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Rogue puppy dealers are using Facebook and Instagram to trade across Europe, often selling animals with fashionable mutilations such as cropped ears, an investigation has found.
Analysis of hundreds of posts found that trade is rife in underage pets and dogs bred with exaggerated features including excessive skin folds, which cause dermatitis, and very short muzzles, which leave animals struggling to breathe.
The craze for such puppies has allowed breeders to cash in using social media, where pets are easily advertised despite rules curbing the sale of live animals.
Sellers easily evade the social media giants’ guidelines by using code words, and emojis and hashtags with secret meanings, according to a report by the Four Paws global animal-welfare organisation.
Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, says it removes adverts that breach its rules as soon as it becomes aware of them. But the report says the platforms are hot spots for cruel and unethical puppy sellers.
Underage puppies for sale are often bred in poor conditions and transported illegally across borders from eastern Europe, according to the investigators.
Many animals are sold without receiving vaccinations or veterinary care, and often with fake documents. Organised gangs are known to be involved in puppy trafficking in Europe.
Animals from puppy farms often fall sick and die soon after being sold, leaving unsuspecting owners with huge vet bills and heartache.
Investigators for Four Paws analysed hundreds of posts by private sellers in the UK, Austria, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Bulgaria, and found more than 100 Facebook groups and more than 50 Instagram accounts containing puppy adverts by people who could not be verified as registered businesses – in breach of Meta rules.
Meta’s policies ban the sale of animals on Facebook Marketplace, and allow only “bricks and mortar entities” to sell live non-endangered animals such as dogs and cats.
But Four Paws accused the platforms of enabling illicit trade by failing to enforce their own terms.
The investigation found a seller on a French Facebook group advertised 11-week-old central Asian shepherd puppies from Ukraine with cropped ears and docked tails. Importing puppies for sale at that age would have breached anti-rabies vaccination rules.
“Prominent UK importers were observed operating in sales groups in eastern Europe, indicating the thriving cross-border trade on Facebook,” the report says.
“One suspicious UK seller using a Facebook account with a substantial network of almost 5,000 friends offered multiple litters of Chow Chow puppies for sale in England and Wales. The seller would only allow video calls and provided very little information about the puppies.”
Another Facebook seller in Hungary said they sent puppies to the UK every week.
“Investigations revealed widespread illicit trade of puppies by unscrupulous and unverifiable breeders across Meta’s platforms, Facebook and Instagram, across multiple European countries, including several EU member states,” the report says.
In June, the Facebook groups surveyed alone reached 600,000 members, including sellers and potential buyers.
In those groups, experienced sellers tell members which words to avoid in posts to escape detection. Sellers set up private chats with buyers, sometimes faking their locations or posing as verified breeders, the report claims.
Nick Weston, of Four Paws, said: “Meta may have taken steps towards banning the sale of dogs on its platforms, but its insufficient enforcement is leaving the door wide open for the illegal trade and cruel breeding practices.
“Cruel traders are hiding in plain sight with no fear of repercussions.”
The investigators reported a sample of 64 posts, groups, profiles and Marketplace adverts to Meta, but said only two were removed.
A 2022 survey found 59 per cent of respondents whose puppy died had originally found it through a social media advert.
A Meta spokesperson said: “We do not allow the sale of animals on our platforms and we remove this content as soon as we become aware of it. We encourage our community to report any content they think may violate our policies using the reporting tool in our app.”
