Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is crazy to think that I could decide tomorrow morning to carry out any one of those three procedures and there would be no comeback against me. Is most of the abuse of these dogs, of designer breeds as they have been described, being carried out not by the owners of puppy farms but by backyard breeders, to borrow a term used to describe them by a woman from my home town of Cashel? In some places papers are produced for these so-called designer dogs but do we need to change the language we are using? One can have such papers but those dogs are mongrels. If we were to change the way we describe them, it would take away the gloss of an owner having a little designer dog that would fit in her handbag that she could show off as she walks down the street. Having such a designer dog sounds like what a film star would have. Breeders are charging crazy money for what are described as designer dogs but they are mongrels. Do we need to change the way we talk about the industry, bring it back to reality and let the public know that such a dog is not a designer dog but a mongrel and that one can have whatever papers one likes, they would still be no good.