Good point.

I think the main thing is this.

If a person is caught selling or even giving a dog away to a non licenced owner, that is a criminal offence. That is the biggest difference. At the moment BYB's and puppy farmers can operate well within the law, regardless of how un-ethical they may be, they are legal. What this proposal would do is it would 'flush out' those people and it would subject them to an actual law.

So if you sold me a dog and I wasn't able to show you I had my ownership licence, at some point in the future I'm probably going to get stopped or asked to produce my ownership certificate/number etc. If I can't, I will be fined and I will have to say where I got the dog from.

The other way of looking at it, this scheme will bring in a brand new Govt agency which would be a sub-department of DEFRA which would exclusively deal with dog owners. The revenue raised through the scheme would allow for more spot checks to be done on puppy farms - i.e. a dog control officer could approach a puppy farm or any breeder for that matter and try and 'buy' a dog without a licence. If the breeder gets 'stung' that's it, they're out. The scheme operates on a one strike and you're out rule. So try and sell one dog to one person without a licence and you lose your breeder/supplier licence. Then you are legally not allowed to sell any dogs to any people, if you do and get caught you are facing large fines. If you carry on, you are facing jail.

So dealing in puppies will become far less attractive and those who do it for profit may just turn their attentions to other, less risky 'scams'.