Is it time for the Government to ban the sale of puppies from pet shop cages?

Animal charities want legislation barring the sale of dogs in retail premises over welfare and 'impulse buying' concerns

Outdated: Dogs kept in small tanks at the Jumanji Pet Shop in Kilburn, North London

Daily Mirror Investigations

First, a butt-covering disclaimer: there's no suggestion that what follows is illegal.

The question is: should it be?

What you are seeing here are pictures of puppies being kept in glass-fronted cages in a pet shop - something I was surprised to find still happening in this country.

One of its customers was Echo Hughes, who was so moved by the Chihuahua she saw that she paid £1,000 to take it away.

'It's not right to keep animals in tanks like that,' said Echo. 'I could not just leave her, I took her to try to give her a life.'

But the puppy she called Ellie died four weeks later.

'She had so many things wrong, liver and kidney problems and anaemia, one thing after another.

'It was so draining, I was up feeding and medicating her 24 hours a day.

'Ellie is buried in my garden and I talk to her every day.

'It sounds silly to a lot of people but there's a gap in me that she filled, I just miss her every day.'

The shop is Jumanji Pets in Kilburn, North London, and I must make clear that the vets at Blue Cross found no reason for blaming it for Ellie's death.

But Blue Cross is vehemently against puppies and kittens being kept on display in shops.

'We would like to see a total ban,' said its head of re-homing services, Mandy Jones.

Sad: Echo Hughes with her Chihuahua puppy bought from Jumanji

'The first few weeks in a puppy's life are vital to their development.

'A pet shop environment simply does not provide the exposure to everyday experience - vacuum cleaners, other pets, different people - that is vital to help them become happy, well-rounded pets.

'We would encourage anyone interested in getting a pet to visit a re-homing centre to give a home to one of the ­thousands of cats, dogs, puppies and kittens that are given up and abandoned every year.'

The UK's largest canine welfare charity, the Dogs Trust, agrees.

'Dogs Trust is opposed to the sale of puppies through pet shops and other retail outlets, as they can encourage impulse buying,' said veterinary director Paula Boyden.

'We believe that insufficient emphasis is placed upon the welfare of the animals being sold and there is an absence of statutory duty on vendors to ensure that those purchasing animals have the ­knowledge, experience and facilities to care for them properly.

'Puppies should only be sold where purchasers are able to see the puppy interacting with the mother and assess her temperament and to see the ­conditions in which the puppy was bred.'

Jumanji is not the only shop keeping puppies in-store.

Harrods, for instance, has them in stock, though this will end because its pet ­department is due to close as part of a planned refurbishment.

But the giant Pets At Home chain, with 351 stores, does not keep puppies.

'We believe that it is best you get your new puppy direct from the breeder, whether it is a pedigree, a cross-breed or a mongrel,' said a spokesman.

And some parts of the country have stopped any store keeping them in stock.

A spokesman for Swindon Borough Council told me: 'In 2009 we ­introduced a policy which required any shop that wanted to sell puppies to have a licence and to meet certain welfare conditions in order to get one.

'This has effectively meant that no shops have sold puppies since then in Swindon.'

Legislation: Dogs kept in small tanks at Jumanji Pet Shop in Kilburn, North London

Daily Mirror Investigations

'We are scrupulous and our staff care passionately about animals.'

Jumanji Pets owner Paul Lewis said his puppies and kittens are kept in conditions 'above and beyond' the legal requirements for the amount of space and exercise time they are given.

And he said that they had given a replacement puppy to Echo, even though they were not responsible for the death of the first one.

'We've been trading for over 25 years and have built up this business because customers trust us.

'Other shops might get complaints but we do not, we are proud of the way we do things.

'We are scrupulous and our staff care passionately about animals.

'I totally understand selling puppies in store being controversial, and it's fine for people to be against it - and if legislation comes in that changes what we can do then we will follow that legislation.'