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Hello, I'm Sean Curran, and this is yesterday in Parliament from Radio 4.

Now, the Commons Chamber has often been described as a bear pit,

but on Friday the 4th of July, after a bruising few days,

marked by U-turns, a rebellion and a rowdy session of PMQs, MPs finally found an issue

they could all agree on. This time last year, Dr Danny Chambers was preparing to hang up his

stethoscope as a veterinary surgeon, having just been elected as a Lib Dem MP. Now he's on the

verge of changing the law. His proposals to clamp down

on the smuggling of dogs, cats and ferrets cleared the commons with cross-party support.

As a vet, I've seen the devastating consequences of puppy smuggling. It's unimaginary cruel to

separate puppies and kittens from their mothers at a very young age,

and then bring them across borders and substandard conditions,

where they're then sold for maximum profit by unscrupulous traders who prioritise profit over welfare.

His private members bill would ban the importing of heavily pregnant dogs and

cats into the UK, along with puppies and kittens under six months old, and dogs and cats

that have been mutilated by having their ears or tails cut or by being declawed. Promising government

backing for the legislation, the Environment Minister Emma Hardy

said the measures represented a crucial step forward in efforts to tackle pet smuggling. The bill will

tighten these rules by reducing the number of pets that can travel in a single non-commercial

movement and requiring the movement of a pet to be explicitly linked to that of its owner.

This will fundamentally disrupt the tactics we know a legal trader's employed to avoid more stringent checks and oversight.

It certainly hadn't escaped anyone's notice that the debate was taking place at the end of a turbulent week.

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