‘‘Check before you buy a puppy’’ – that’s the advice from Carlisle City Council.

The council’s environmental health team is advising potential puppy owners to check to see that the breeder is licenced and to ask to see the records of when the puppy was born and any monitoring of its day-to-day health.

Legislation was introduced in April 2020 to tackle low welfare, high volume supply of puppies by banning third party commercial sales in England.

The law is designed to cut out dog breeders who disregard the welfare of their dogs.

Anyone buying a dog must now go through a licensed breeder.

Carlisle City Council takes the issue of illegal dog breeding very seriously and the public are urged to email Environmentalhealth@carlisle.gov.uk to report any concerns of illegal puppy breeding.