MORE than 100,000 puppies a year are being smuggled into Germany from eastern Europe in a hugely profitable racket by gangsters using similar methods to human traffickers.

Although Germany is regarded as the main gateway, the trade is growing in many north European countries and attention was focused on it yesterday by a pathetic find at the Swedish port of Karlskrona.

A batch of rottweiler and Rhodesian ridgeback puppies were impounded after being discovered hidden in car boots on a ferry from Poland. The smell led customs investigators to the dogs. Three men and a woman were arrested. Because puppies, at between 6 and 8 weeks old, were too young to be quarantined they were put down.

Animal rights activists in Germany claim that the illicit business, designed to exploit a shortage of dogs, is booming as never before.

“In Poland, Hungary or the Czech Republic, you can buy a West Highland or a Yorkshire terrier for €40 (£28),” says Renate Zipp, of the League Against Animal Abuse. “Take them to Germany and you can pick up over €1,500.” Prices in Sweden are said to be higher.

The profit margins are even larger for puppies smuggled from Ukraine. There, gangs have set up breeding centres to feed the West European demand for a fashionable dog.

Dog ownership in Germany is heavily regulated, involving supervised injections, microchips, canine identity cards and the payment of a regular dog tax. The rules make the acquisition of a dog highly expensive.

The dog smugglers get round all this by placing personal ads in local German newspapers on behalf of the east European groups. They present themselves as genuine breeders.

“As soon as half a dozen prospective buyers have responded to the ad, the order is passed on,” says Steffen Seckler, of Germany’s Animal Protection League. The east European breeders send their price lists to dog traders in Germany; fake documents are drawn up to establish a pedigree and thus boost the prices.

The techniques are similar to those used by brothel owners in Germany, who either order in young women from people traffickers or who are offered a list of possible prostitutes by gangsters trawling east European suburbs. They also are smuggled in vans across the Ukrainian-Polish border and they too are given false papers.

German police have found it difficult to determine the exact scope of the illegal dog business. There are five million domestic dog owners in Germany. Every year about 400,000 puppies are born; but only 120,000 are raised for sale by authorised breeders. A total of 500,000 puppies are sold every year. That means, according to animal rights experts, at least 100,000 puppies are imported (some of them legally) and a large but unknown quantity of dogs have been brought into the country by people posing as breeders.

“Dog mothers are being treated as mere birth machines to satisfy the demand for puppies and are often being kept in dire conditions,” Herr Seckler says. The demand is for fashionable dogs: small terriers (easily smuggled), labradors, golden retrievers and hunting dogs such as Rhodesian ridgebacks.

The animals are drugged when they are taken across borders. Frau Zipp has found evidence of Hungarian puppies being sold as far afield as Spain. German pet shops are closely linked to local vets and rarely take on smuggled dogs. Animal activists say that illegally acquired dogs are regularly sold in French and Italian pet shops and at car boot sales.