Animal watchdog body reports huge flow of pups from Irish puppy farms to Scotland, with crime families sending out front line sellers posing as loving owners.
Investigations into puppy farm sales in Scotland exploded by 73% in a year, as rogue sellers wreaked havoc in the lives of innocent families.
The Record can reveal that Irish organised crime groups are relentlessly targeting our towns, with shameless sellers moving around to offload ill and dying pups for major amounts of cash.
Sheriff Courts have remained consistently lenient, with offenders typically being fined and banned from keeping animals instead of being jailed for their crimes.
And the Scottish SPCA has warned that many offenders can come back to spread more misery, given the way huge returns from the miserable trade can dwarf any financial penalties imposed.
Julie Taylor(Image: Daily Record)
In 2025, the watchdog body’s Special Investigations Unit investigated 111 cases of illegal puppy trading in 2025, compared to 64 the previous year – up 73%
They heard from hundreds of Scots who’d been targeted in dodgy deals where the lives of pups were given no regard by the silver tongued sellers.
In the past year the Daily Record has told of cases where rogue sellers have created havoc in the lives of scores of animal lovers – with sellers like Julie Taylor and Sean McDonagh telling a host of lies to make thousands of pounds as they pass on the misery associated with seriously ill puppies.
A spokesperson for the SIU said investigators are sickened by the relentless crimes, which prey on the big hearts of the customers they dupe.
Natalie Scrymgeour who lost her golden retriever pup,Ragner, when he died of parvovirus.
She bought the pub from dodgy breeder Sean McDonagh.(Image: )
The spokesperson said: “The low-welfare puppy trade has become one of the most significant animal welfare challenges in Scotland in recent years.
“This trade typically originates from Ireland and impacts communities all across Scotland. Our investigations often identify the same individuals, who are sometimes linked to wider organised crime, and treat the puppies as commodities with no regard for their welfare.
“They treat the death of pups as an occupational hazard and they regard vet fees as wasted cash, as they are only interested in the pups for as long as it takes to sell them.”
Many pups are born into dreadful conditions(Image: )
The source said very few of the dogs – often sold in car parks and from bogus family homes rented on Airbnb – are sold on without health problems.
They said: “We know that many have died and we also know of many that have suffered terribly before being put to sleep.
“Even the dogs that pull through after contracting giardia, parvo virus and other diseases can require extensive veterinary involvement, and this can land new owners with expensive bills, sometimes for thousands of pounds.”
Organised crime is the recurring factor that drives the trade, with the puppy farms in Ireland leading to couriers crossing by ferry into Scotland and distributing large numbers of terrified pups, often illegally ripped from their mothers too early.
The dogs are crammed together in vans and car boots – meaning that one ill dog will pass on disease to brothers and sisters and then to dogs from other litters.
The SIU spokesperson said that brazen sellers travel from town to town, with some being hauled back to Scotland for court prosecution in sheriff courts, where charges often fail to reflect the size of the trade behind the reported crimes.
Sean McDonagh(Image: )
They said: “We are seeing patterns of criminality, where key members of the crime families act as the shop front, travelling from town to town and presenting pups as though they are coming from the litter of a family pet.
“One major problem is that court sentencing rarely provides a custodial sentence to the puppy sellers, some of whom present as first offenders.
“The problem with that is that there is no great deterrent. The criminals can turn over tens of thousands of pounds in a week – and possibly hundreds of thousands of pounds in a year. But the criminals might just face a fine and a ban on keeping animals even if they are put before courts.”
Lies and distortion have been second nature to sellers, who make up a myriad of fake names and identities on sites like Gumtree and Pets4Homes – often telling buyers that the puppies’ mothers can’t be there at the last minute because they are exhausted or distressed at losing their ‘last pup’.
The spokesperson said: “The offenders we have dealt with have been responsive but they provide false information, all with tales of how healthy and well socialised the pups are, which is often far from the truth.
“They have automatic answers for why the bitch cannot be seen with the pups. The excuses seem quite weak but many people are taken in.
“They will give false information about vaccinations and will also provide fake vaccination cards. They will sell and advertise dogs as one breed only for owners to find out, as they grow, they are another breed altogether.
Investigators have also been hampered by the difficulty of establishing which family member may have actually handled each illegal puppy sale.
The investigator said: “We have identified family run operations where in some cases, individuals deliberately exploit identical or similar sounding names to evade accountability. Consequently, it has been necessary for us to rely on other corroborative evidence to accurately identify the responsible offenders.
“Intelligence also indicates that some of these individuals continue to reoffend even after being reported by the Scottish SPCA. In some cases well-meaning members of the public see puppies sold out the backs of cars or vans and believe they are ‘saving them’ but the sad reality is they are unintentionally funding and fuelling the trade.”
Daily Record has told of recent puppy farm trader outrages
In June last year the Daily Record told how off-duty cop Elaine McArthur brought down a puppy farm operation in Kilmarnock after she became a victim herself.
Elaine was among 20 people who bought puppies from Julie Taylor, who was selling dogs from an Irish puppy farm, riddled with disease, from her council house in Stewarton, Ayrshire.
After enduring a three-day nightmare over a Christmas weekend, Elaine’s cockapoo pup Marley fought for life then died of deadly parvo virus.
Distraught mum Elaine turned the tables on Taylor by calling in SSPCA investigators, who raided the trader’s home and shut the operation down.
Taylor, 41, was caught red-handed with 16 terrified dogs, of various breeds, being held in a filthy toilet and covered in dog waste.
Taylor admitted cruelty and operating without a licence, which saw her banned from keeping dogs for 10 years at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court.
In court, Taylor’s defence lawyer Graeme Cunningham said he could not deny that she was the front of an “abhorrent” puppy farm operation, where dogs were badly treated then sold on for large amounts of cash.
Cunningham said his client had found herself in debt to criminals who masterminded the operation.
Sean McDonagh walked free despite spreading misery(Image: )
In December last year distraught mum Natalie Scrymgeour, 50, told of her devastation after falling victim to puppy farmer Sean McDonagh, who calllously sold her a dying pup he kept in his Transit van – which he lived in for two months.
McDonagh, 26, from Omagh, Northern Ireland, drove around Scottish towns to off-load pups, all exposed to potentially deadly disease.
She called in the SSPCA’s SIU after her golden retriever pup Ragner died from parvovirus after fighting for life for two weeks.
Smooth-talking McDonagh – using the puppy farmer playbook – told buyers they couldn’t see the pups with their mum because the one they were buying was the last of the litter and removing it had upset her.
McDonagh pled guilty to six charges at Paisley Sheriff Court and received a six-year ban on keeping animal.
Ragner was bought on Gumtree for £650, with McDonagh using the false name “Max”.
At court, Sheriff Clare Arias told McDonagh: “These were the actions of a conman. This was cynical and cruel and entirely motivated by greed.”
She also fined him £4800, reduced from £7200 as he admitted his guilt and avoided the need for a trial.
That sum would barely cover the cost of six pups – but it is believed that McDonagh, like other traders, could have sold hundreds
In 2021 the Daily Record revealed that Scots families had been scammed out of £15 million by Irish puppy farm gangs in a year.
Criminals flooded Scotland with a minimum of 37,000 pups during lockdown.
Dogs sold on Gumtree and other online marketplaces could net more than £2000 per pup, although top line prices have reduced as the craze for such dogs reduced.
•The SSPCA urges members of the public to report any suspicions around puppy sales to the Scottish SPCA’s Animal Helpline on 03000 999 999 or the police.