Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 18 June 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Animal Welfare and the Control and Management of Horses: Discussion

Mr. Garrett Shine:

It is fairly standard.

Many members asked about the microchipping and horses and I know dogs were mentioned. From my experience, the mandatory microchipping of dogs has come a long way. It has been very positive and I know from our pound that we are practically reaching a 50:50 state where about 50% of dogs coming in are properly microchipped and that has been excellent because the amount of reclaims, as in dogs we are reuniting with the owners, has gone up dramatically. If the annual statistics are read each year, it will be seen that the reclaims of dogs, that is, dogs going back to their owners, is rising all the time, and that is down to the microchipping. It is highly beneficial and very good.

The flip side is that, while the overall amount of horses microchipped in the country might be about 90%, unfortunately, the vast majority of the horses we see in our pounds that have been seized under the Control of Horses Act 1996 are not properly microchipped. It is exceptionally rare to have a seized horse in that is properly microchipped with a passport and the details of that microchip which give the current owner. We are seeing that to be incredibly rare. It may be the genre of horses we are coming across and seizing but if there is a gap in microchipping, that is exactly where it is. I agree that if that could be targeted it would be beneficial because we could get to the root of the problem before it creates difficulty.

Questions were asked about the legislation and how strong it is and dogs were mentioned as well. The Control of Dogs Act 1986 is old legislation and I know the Department responsible for that is the Department of Rural and Community Development. It will be reviewed over the summer but it is working quite well. Deputy Cahill asked about coursing and what can be done and there are provisions in the Control of Dogs Act 1986 that can deal with that. I accept that if it happens out of hours-----