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're in 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 will have to go into quarantine. given the seller's record, it's 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 around 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 kirsten 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's 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 or 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 there. certainly was quite an eventful start to our weekend with storm betty pushing north, bringing heavy rain and strong winds. a pretty grey and blustery start in northern ireland. here we had 46 millimetres of rain from storm betty, but the story improved and actually we had some sunshine and some warmth coming

through by the end of the afternoon, temperatures in lincolnshire peaking at 25.9 celsius. so this was the story then on saturday with storm betty anchored to the north west, starting to drift its way a little bit further westward. so as we go through the day on sunday, we will have more cloud the further north and west and a few scattered showers to begin with. and then into the afternoon, perhaps some more showers developing across western half of england and wales. further east, drier settled with some sunshine and temperatures, well, 17 to 21 degrees for scotland and northern ireland, perhaps peaking at 24 or 25 degrees, 77 fahrenheit for england and wales into the first part of next week. low pressure will move in from the north and it will bring showers or longer spells of rain across scotland and northern ireland. some blustery winds as well. for england and wales, it stays largely dry with showers fairly isolated and with a south—westerly wind direction, those temperatures will start to climb and to feel quite pleasant. in actualfact, temperatures peaking at 26 degrees here, 16 to 21

under the cloud and the rain. a similar story as we move into tuesday. always the risk of some showers continuing into the far north and west and a few along west facing coasts. but there'll be plenty of sunshine and plenty of warmth. it will feel quite pleasant. once again, those temperatures peaking widely into the mid 20s across central and southern england. but by the middle part of the week we are expecting a change of weather front could potentially bring some wetter weather and as this drifts its way steadily eastwards, the wind direction will swing around to a fresher northwesterly. so that means that we're going to lose some of that warmth. the russet tones disappear back to the near continent. it will be a cooler story towards the end of the working week. so further north it looks likely it will stay cool and showery at times with temperatures mid to high teens. but even across england and wales and no small difference to the feel of the weather, although we might not see that much rain in the far south east.

live from washington, this is bbc news. hurricane hilary fast approaching california putting the southern part of us states under its first tropical storm watch. british columbia is under a state of emergency as wildfires continue to rage across canada. excitement is building is england and spain prepared to face off in the women's world cup final. something that is never been

before in southern california. the us national service issuing the first ever tropical storm warning. hurricane hilary is on its way in the storm is just been downgraded to a category two hurricane with winds up to 110 mph. it is expected to make landfall soon in mexico. locals are preparing for the storm here in the resort town and there are warnings of potentially catastrophic flooding and forecasters believe the storm will lose some of its wind speed as begins to reach southern california. preparations are also under way, including shrink up some of the hillsides and officials are worried about and officials are worried about and majorflooding. nearly 26 million people on the southwestern us are now under a tropical storm warning as routine hilary begins to make its way up the pacific coast and you can see on this map that its expected path, mexico's government has placed soldiers on standby to assist a potential rescue effort in the

head of the us emergency management