‘Dogspiracy’ Review: The Dark Truth Behind the Post-Pandemic Puppy Boom

This gripping documentary, fronted by vet and campaigner Dr Marc Abraham, digs deep into the murky world of puppy farming, pet smuggling, and the political inertia that allows it all to flourish.

★★★★☆

“People think more about getting a phone or a TV than getting a live creature in their lives.” So begins Dogspiracy, a powerful new documentary fronted by British vet and animal welfare advocate Dr Marc Abraham OBE. It’s one of a few recent attempts, though perhaps the boldest one so far, to confront the horrors of the post-pandemic puppy surge, triggered by families wanting to lighten the load of their third lockdown, with extra time on their hands the option to work from home phenomenon that mostly persists to this day. The obvious impact of the boom has been threefold: 1) families realised how patently difficult it is to raise a puppy properly; 2) a plethora of designer puppies ultimately wound up ‘returned to sender’; and 3) it produced a breeding ground for unscrupulous capitalists who suddenly realised there are big bucks to be made from perpetually forcing dogs to birth puppies in torturous environs.

In the documentary, Dr Abraham takes us into the heart of this dark trade. He investigates puppy mills, where stray and kidnapped dogs are forced to breed ad-infinitum, canine fertility clinics, and the world of puppy smuggling. In one haunting scene, the rescuers of one poor dog calculate she’d be capable of producing 140 puppies in a lifetime – and, until her rescue, would have been well on her way towards that figure. Insights into this grisly underworld behind puppy purchasing will hopefully make viewers query exactly where their new pet is coming from, and encourage them to buy responsibly.

Dogspiracy could simply pull at the heartstrings by showing incidents of mistreated dogs being rescued by sympathetic campaigners. There’s some of this, but none of it feels needless. In fact, it mostly accentuates the point that the film seeks to make about the urgent necessity for lawmakers to catch up, and the political side of the coin is deftly portrayed. Contributors include Caroline Lucas, Rosie Duffield MP and US Senator Tracy Pennycuick. There’s reference to the baffling nature of why every law takes so long to pass, and why the Kept Animals Bill was dropped by the UK government in 2023 despite 80% of public support. “It makes you think who is pulling the strings behind these decision makers?” Abraham queries. It’s evident there are genuine blockages being erected to prevent bipartisan laws being passed. The film gives detailed depictions of the real challenges to tackle legislation around animal welfare in the US, when lobbying bodies like the American Kennel Club call the shots. An equivalent Victoria’s Law, an attempt to ban puppies in pet stores, has thankfully been implemented in a few states, though a countrywide ban still seems a long way off.

The broader societal critique is equally sharp. Since the rise of the internet, we’ve become accustomed to instant gratification—whether that takes the form of social media walloping us with the dopamine rushes we demand on the regular or online retailers offering us every product under the sun no matter the questionable ethics of production. Bring live animals into this equation and it’s a recipe for abject peril. Dogs are not Amazon packages, and yet during the pandemic, there was little regard for where our new man’s best friend was coming from. All we required was for pets to be delivered to our doors like so many rolls of toilet paper, and the law has taken its time catching up. The film makes this point aptly, tying our consumption habits to a growing disconnect from the living, breathing beings we claim to love.

The Verdict

Dogspiracy is not for the faint-hearted, and the conditions portrayed here, though never gratuitous, will upset many a conscientious viewer. It’s a sensible documentary, much more thoughtful than Netflix’s string of Trainwreck and true crime series, but you almost hope it gets picked up by the streamer or another similarly large platform. It deserves wider distribution and a vaster audience than the average cinema will allow.

Words by James Morton

Dogspiracy is in UK cinemas from 1 August.

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