Regulating puppy production
The landscape of puppy production in the UK
The world of puppy production is a complex one. Although recent legislative changes in the EU seek to bring countries in line, it is unlikely to be as straightforward as it might seem on paper. In the past, tensions existed between different member states of the EU when it came to breeding dogs, and the legislation of April 2026 seeks to create consistency1.
Back in November 2025, the EU parliament took the first steps towards clarity and cohesion across the bloc. A draft law was created that set out the first ever EU standards for the breeding, housing, traceability, import and handling of cats and dogs. This was ratified and passed into law at the end of April 2026. What it means, in theory, is more consistent standards for breeding, for kennelling, for transport, for microchipping, for importing and exporting companion animals. Instead of countries running ad hoc microchipping, microchips will now be mandatory across member states and all information should be accessible to the countries involved.
Previously, not all countries had laws about microchipping for cats and dogs. Individual countries often had individual databases. This was often fine for many - I remember the times I’ve had to call the German or Romanian microchip organisations to get details on a found animal - but I also remember the frustrations of trying to deal with the UK even though chips were a legal requirement for travel. Where France relied on vets to implant chips and there is a singular database, the UK is a bit of a wild west. There would always be a microchip - not sure how we’d have known if the animal was British otherwise - but we had a 0% success rate at getting owner details. We’d call PetLog and they’d have literally nothing on the system, not even the name of the person who implanted the chip. What that meant in practice was a number of UK dogs had effectively entered France in untraceable ways.
Holes like that are being eradicated by this new legislation.
