Last year, 552 dogs were prevented from entering Sweden last year.
That is 29 more than in 2021, but it is not smuggling that has increased.
114 of the dogs came with refugees from Ukraine.
The Ukrainian dogs that lacked vaccination passports and other documents were placed under home quarantine to reduce the risk of spreading rabies and other diseases.
The dogs were euthanized
The number of smuggled dogs thus decreased, but customs discovered a new way to get puppies into the country.
Instead of transporting the puppies, the smugglers instead tried to bring in pregnant bitches.
In August, a car was stopped at the Öresund Bridge.
In the luggage, customs found cages with five dogs, a couple of them visibly pregnant.
The driver claimed that he was going to visit a friend in Stockholm and then go with his dogs back to Hungary.
But because the dog's passports were not valid and he did not know the names of the dogs, he was instead arrested on suspicion of aggravated smuggling, a crime that carries six to nine months in prison.
However, the Malmö district court did not think that the smuggling was serious, but sentenced to three months in prison.
The five dogs, all of which were pregnant, were later euthanized by decision of the Swedish Agricultural Agency.
New smuggling routes
- Of course, you may find it a little strange that the man was not convicted of gross smuggling, considering the cynical handling of the five pregnant dogs.
but you can be satisfied that he was still sentenced to prison, says Håkan Hansson, deputy head of unit at the Swedish Customs Administration's control department South.
In Scania, last year more dogs were stopped in Helsingborg, while there were fewer in Trelleborg, Ystad and at the Öresund Bridge compared to the year before.