Mr. Conor Dowling:

Absolutely, yes. Like I said, for every cropped dog we come across, somebody has committed an offence. That is unless it is imported but most are not. Somebody has committed an offence with regard to that dog. We have to prove who it was and what the offence was. Proving somebody has actually done it is difficult. However, if a person has been in possession of a number of pups for their whole lifetime and then their ears are cropped, it is a fair assumption that person was responsible for it. It is difficult once they are healed or have gone beyond the suffering stage, however, or if they have exchanged hands. If we come across a puppy in somebody's possession that has been cropped, for example, that person might tell us he or she bought it from the breeder like that. Even if that person names the breeder and we call the breeder, who tells us that no, the pup was sold with its ears and that the buyer must have done that, immediately, from an enforcement point of view and proving offences, we have a real problem.