal Welfare Minister Lord Goldsmith said: “Puppy smuggling is a grim trade, and we are determined to clamp down on it.

“We already have one of the toughest pet travel, border checking regimes in the world and as an independent nation, outside the EU, we are going even further by preventing anyone from bringing in dogs which have undergone inhumane procedures such as ear cropping or tail docking.”

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