WEST Somerset’s Ian Liddell-Grainger has joined other MPs in calling for urgent Government action to end puppy smuggling.

Undercover investigations by the Dogs Trust have revealed smugglers falsifying documents to import underage puppies, often unvaccinated and in poor welfare conditions, before selling them to unsuspecting buyers.

Legislation has been drawn up to tackle abuses of the Pet Travel Scheme, which the charity has been exposing since 2014, but the Kept Animals Bill has been stuck in the Parliamentary system for a year.

Campaigners are also calling on Ministers to instigate visual checks on all domestic animals entering the country as a way of reinforcing the Bill’s provisions.

After attending a Dogs Trust presentation in Westminster, Mr Liddell-Grainger said there was a clear case for speeding the Bill onto the statute book.

Mr Liddell-Grainger said: “Animals are being transported in dreadful conditions and in abominably poor health to an extent which would horrify British pet owners if they saw them.

“Each day’s delay in the Bill’s progress means more suffering is being inflicted.

“The Government must now move things forward rapidly - and order the start of visual checks at all our ports of entry.”