Chair of the Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee, Robbie Butler MLA, has warned that a serious loophole in the proposed Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill risks turning Northern Ireland into an unpoliced corridor for puppy smugglers targeting lucrative markets in southern England.

While welcoming the Bills potential to ban the import of animals subjected to cruel practices such as ear cropping, tail docking and declawing, Mr Butler used today’s Committee session to press officials on the risk of creating an unintended back door via the Republic of Ireland.

Mr Butler said, “Smugglers are opportunists. What we risk doing here is creating an alternative route where animals are brought legally into the Republic, then re-registered, and quietly moved across the border into Northern Ireland and on to Great Britain without triggering enforcement. No law is technically broken, yet the cruelty and criminality remain.”

Mr Butler also pointed to the inherent weaknesses in the application of the Windsor Framework, which allows for divergence in animal welfare standards across the Irish Sea. Under the current rules, for example, the movement of heavily pregnant dogs is to be banned from the EU to Great Britain but remains permitted via the Republic of Ireland and into Northern Ireland. This inconsistency, he warned, undermines the UK-wide intent of the Bill and exposes a failure of joined-up enforcement.

He has called on authorities on both sides of the border to urgently tighten enforcement measures and close off this route, stressing that failure to do so could undermine the very protections the Bill is designed to deliver.

“This Bill is a step forward for animal welfare, but if we leave a loophole open, we may only displace the problem, not solve it.”