WHAT IS DOGFISHING?
Source: Metro (Extract)
Posted: January 17, 2020
New statistics released by Dogs Trust have revealed that thousands of dog lovers may have been ‘dogfished’ into buying illegally imported puppies.
The dog charity polled more than 2,000 puppy owners to see how many may have fallen victim, and many described that sellers lied about the breed and age of the dog in question and falsified paperwork.
So what exactly is dogfishing, what does it have to do with puppy smuggling and how can you avoid it?
What is dogfishing?
As Dogs Trust puts it, dogfishing is a verb which means: ‘To mislead someone into buying a dog which may not be what it seems.’
Puppies are illegally imported into the UK every year and are often sold online to people who believe they’re getting a happy and healthy pet. However many of these pups aren’t what they’re being sold as.
A lot of these dogs have health problems. Sometimes they don’t live for very long, and many that do have lifelong behavioural issues, leaving buyers not only out of pocket but deeply saddened.
To avoid dogfishers, Dogs Trust says you should:
- Request to see the pup with its mother and siblings
- Check the necessary paperwork very carefully
- If you feel like you’re being pressured to buy the puppy or have any doubts as to the integrity of the seller, get out of there and report them to Trading Standards