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Dogs Trust

Dogs Trust is the UK’s largest dog welfare charity with a network of 21 rehoming centres across the UK and one in the Republic of Ireland, through which around 14,000 stray and abandoned dogs are cared for in a normal year.

Lobbying Activity

Meeting with Nina Carberry (Member of the European Parliament)

15 Sept 2025 · Animal welfare

Meeting with Karen Melchior (Member of the European Parliament)

20 Jun 2022 · Exchange of Views

Response to Measures and specifications of the veterinary medicinal product database

7 Aug 2020

Dogs Trust is the UK’s largest dog welfare charity. We care for around 15,000 stray and abandoned dogs each year through our network of 20 rehoming centres across the UK, and one in Ireland. Dogs Trust works closely with Dogs Trust Ireland, Chair of the EU Dog & Cat Alliance. The Alliance was founded by Dogs Trust in 2014 and has since grown to a coalition of 90 organisations across 25 EU Member States all working to protect dog and cat welfare. Dogs Trust is supportive of this Act and welcomes the introduction of a database on veterinary medicinal products. One suggestion we would like to make is that the database includes a search function for the active ingredient of a drug, as well as the trade name. This would be particularly useful when, for example, an animal is being treated in a different country to where it is usually treated. We can also see a database being helpful for drugs which fall into the minor use minor species category. We would also stress the importance that the database is regularly updated. For example, in the UK, a marketing authorisation holder must submit a Periodic Safety Update Report to the Veterinary Medicines Directorate at intervals of between 6 months and 3 years for each product they sell. Such reports or equivalent should be available via the database for practitioners’ information so they are aware of the risk of potential side effects of drugs, as such data for medicines licensed in other Member States may not be readily accessible. Lastly, the UK’s Veterinary Medicines Directorate has a number of categories of products listed on its Product Information Database. These include current authorised products; expired products; suspended products; registered homeopathics; specified feed additives (including expired); and refused applications. More information can be found at https://www.vmd.defra.gov.uk/ProductInformationDatabase/. It is not clear in the Delegated Regulation whether it is intended for the Union product database to list products other than those currently authorised. However, we believe listing products that are expired, suspended or which have been refused, would also be beneficial.
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Response to Set up of a Common logo for online sales of Veterinary Medicinal Products

7 Aug 2020

Dogs Trust is the UK’s largest dog welfare charity. We care for around 15,000 stray and abandoned dogs each year through our network of 20 rehoming centres across the UK, and one in Ireland. Dogs Trust works closely with Dogs Trust Ireland, Chair of the EU Dog & Cat Alliance. The Alliance was founded by Dogs Trust in 2014 and has since grown to a coalition of 90 organisations across 25 EU Member States all working to protect dog and cat welfare. Dogs Trust is supportive of this Act that should help stop unscrupulous online sellers of veterinary medicinal products. In the UK, the Veterinary Medicines Directorate's Accredited Internet Retailers Scheme (AIRS) enables accredited internet retailers to display the scheme's logo on their websites and for users to click on the logo to verify that they are accredited. The scheme seems to work effectively and so we suggest that certain requirements under AIRS could be replicated in the development of a logo in accordance with Regulation 2019/6. For example, under AIRS, accredited internet retailers must offer a link in their website to the VMD’s Product Information Database and explain that the Summary of Product Characteristics (SPCs) for the product purchased may be found there. There are also clear requirements regarding website identification. For example, accredited internet retailers must display on their website a postal address for the premises where the internet retailing business is carried out and details about how to make a complaint to the business about their website’s services and, in the event of an unsatisfactory response from the business, to the Veterinary Medicines Directorate. More information can be found at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/sell-veterinary-medicines-on-the-internet#assessment-criteria-for-airs It is also important to ensure that medicines cannot be accessed illegally. We therefore recommend that there is a robust system in place to ensure retailers abide by the individual rules of Member States. This means that if a medicinal product is of a different legal category in 2 Member States, the retailer must abide by the rules in the Member State where the product is to be delivered i.e. if a product requires a prescription in the country it is to be delivered / used, then it must not be sold without, even if that product is a different legal category in the Member State supplying it.
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Meeting with Diana Montero Melis (Cabinet of Commissioner Jutta Urpilainen) and EU Dog Cat Alliance

