Mr. Bill Cashman:

This just struck me as we were all talking here about all the problems of dog ownership, which is quite correct because there are a lot of problems. It is just that over my time, I have seen that the standard of dog ownership has gone way up. The standard of dog and pet health in general has gone up. Whatever we say about kids, they really know not only their own dog but everyone in the park as well. We should not lose sight of the fact that 95% of the people are very well-informed and up to speed with it. They are committed to this animal and their lifestyle is built around it. We should not lose sight of that. As far as I remember, Veterinary Ireland has had a number of schemes for going into schools where a number of local practices would send in a veterinarian or veterinarian nurse who would take in an animal and it sells itself. That is where these schemes will work best.