Mr. Tim Kirby:

Surgical insemination is certainly an invasive procedure, and by that we mean opening into a body cavity. Obviously, a dog needs a general anaesthetic. That carries a risk. We do not give a general anaesthetic very lightly because of the obvious risks it carries, which are the same ones for an animal as for a human. That is one factor that must always be considered. Is it critical that this procedure be done? You would assess the risk of using a general anaesthetic. You then have the actual procedure, which involves entering a body cavity. There is a risk of contamination, surgical injury as you are performing the procedure, haemorrhage and other complications. Even when it is performed in a controlled, sterile surgical environment, it does carry risks. When we look where the practice is being done in an unregulated and uncontrolled environment by an unskilled, untrained person, the risk of something going wrong is infinitely higher.

What we must bear in mind is that even if it is legal in Ireland, is it something at which we need to look more closely and ask whether there is a place for it, and if there is, why and how should it be done? We need to have this conversation, which is the purpose of discussing this topic here today. We must also bear in mind that, even though there are certain licences around dog breeding and certain establishments, there is a bigger picture where the majority of puppies are coming from that case. Similarly, there is the unregulated and uncontrolled sector of it. Many of the puppies born are selectively bred, such as French bulldogs. Many of these dogs are not designed for breeding purposes. They have inherent anatomical deficiencies that mean they are more likely to require Caesarean sections. If they are being bred in these unregulated and uncontrolled facilities, who is carrying out these procedures on them? We note there are reports of untrained people performing such procedures, which is highly disturbing. This is where due diligence is needed to quantify and assess how that area can be tackled as well.

Dog breeding establishments with six or more breeding bitches on the premises require licences under the Dog Breeding Establishments Act. What is the merit in the number six? We need far more discussion around the whole concept and I am happy to be a part of that at any point. I agree that in respect of stud dogs, when we look at the number of puppies, we assess their welfare and health. Again, the genetic contribution of the sire is as important as the dam, but it is an area nobody even bothers to refer to. The Senator is right. It is certainly contributing to a lot of the problems. When we look at the problems some of these brachy breeds are having, for example, French bulldogs, there is an initiative called BOAS, brachycephalic obstructive airway syndrome, where you can test specific breed lines, the dam and the sire to see whether they are suitable for breeding. This is something PetBond certainly encourages. We will be introducing more initiatives around that because many of these problems can be avoided. As the Senator rightly said, by introducing these tests on the sire but also on the dam side, we can alleviate and prevent a lot of the problems. With the number of puppies being bred in Ireland every year, the size of the demand for stud dogs is huge as well, and I think some control needs to be introduced because this is half of the story and it is certainly half of the problem.

Regarding the third point about designer breeds, we are talking about breeds like French bulldogs, many of the brachy breeds in general or Shih Tzus. They are along the very pedigree-generated lines, while at the other end of the spectrum we are looking at Pomeranians crossed with Huskies, Cavachons and Cockapoos, which are poodles crossed with cocker spaniels. Again, it is not like mixing two paints and getting a specific colour. When you mix these together, you essentially get a genetic cocktail. One of the greatest examples of where all of this is going wrong is in clinical practice. We are seeing a lot of dogs coming in our doors with behavioural issues. When we start to look at the root cause of these behavioural issues, we find they are underlying health problems. We have dogs in pain or with health issues we have not seen previously because we are getting these genetic mixes that are constantly being introduced by people to feed a demand for these designer breed dogs. As a result, dogs are presenting with these bizarre behavioural issues. What we are trying to do is see what we can do to help these dogs in the short term, but there certainly needs to be a longer term strategy and far greater awareness of the consequences of people demanding these breeds and people then supplying these breeds.