- January 1, 2023
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Big rise in complaints of animal cruelty in 2022 – Independent.ie
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ISPCA must resort to private kennels due to contradictory animal legislation
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One of the dogs rescued by the ISPCA in 2022
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Rodney Edwards
January 01 2023 02:30 AM
The Irish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ISPCA) is spending more than €3,500 a year on every dog it is forced to temporarily care for in private facilities , the Sunday Independent has learned.
Overcrowding at Ireland’s dog shelters — the worst in a decade — means the animal welfare charity is forced to place abused dogs in private kennels where they can sometimes remain for over three years.
In the past year, more than 1,050 animals have been detained by the ISPCA — including many dogs — and in recent weeks more than a dozen shelters announced they have no space to house dogs that have been mistreated. In one day alone five dog shelters closed their doors.
A dog seized under the Animal Health and Welfare Act must be retained until legal proceedings have concluded or it is voluntarily surrendered by the owners.
ISPCA chief inspector Conor Dowling — whose organisation saw an increase in the number of dogs detained in 2022 — believes there needs to be a change in the law in relation to rehoming canines.
“It is something that needs to be looked at. We have to use private board because we need our kennels free for the influx of dogs that come in all the time. At one stage we had to find private kennels for 70 dogs that were detained,” he said.
Mr Dowling said the ISPCA last year had 20 successful outcomes in court relating to animal cruelty — with the charity housing many of the seized dogs.
This included the prosecution of Paul Conway from Co Westmeath, who pleaded guilty to 15 offences relating to causing unnecessary suffering of dogs.
“The dogs included three female lurchers, a male lurcher and a Yorkshire terrier/Chihuahua cross. He also pleaded guilty to similar offences in respect of seven ferrets, and of failing to provide a dog with adequate and suitable food and water,” said Mr Dowling.
Last September, Myles Fitzgerald from Co Carlow was disqualified from keeping any dogs for life after he was found to have been operating an illegal dog-breeding establishment.
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When an ISPCA inspector visited the premises, they discovered cocker spaniels, poodles, bichons, cockapoos, German shepherds, terriers and lurchers.
“The accommodation was unsuitable, due to insufficient light and ventilation, wet and soiled bedding, and lack of visual stimuli. The dogs were severely matted, urine stained, and faeces had affected their coats. There were skin issues, overgrown nails, infected ears, rotten teeth, dental issues and 13 dogs were surrendered,” said Mr Dowling.
Leslie Stewart from Co Donegal pleaded guilty to 16 of 30 charges last September relating to dogs being kept in a van without water, allowing the carcass of a sheep to remain unburied, and keeping pigs and poultry in trailers without adequate access to water. He was disqualified from keeping animals for 10 years and fined a total of €1,500.
“We are no longer shocked by what we see,” said Mr Dowling.
Last month Senator Lynn Boylan proposed new legislation which would help to alleviate some of the capacity issues shelters are dealing with.
“There is clearly a lacuna in the law. If a dog seized under one law can be homed in five days whereas a dog seized under another needs to wait it out in a shelter for years, it is a lacuna that shows an incoherent approach to animal welfare,” she told the Seanad.
Senator Fintan Warfield said the regulation of puppy farms and the prolonged use of shelters “may require more long-term resolutions”.
He said the Government can assist shelters in the short-term “by providing much-needed financial assistance to shelters”.
“The Programme for Government committed to ‘doubling of the ex-gratia funding for animal welfare organisations within two years’,” he said.
Senator Warfield said the budget for 2022 had provided for €3.7m which, he said, was “a shortfall of €1.17m on what the Government had initially proposed for this same period”.
Last year the then taoiseach Micheál Martin asked Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue to convene the interdepartmental group on dogs to consider and review current legislation on dogs across all departments.
More than 2,745 animal welfare complaints were lodged with the Department of Agriculture in the past year — an approximate 10pc increase compared to previous years.
The “unusually high figure” for 2022 includes over 200 complaints about Puck Fair in Co Kerry last August, resulting in the festival’s iconic wild goat being removed from its traditional “festival throne”.
A total of 36 successful prosecutions were taken at the suit of Minister McConalogue in 2022 with 27 cases of these related to domestic animals.
But there may be many more cases in the time ahead, said Mr Dowling, who has admitted to being disturbed by the latest pet craze in Ireland — the unnecessary cropping or removing of a dog’s ears.
“We are seeing more of this now, particularly in bull breeds. Some people like to get their ears cropped, to give them a certain look.”
It is designed to make dogs look more intimidating, with many of the procedures being carried out illegally in Ireland.
“It is purely for cosmetic purposes. Some people like that look and we are seeing a rise in this. We seized puppies whose ears had been recently done, and it was pretty gruesome — more like butchery than surgery.”
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