THE country’s biggest puppy farm owners are using a loophole to give buyers the impression they are small-scale breeders, the Mail can reveal.
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Mail → use → impression
Lauren Cullivan has registered as a pet seller with the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine, which allows her to sell six or more pets a year but have fewer than six breeding bitches.
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her → register → bitches
The ‘registered seller ID’ licence is meant for small-scale sellers.
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licence → register → sellers
But Ms Cullivan failed to disclose her connection to the largest dog-breeding operation in the State, which has been the subject of damning revelations in this newspaper and a BBC Panorama programme.
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which → fail → newspaper
Until recently, Ms Cullivan used the Dog Breeding Establishment (DBE) licence number of her brother Raymond Cullivan Junior – who is licensed to breed 300 bitches – when advertising dogs on the website.
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who → use → website
Before being contacted by the MoS, Ms Cullivan listed her new pet sellers’ number in one ad, and her brother’s DBE licence in another.
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Cullivan → contact → another
Any person who keeps six or more female dogs must be licensed with their local county council under the Dog Breeding Establishment Act.
But Ms Cullivan failed to disclose her connection to the largest dog-breeding operation in the State, which has been the subject of damning revelations in this newspaper and a BBC Panorama programme
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which → keep → newspaper
Ms Cullivan’s phone number was the contact listed on previous advertisements, and she was the person buyers met when they arrived to buy a puppy.
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they → list → puppy
By law, registration or licence numbers must be included in online advertisements for dogs, depending on the nature of the breeding operation.
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numbers → include → operation
In her advertisements this week, Ms Cullivan said she has a ‘beautiful litter of miniature Goldendoodle puppies’ available to go to their new homes.
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she → say → homes
‘Mom and dad are my own dogs,’ she wrote.
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she → write → ?
Mom is 14 inches tall and dad is 13 inches tall and the puppies should be the same size when fully grown.
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puppies → grow → ?
She added that her puppies ‘have been vet checked, vaccinated, microchipped, wormed to date and flea treated to date’.
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puppies → add → date
And she said the puppies – which have a price of €500 each – are ‘considered a low to non-shed breed and are highly intelligent and trainable’.
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which → say → 500
The advertisement, which has a very similar photograph of a dog previously listed with her brother’s DBE licence number attached, contains Ms Cullivan’s registration number.
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which → have → number
Clinical animal behaviourist and registered veterinary nurse Maírín Murphy said there is a ‘loophole’ in legislation that has allowed Ms Cullivan to list dogs for sale under her own pet sales registration number.
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Cullivan → register → number
This allows her to advertise puppies without any trace to the massive breeding operation in Poles, Co. Cavan.
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her → allow → Poles
Ms Murphy told the MoS: ‘This particular family member has been the point of contact for the puppies being sold from the premises that holds a legal licence for 300 female dogs.
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that → tell → dogs
‘A pet sales licence is issued to very small-scale breeders who supposedly have less than six female dogs on a premises, and are therefore not eligible to apply for a dog breeding establishment licence.
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who → issue → licence
The change to Ms Cullivan’s advertisements comes after the MoS published several articles about the huge breeding operation this year.
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MoS → come → operation
In February, we revealed how the puppy farm was continuing to reap massive profits from ‘cruelty’ almost a decade after it was exposed by BBC’s Panorama.
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it → reveal → Panorama
Our coverage also highlighted serious concerns about the condition of animals at the farm after a nine-week-old Cavapoo puppy died within 48 hours of being purchased.
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puppy → highlight → hours
In February, we revealed how the puppy farm was continuing to reap massive profits from ‘cruelty’ almost a decade after it was exposed by BBC’s Panorama
In July, two more tiny puppies died within days of being taken home from the puppy farm, which operates as Lakeview Pets.
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which → reveal → Pets
Trading as Five Star Paws, the operation has been fined for planning offences by Cavan County Council and hit with ‘improvement notices’ after on-site inspections found it to be in breach of animal welfare legislation.
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it → trade → legislation
Ms Cullivan’s brother is registered to breed hundreds of bitches a year and he advertises his puppies for sale daily on the website Dogs.ie.
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he → register → website
The advertisements previously included his sister Lauren Cullivan’s phone number along with pictures of the same puppies.
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advertisements → include → puppies
Mr Cullivan – who was ordered to pay over €100,000 to the taxman after he was named on the 2024 list of defaulters – is listed as director of Five Star Paws, which recorded profits almost half a million euro in its most recent financial statement for the year ended February 2025.
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which → order → year
Lauren Cullivan’s company, Pets4You, recorded net assets of almost €100,000 at the end of 2024.
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company → record → 2024
Ms Cullivan featured prominently in a BBC Panorama documentary in 2016 and was named in several stories in the Irish Mail on Sunday in recent months.
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Cullivan → feature → months
The puppy farm, which was then owned and registered by Ms Cullivan’s father, Raymond Cullivan Sr, was the subject of secret filming by a team from the BBC Panorama programme ten years ago.
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which → own → programme
The documentary showed footage of bitches and newborn pups locked in small crates with little ventilation.
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documentary → show → ventilation
Lauren Cullivan’s company, Pets4You, recorded net assets of almost €100,000 at the end of 2024
Ms Cullivan was stopped from entering Scotland on November 2, 2016, with dogs she admitted were from her father’s farm.
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she → record → farm
The dogs were not microchipped or vaccinated and did not have the required documents.
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dogs → microchippe → documents
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine this weekend said it could comment on individual cases.
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it → say → cases
However, a spokesman noted that, as part of the pet seller application process, applicants ‘must’ undergo an inspection by a private vet and are ‘checked against any other registers’, including the DBE register.
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applicants → note → register
He said the pet sales registration requirement ‘does not apply to persons to whom the Dog Breeding Establishments Act 2010 applies’.
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Act → say → whom
He added: ‘However, where a Dog Breeding Establishment also sells/supplies other pets such as cats, ferrets, birds, they are required to register on the pet sales register.’
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they → add → register
The spokesman said legislative responsibility for the DBE Act 2010 transferred to the Department of Agriculture last year, but that local authorities retain responsibility for all operational and enforcement matters.
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we → say → article
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