Puppies dumped in boxes at Dumfries and Galloway ferry port feature in hard-hitting Christmas campaign

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Puppies rescued from a Dumfries and Galloway ferry port feature in a hard-hitting Christmas campaign.The story of the 24 pups has been highlighted by the Scottish SPCA as it bids to raise awareness of the illegal puppy trade.The charity has investigated nearly 150 cases of illegal puppy trading in the past two years, with their chilling advert centring around January’s rescue at Cairnryan.The puppies were found hidden under a lorry in cardboard boxes without food or water.

The charity’s vet team discovered one of the pups, Piper, had a loud heart murmur. Without treatment, most puppies die due to heart failure within a year, but in Piper’s case the team could operate quickly and before permanent damage was done, with follow up examinations revealing the op had been a complete success.Piper, now called Skye, has a new family in Linlithgow and was given a clean bill of health at her last check-up.Scottish SPCA head of rescue and prevention, Laura McIntyre, said: “Puppy smuggling is an industry with direct links to organised crime, worth an estimated £13 million every year to Scotland. "Puppies are treated like a commodity, bred in huge numbers with no regard for their welfare.

The conditions in which they are born can lead to serious medical and behavioural issues and, in many instances, death at just a few weeks old.“Ultimately, we want to see an end to puppy smuggling once and for all, and the only real chance of doing this is to close down the demand so it’s vital that people know the warning signs to look for and report anything suspicious to us.”The Scottish SPCA, which is funded entirely by donations, is increasingly being called out to rescue large numbers of dogs and puppies from squalid conditions in unsuitable