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More than 50 pups rescued after third seizure in a month

USPCA Welfare Officers play a key role in Operation Delphin, a multiagency initiative intended to bring an end to the illegal trade in pups. Picture Newraypics.com
USPCA Welfare Officers play a key role in Operation Delphin, a multiagency initiative intended to bring an end to the illegal trade in pups. Picture Newraypics.com USPCA Welfare Officers play a key role in Operation Delphin, a multiagency initiative intended to bring an end to the illegal trade in pups. Picture Newraypics.com

ANIMALwelfare charity the USPCA has helped rescue more than 50 pups from illegal puppy farms in the past month.

In the third seizure in the past four weeks 20 pups were recovered in the port of Cairnryan in Scotland on Wednesday, having been ferried there by dealers using their route of choice through Northern Ireland.

The USPCA has no direct power of seizure, but it is understood their intelligence is playing a key role in the crackdown on illegal puppy farming in the south.

The animal welfare organisation tracks the trafficked animals, who begin life in puppy farms in the south, until they arrive in Scotland, where they are intercepted by the Scottish SPCA (SSPCA).

The Scottish SPCA have powers to stop and search, unlike their counterparts in the north.

The latest puppies seized were too young to travel and were not accompanied by proper paperwork. They included one mother and so called mixed designer breeds such as Cavichon's and Chihuahua's.

The USPCA along with other animal welfare groups in Ireland and the UK and HMRC, Customs and shipping lines are part of 'Operation Delphin', a multi-agency initiative working to bring an end to the illegal trade in pups.

A USPCA investigator assigned to the operation said the latest seizure represented a hit of around £10,000 to the dealer, but is only part of work to stop the "constant flow" of puppies being brought from Ireland to Britain.

"This is the third such seizure in the past month with over 50 pups rescued from exploitation," he said.

The animals seized were returned to Northern Ireland by ferry on Thursday morning and are currently in the care of the Dublin Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (DSPCA)