A heartbroken young woman is campaigning against puppy farming after her beloved pet pug had to be put down seven days after she bought him.

Tiny Bailey was struggling to breathe, was going blind and his legs could not take his weight. So Jade Burton made the devastating decision to have the 12-week-old pup euthanased.

Miss Burton, of Fulmar Road, Strood, bought the dog the previous week from a breeder in Essex.

She knew something was wrong, but fell in love with the dog so her mum, Karen Crocker, handed over the £400 fee.

The 18-year-old said: “Bailey’s body was tiny and his head was huge, his eyes were even more crossed then your normal pug and they were very weepy.

“He was put on the floor to run about and looked slightly off balance.

“When questioning [the breeder] about why he was like he was, she had a convincing story for everything.

"We were told at that point the prognosis for survival was very low and Bailey would be in pain, so the decision was made to have him put to rest. We didn’t want him to suffer any more..." - Jade Burton

“At £400, she was charging a lot less than pugs usually cost. But my heart definitely overruled my head at that point.”

Bailey spent his first night at home struggling to breathe and when he was running around, his legs kept collapsing beneath him.

So the following day Miss Burton took him to a vet. She was told he had hydrocephalus, when fluid builds up in the skull, causing pressure on the brain.

The future was looking bleak for little Bailey but Miss Burton was told to return to the vet a week later to see if he had improved.

But at the next appointment, she was told Bailey could not be operated on until he was at least six months old and he had already started to go blind.

Miss Burton said: “We were told at that point the prognosis for survival was very low and Bailey would be in pain, so the decision was made to have him put to rest. We didn’t want him to suffer any more.”

Miss Burton, who was able to get her £400 back from the breeder, has set up a Facebook page, Bailey’s Legacy, to raise awareness of puppy farming and has written to MPs Mark Reckless and Tracey Crouch.

She has also informed the RSPCA about the breeder.

She said: “Many people know of puppy farming but don’t know enough. If I had known more, I would have spent more time looking into health checks.

“I’m heartbroken that I couldn’t save Bailey.”

A puppy farmer is defined as a high-volume breeder who breeds dogs with little or no regard for the welfare of the animals or their parents.

A puppy farmer’s main intent is profit. As a result, they typically separate puppies from their mothers too early, ignore guidelines about the maximum frequency of litters, keep puppies in poor conditions and fail to follow breed-specific health schemes or to apply basic, routine health measures.

As a result, the puppies bred by puppy farmers are more likely to suffer from common, preventable, infectious diseases, painful or chronic inherited conditions, behavioural issues and shorter life spans.

The Kennel Club is calling for a change in legislation to crack down on puppy farming and Battersea Dogs & Cats Home is also calling for tighter controls on breeders.

For advice on finding the right dog breeder, go to www.thekennelclub.org.uk.