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Written question asked by Huw Irranca-Davies (Labour) on Tuesday, 13 December 2011, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 15 December 2011. It was answered by James Paice (Conservative) on Wednesday, 11 January 2012 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Animals: Imports

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate she has made of the number of live (a) cats and (b) dogs which have been illegally imported into the UK in each of the last five years; and if she will make a statement.
Answer

All live dogs and cats are checked before entry into the UK to ensure they meet the requirements of the Pet Travel scheme. There is always the potential for illegal entry of pets through smuggling and other methods and strict action is taken in those cases, but these are considered to be minimal due to our robust checking procedures.Information on prosecutions taken under the Rabies Order 1974 between 2007 and 2010 is listed in the following table. Information is not yet available for 2011.

Prosecutions
2010 1
2009 14
2008 4
2007 6

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
87167; 538 c348W
Session
2010-12
Subjects
Animals Imports Pets Smuggling
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk