this is bbc news, the headlines: two people have been killed and at least 2a others injured after a tornado hit the us state of arkansas. the governor has declared a state of emergency, and tens of thousands of residents are without power. lawyers for donald trump say he will surrender to a court in new york on tuesday after becoming the first former us president to face criminal charges. his legal team say he's �*angry but not worried' about the case which concerns hush payments made to a porn star. a court in romania has allowed the controversial social media influencer, andrew tate, to leave prison and move into house arrest. him, his brother and two romanian women, are being

investigated on allegations of rape and people trafficking. they all deny wrongdoing. now on bbc news, our world: inside the illegal puppy trade. chloe, would we like to be in a video about how much i love you? and you, bambi? dogs have never been more popular. in the uk, we bought 3.2 million pets during lockdown. in europe, puppies are now a multibillion euro industry. but where are all these puppies coming from? for the first time, our world unveils a criminal underworld of puppy traders trafficking dogs across europe.

they came here to resell those dogs in england. those englishmen, they also dealt in drugs. the criminals are breeding dogs in unlicensed puppy mills in hungary. these dogs suffer abuse and neglect. the dogs are sold into a vast pet trade network in western europe that handles 8 million puppies a year. many are illegally passed off as the offspring of a much—loved family pet. hungary has emerged as a dog breeding power in europe. in the last two years, it's legally exported over

70,000 puppies within the eu. a huge network of puppy farms grew up here after the collapse of the soviet union. the system changed. the state farms and co—operative farms were privatised. so, people stopped working with cows, stopped working with swine and the italian tradesmen came into hungary and saw a big business, and they started to build up a network of puppy producers here in hungary, and then the people, step—by—step, realised that they can make money on dogs instead of keeping swine and rabbits, and they put these animals in the place of the swine and poultry and rabbit. the industry is controlled by the government through licensing and farms are expected to conform to animal welfare standards but anyone can register online to be a breeder without any initial checks.

this is puspokladany. this town ofjust 16,000 people has 154 registered breeders. the nebih is the government agency charged with carrying out random checks of hungary's nearly 3,000 breeders. our world has joined them today on one of their inspections lead by chief vet dr attila boncz. but this breeder has passed the inspection. the vet in charge says they don't have anything to report to us. but some audio between nebih inspectors, captured minutes earlier, reveals some findings.

they conclude this farm follows the regulations and remains legal. nebih says they had a private exchange of opinions, and their views should not be linked to the authority's findings. puppy farming is good business. a buyer in western europe will pay a minimum of 1000 euros per puppy — the average monthly wage in hungary. this has attracted criminals who breed dogs in terrible conditions. these dogs were found in sojtor, in hungary. they were locked in the dark,

lying on their own faeces, and carcasses of other dead dogs. these illegal breeding sites are known as puppy mills. illegal breeders cram in as many dogs as possible to produce litter after litter of puppies. these puppies ultimately find their way into legal markets. in hungary, most of the operations against puppy mills are initiated by charities. edina nemedi was one of the animal rescuers involved in closing down the puppy mill in sojtor. edina now cares for some dogs she's rescued from the puppy mills across hungary.

the recent discoveries of the farm's conditions has led to international pressure for hungary to tighten their laws. convicted puppy mill owners now face jail. in puspokladany, the nebih have had a tip off about an illegal puppy mill. there's a bad smell coming from the insides and nobody is looking after the dogs.

after several hours of waiting, the owner turns up. in 2020, pupsliu was one of the main exporters of hungarian puppies, sending nearly 4,000 dogs to belgium, a huge puppy market in europe. after the inspection, the nebih has found more than ten dogs with ear, skin, and eye infections. hungarian law states that if conditions lead to long—term health damage or death then the site is defined as a puppy mill. the nebih decides that that's not the case in this instance and they will only impose a fine and inspect again in the near future. but the decision is contentious. this is a qualified case. if you don't treat an ear infection, then it goes down and down and down,

and that is animal cruelty. our world contacted pupsliu but they did not respond. the booming puppy trade in hungary is attracting traders from all over europe. some of them come to markets looking for a cheap deal. once they collect enough puppies for a shipment, they send them off legally to their clients. edina has come to kecskemet market, looking for puppy sellers. edina's concerned that puppies bred with low welfare standards are making their way into the legal international market. this registered breeder has nine dachshund puppies left and he's sold all the females to an austrian trader.

he's charging 100 euros a puppy. edina is going to buy one to check its credentials. hey, aw. to sell puppies legally, they must be at least eight weeks old, fully vaccinated, microchipped and registered by a vet on a national database. but a few simple checks reveal the truth. it's likely this puppy has not been vaccinated. in order to travel legally outside the country, puppies need a pet passport

with valid vaccinations and these can only be issued by a vet. corrupt vets sell pet passports to puppy mills owners without vaccinating or even seeing the puppies. this puppy is lucky. edina will give him up for adoption to a good home. those puppies left might face a gruelling journey to markets in the west where they can be sold for anything up to 3,000 euros each. the most lucrative markets are in belgium and the uk, a journey of over 1,000 miles. thousands of puppies are smuggled through borders hidden in vehicles. most pass through germany on their route west. german police mount regular patrols looking for puppy smugglers.

in 2021, they seized nearly 2,000 puppies being smuggled across the country. in the same year, the uk saw a 260% increase in puppy smuggling. in response, it's proposed to ban the import of dogs under six months old. but that would not always deter the smugglers. this car and van travelling in convoy were stopped by german police. inside they found eight adult dachshunds split between the two vehicles. the dogs were being transported from hungary to the uk in terrible conditions. the shipment was also bigger than it initially looked. four of the dogs were heavily pregnant. at the shelter, they gave birth to 21 puppies which would have been worth about £42,000

on the british market. the trafficker had pet passports for some of the dogs, stating they were his pets. but the evidence shows that he had most likely sourced them from a puppy mill. the dachshunds were being transported by a man called peter hovorka. after the dogs were seized, he was released without charge. a couple of days later, he was caught again, this time at the british border, where he had more dogs seized. dog trafficking can carryjail sentences, but traffickers are very rarely prosecuted. our world contacted peter hovorka but he did not respond.

once the puppies are out of hungary, illegal traders have to create a story around the puppies to sell them. a team of government vets have been working with four paws, the country's biggest animal welfare charity, to try to crack down on this illegal trade. criminal gangs are now moving into the puppy trade so the vets have asked that we mask their identity. the team is finding an increase in the number of online ads linked to the illegal puppy trade.

it's not really difficult to find suspicious ads online. this ad just says "boxer puppies". they are asking 1,200 euros per puppy. and i got this picture of the father. i checked the picture with google lens and found this picture here. it's a stolen picture. this can't be the father dog. this is a fake account set up to look like the puppy was from a family home. selling a small number of puppies born from your own pets is perfectly legal but in order to sell large numbers of puppies, you need to be registered as a commercial breeder and have regular inspections and pay taxes on the sales. selling through social media and online auction sites allows illegal traders to set

up multiple accounts. many of these claim to be selling puppies born from family pets. this seller has been linked to a network that's sold many puppies. the investigatorfrom four paws is trying to arrange a test purchase to confirm the evidence. this is a risky operation. one of the team goes ahead with a hidden camera, posing as a buyer. only once they are inside the flat and can see the puppy will the investigators and police confront the seller.

with the puppy located, the rest of the team and the police close in on the flat. hallo!

the seller is unable to prove where he got the puppy from, so it's seized. the vets suspect the puppy has been smuggled into the country. legally imported puppies need a pet passport and proof of vaccination. this puppy has neither, so it will have to go into quarantine.

given the seller's record, it is likely this puppy was one of many that were smuggled from hungary. this shelter is part of a network near cologne that takes in puppies seized from the illegal dog trade. in the last few weeks, they've taken in 69 puppies that were trafficked from hungary. all of the puppies here were being transported to belgium. belgium is one of the main markets for puppies bred in hungary and other eastern european countries. every year, belgium legally imports 19,000 puppies from eastern europe. thousands of puppies arrive at wholesale pet shops, like this one,

where clients can order through click and collect. in belgium, it's legal to sell puppies in pet shops but it's illegal to source them from puppy mills. vet kirstern visited some wholesale puppy traders where she spotted illnesses commonly found in puppy mills. the director is showing her footage filmed at one of the traders she visited.

our world has tracked down an ex—worker from this wholesale pet shop who has agreed to talk to us. translation: there were dogs dying every day. - you had days when you had to pick up ten in a day. the workload was very heavy. with only two employees, we didn't have enough staff for all of those dogs. drinking nipples were also installed. dogs then have to push on those with their noses and then, they get water. but not all dogs understand that or some dogs, like chihuahuas, are too small to get to them, so they didn't drink. anyone can buy as many puppies as they want here,

no questions asked. british gangs have bought puppies here looking to cash in on this lucrative trade. they came here to resell those dogs in england. those englishmen, they also dealt in drugs. they bought about 20 dogs when they visited. they showed me the car and i saw that it was already full of dogs. theyjust threw ours in there. i once saw a picture of their boss. he lived in a mega—huge house with three or four bentleys in the driveway. they really do have plenty of money. anthony godfroid has won civil cases against belgium shops selling sick puppies from puppy mills. they lose a lot of money because of me. because every case costs them 4,000—5,000 euros, more 01’ less. but i don't cost them enough money because they make millions.

and, ok, if there are seven convictions per year, maybe it's 40,000 euro. that is not a real problem for them. jail sentences for illegally trading in dogs are extremely rare and require investigations into criminal networks across borders that few authorities are prepared to tackle. these dogs have all been rescued from illegal breeders and traffickers. but thousands are trapped in puppy mills which produce tens of thousands of puppies that are now flooding the market. there aren't enough credible breeders to meet the huge demand for puppies so, for now, the most effective way of fighting against the illegal puppy trade is to do thorough research where the puppy comes from.

hello. for many parts of the uk, march turned out to be a wet month, not least across england, where, according to provisional met office statistics, it was the wettest march since 1981. but it wasn't that wet everywhere — in fact, there were parts of northern scotland where we had less rain than normal. these figures, 56% of the average, cover the period up to the morning of friday the 31st. compare that with cambridge, which had seen more than three times the normal march rainfall. but for the start of april, through the weekend, it looks like things are going to become drier and brighter. quite a slow process, though, because the weekend starts with low pressure in charge.

a couple of different weather fronts providing a focus for some outbreaks of rain. this front here providing some particularly persistent rain through the morning across parts of northern ireland, parts of wales, the south—west of england, central southern england as well. a lot of that rain will tend to peter out. i think northern ireland is likely to stay cloudy and damp through the day. elsewhere, quite a lot of cloud, some spots of rain, some mist and murk and with this easterly breeze, it'll feel rather cool for some of these north sea coasts. further west, temperatures between 10 and 13 degrees and there could just be a few glimmers of sunshine. most places will be pretty cloudy. now, we will keep fairly large amounts of cloud as we head through saturday night but i think we'll see a few more clear spells around — some clearer skies, certainly, filtering into eastern parts of england later in the night.

temperatures generally between two and seven degrees. very locally, there could be a touch of frost. but for sunday, we see high pressure tending to build and that means some drier and somewhat brighter weather. now, there will still be some areas of cloud around — perhaps most especially across western scotland, northern ireland, wales, the south—west of england — but equally, there should be some spells of sunshine — the best of that a little bit further east. temperatures — well, no great shakes on the face of it but at this time of year, there is some strength in the sun, so get yourself into some sunshine. it will not feel too bad. 0ur area of high pressure tries to hold on into the start of the new week. we will see frontal systems making some inroads from the atlantic, so that means we will see perhaps some rain at times through the middle of the week, particularly towards the north and the west of the uk. at this early stage — and it is still a long way away — the signs for the easter weekend are quite promising.

this is bbc world news i'm monika plaha. our top stories: a series of devestating tornadoes in the united states have left at least three people dead in the states of arkansas and illinois. donald trump will appear in court on tuesday as he becomes the first former us president to face criminal charges. the unprecedented indictment of a former president of the united states for a campaign finance issue is an outrage. social media personality andrew tate has been released from prison to house arrest before further court hearings. a warning that rapidly melting ice in antarctica is slowing down deep ocean currents, which could have devastating impacts for the world's climate.