AN animal charity has raised fears that puppies headed for Hampshire homes this Christmas could have been smuggled in illegally from Eastern Europe.

Dog welfare charity Dogs Trust has conducted an investigation into the problem which it said had revealed the high level of corruption at the heart of the puppy smuggling trade.

The Trust said its footage revealed criminal breeders, vets and transporters in Hungary and Lithuania abusing the Pet Travel Scheme, which allows pets to enter the UK without quarantine if they follow certain rules, and a lack of adequate enforcement by the relevant authorities.

European vets were caught on camera creating false pet passports and fake rabies vaccination records.

The charity also revealed a lack of checks at ferry ports and borders.

It said the dogs travel more than a thousand miles, often in appalling conditions, and do not have the correct treatments or vaccinations, increasing the risk to British dog owners of serious disease.

The six-month investigation found four out of five Lithuanian vets it met and all three Hungarian vets it met were willing to and admitted to falsifying papers.

The charity said an internet search it did of three leading classified advertising websites revealed at that time 2,550 puppies for sale in Hampshire.

From its investigation into illegal trade practices it believes some of these puppies could have been imported illegally.

Paula Boyden, Dogs Trust Veterinary Director, said: “While ‘A dog is for life, not just for Christmas’ remains our famous slogan, a puppy remains on the top of many wish lists.

“Unsuspecting Hampshire shoppers will continue to buy puppies online which may have been brought into the country illegally; meaning the risk of unknowingly bringing a puppy from Eastern Europe with diseases and behavioural problems into the home is very real.”

She warned buyers to be vigilant saying a puppy brought in from Eastern Europe could end up costing far more than expected. If a vet identifies it as an illegal import, owners could be faced with additional vet fees and quarantine costs.

“We have seen firsthand dogs being abandoned for these reasons,” she said.

Dogs Trust presented its evidence to the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

It is calling on the Government to make checks before pets can travel more strict, develop an intelligence system to record and share data and introduce harsher fines for rule breakers.

Defra said responsibility for stopping the illegal movement of puppies begins in the country where they are born and it is writing to the authorities in Lithuania and Hungary to remind them of their duty to ensure passports are correct and the welfare of pets intended for sale is safeguarded.

It said every pet travelling with its owner on an approved route is checked for compliance with the pet travel regime. The Border Force carry out a wide range of checks on animals arriving in the UK and stringent penalties were already in place for breaches.