Puppy farming is the term used when breeders prioritise profit over animal health and welfare, often keeping large numbers of dogs in small pens and using them to produce multiple litters a year.
Current dog breeding practices will be reformed to tackle puppy farming as part of what the government calls “the biggest animal welfare reforms in a generation”.
However, the whole strategy will not be delivered until the end of 2030.
David Bowles, head of public affairs at the RSPCA, said the animal welfare charity was “delighted” at the strategy and added that the plans to ban puppy farming “could be a real game-changer”.
“Puppy farming is one of the most insidious problems that the RSPCA faces.
“The government will need to write the legislation on that in this coming year and the RSPCA will work with them to make sure that there are no loopholes,” he said.
The government is also looking to ban the use of snare traps in the countryside and on Sunday confirmed it is to carry out a consultation on the proposed ban on trail hunting in the New Year.
Trail hunting involves using a rag with a natural scent on to lay a trail ahead of a hunt, which is then followed by the hounds but live animal scents could be picked up by the pack instead.
The secretary of state told the BBC that while Labour had previously banned fox hunting in 2004 “we have seen that people are trying to get around that ban by using trail hunting in some cases”.
“Obviously that’s also a problem of enforcement, it’s not just the legislation, but we are determined to go further, which is why banning trail hunting is in the animal welfare strategy,” she said.
“We know sometimes it is used as a smokescreen for fox hunting.”