Mrs. Louise O'Tuama:

Nobody has ever been prosecuted for not having a dog microchipped, although there may be numbers in single digits. Since they brought this in, nobody ever gets prosecuted. That is really what the issue is. When we talk about dogs, we are talking about sentient animals. That has been recognised by the EU. They have a full range of emotions. They are not just a dog. When you bond with that animal, they bond with you. This is a huge issue for people. If somebody steals that dog, for some people, it is like their child. Regardless of whether we think that is right or wrong, it is like that. However, nobody gets prosecuted properly.

Where is the deterrent to stop people from robbing your dog? It is only a dog to them. It is done for monetary gain. That is how dogs are viewed in this country in more than one aspect that we could go into, although we will not do that today. They are just seen as monetary gain. The view is: “There is an easy buck. I cannot make any money through Covid, so there is a dog I can have.” On Ms O’Connor’s webpage recently, there was video footage of a guy driving up in a van, and he just stretched out, picked up a dog and threw it in the van. How did they get the dog back? They made it too hot to handle by getting it all over social media. That is because of people like Ms O'Connor. It is not gardaí out there, running around, looking for dogs. I am the kind of person who would go out to try to save a scared dog that nobody could catch. You would ring the gardaí, and you might get one who will take you seriously, but they do not understand. They will say, and I would agree, that they have very important things to be doing. However, if we start to recognise dogs as sentient, and that they are very much part of the family, maybe it will be taken a bit more seriously at the higher level and the lower level. That will be a deterrent to stop the robbery of people's dogs. It is as simple as that.