Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd – in the Senedd at 2:46 pm on 27 April 2022.
Thank you. The Member raises a very important point. You'll be aware of legislation I brought in at the tail end of last year to ensure that people really think about where they buy their puppies and kittens from, or any dog, to make sure that they meet with the breeder and they see that the breeder is a legal one. We're working very closely with local authorities around the enforcement of this.
At the moment, my officials are working closely with both the UK Government and the Scottish Government on changes to commercial imports of pet animals, and the aim of that is to deliver it within the new kept animals Bill. One thing we want to see is the minimum age of imported dogs increased—so, to go from 15 weeks to six months. We want to ban the importation of dogs with non-exempted mutilations, prohibit the importation and non-commercial movement of a bitch that is more than 42 days pregnant—provisions that are to be supported by a really robust enforcement system. As I say, we're now in the third year of a three-year programme, working with our local authorities to ensure that enforcement is far more robust, and that does include both civil and criminal sanctions.