MPs Debate Regulation of Online Animal Sales

The Justice for Reggie campaign secured a Westminster Hall debate in Parliament on regulating online animal sales following their successful petition. The petition calls for websites to verify the identity of all sellers and for young animals to be pictured with their parents on advert listings. As a result of excellent work by the Justice for Reggie campaign gathering the public’s support for the petition, the debate on this topic took place on Monday 13^th December and many MPs participated in support.

Ahead of the debate, the Pet Advertising Advisory Group shared a briefing with MPs in support of these proposals; to share information about PAAG’s longstanding work with websites in the absence of sufficient regulation, and to put forward further recommendations for tackling the issues associated with pets advertised for sale online.

In addition to ID verification of all sellers and for animals to be pictured with their parents, PAAG would particularly like to see regulation to introduce licensing of cat and rabbit breeders, as well as better traceability of dog, cat and rabbit breeders selling pets online. PAAG would also like to see action to tackle the current issues with the system for microchipping of dogs. There are currently 15 national microchip databases in operation with no single point of contact, hampering reunification of lost and stolen pets. The creation of a single point of contact for searching microchips is much needed.