Almost 2.000 puppies are smuggled - stuffed into boxes and bags by the smugglers to avoid detection - to Sweden every year, new statistics reveal, putting Sweden at risk of rabies while endangering the life and health of the trendy dogs, reports TV4 television news network.
Animal rights campaigners have long said that “dog factories” in eastern Europe breed dogs according to the latest trends in consumer-powerful and trend-sensitive societies such as Sweden’s.
“There weren’t enough chihuahua breeders in Sweden when they became popular,” senior adviser Siw Ågren at Animal Rights Sweden told The Local. “So it became a lucrative market for smugglers.”