14 Jan 2020 · The contribution of working animals to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the SDGs

Response to Animal health requirements for movements of terrestrial animals and placing on the market of products of animal origin

11 Jul 2019

Please find attached the response to this consultation from Dogs Trust.
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Response to Animal health requirements for the entry into the Union of animals, products of animal origin and germinal products

10 Jul 2019

Please find attached the response to this consultation from Dogs Trust.
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Response to Animal disease notification, reporting, surveillance, eradication and disease-free status

28 Jun 2019

Dogs Trust is the UK’s largest dog welfare charity. We care for around 15,000 stray and abandoned dogs each year through our network of 20 rehoming centres across the UK, and one in Ireland. Dogs Trust works closely with Dogs Trust Ireland, Chair of the EU Dog & Cat Alliance, which was founded by Dogs Trust in 2014. Since then the Alliance has grown to a coalition of 83 organisations across 25 EU Member States all working to protect dog and cat welfare. Dogs Trust welcomes moves to introduce legislation to supplement Regulation (EU) 2016/429 regarding rules for surveillance, eradication programmes, and disease-free status for certain listed and emerging diseases. We have attached our feedback on the draft legislation with suggestions for ensuring it is effective.
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Response to Rules for establishments keeping terrestrial animals and hatcheries and their traceability

22 May 2019

Dogs Trust is the UK’s largest dog welfare charity. We care for around 15,000 stray and abandoned dogs each year through our network of 20 rehoming centres across the UK, and one in Ireland. Dogs Trust works closely with Dogs Trust Ireland, who is Chair of the EU Dog & Cat Alliance, which was founded by Dogs Trust in 2014. Since then the Alliance has grown to a coalition of 83 organisations across 25 EU Member States all working to protect dog and cat welfare. Dogs Trust welcomes moves to introduce legislation to supplement Regulation (EU) 2016/429 regarding rules for establishments keeping terrestrial animals and traceability of kept terrestrial animals. However, we have concerns that the current draft Delegated Regulation does not go far enough to protect dogs and cats in the EU and have provided our feedback in the attached document.
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Response to Transmissible animal diseases — rules on prevention and control

10 Oct 2018

Dogs Trust welcomes the opportunity to respond to this consultation given its crucial implications for animal and human health. Overall, we are supportive of the European Commission’s aim of categorizing diseases according to the seriousness of their associated impacts and the appropriate level of response required to deal with them effectively. Our response offers consideration from multiple perspectives – encompassing dog health and welfare, and human health and welfare aspects: • Our assessment of the disease categorisation definitions themselves, as currently proposed by the European Commission; • A specific request for a listed disease – Rabies virus – to be re-categorised, in accordance with the level of threat posed by the disease, and the level of the response required to combat it; • A specific request for a disease - Leishmania infantum – to be added to the list, given that, in our view, it fulfils many of the criteria as laid out in Article 5 (b) of Regulation (EU) 2016/429; • A specific request for the European Commission to adopt a flexible and pragmatic approach to the disease listing and categorisation process, to enable amendments and changes to be made according to developments across MS. Our detailed response is submitted separately.
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Response to Amendment of the list of transmissible animal diseases and amendment/repeal of acts in the Animal Health Law area

30 May 2018

Dogs Trust supports the proposed inclusion of the following diseases that affect dogs on the list of transmissible diseases: • Infection with rabies virus • Infection with Echinococcus multilocularis However, we urge the European Commission to add the following diseases to the list of transmissible diseases included in the Annex to the proposed Delegated Regulation: • Infection with Leishmania infantum • Infection with Brucella canis We believe that both infection with Leishmania infantum and infection with Brucella canis fulfil the criteria for a disease to be listed under the Animal Health Law and have detailed why in the attached document.
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Meeting with Marco Valletta (Cabinet of Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis)

9 Jun 2015 · New Report: the welfare of dogs and cats involved in commercial practices across the EU