Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein)
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I thank all our guests for their very detailed submissions. The first issue I wish to raise involves dog breeding establishments, DBEs. This committee produced an animal welfare report while the DSPCA recently called for the DBE regulations and legislation to go to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Do Mr. Geraghty and Mr. Ryan support that being in the one Department? It would also make inspections easier. We would prefer to see independent inspectors. I have gone through the control of dogs annual statistics. It is amazing that it is 2023 and we still do have a digital statistic report. Will this happen? When you try to compare each year and each local authority, there are disparities across the country and it is a postcode lottery as to whether local authorities are carrying out regular inspections of these DBEs. There seems to be some consistency in some local authorities. It is when they apply for a new licence or to renew an existing one that the inspection happens. I would like to see an independent inspectorate - preferably through the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine - so the bar is the same regardless of where you are in the country and the inspector is independent of the local authority and uses the same consistent standards. I would like to hear the witnesses' feedback on that.

I do not mean to be rude but I wish to raise concerns about the better socialisation we have. It is probably better than what we had before we brought in the DBE legislation but a ratio of 1:25 is insane. It is insane to think that one person can look after 25 breeding bitches, and this does not include their pups. The shelters have a ratio of one person to six dogs regardless of the age of the dogs. I know we are here today to talk about dangerous dogs and sheep worrying. One thing that keeps getting said involves poorly socialised dogs that are not being handled. We heard previously from a dog behavioural expert but even the shelters will say that dogs are being surrendered at pounds because they have poor behaviour and resource guarding - all those behavioural issues that are red flags. Equally, if people cannot surrender their dogs, the dogs might be just abandoned and then go on to cause problems, particularly in rural areas. What analysis is being done on the impact of mass producing dogs with inbreeding, poor socialisation and the consequent impact on dog attacks?

I am heartened that there will be a deeper dive into some of the statistics. We hear anecdotally from shelters why people are surrendering dogs but there should be a more scientific approach to that. We should be collecting this data so we can see what percentage of dogs are being surrendered because of the housing crisis, because landlords will not allow tenants to keep them, people have fears because their dogs are on the list of dangerous breeds or are manifesting unwanted behaviours, or their dogs are old and owners have medical bills. Is any analysis of this taking place? Why are dogs being surrendered and for what reasons?

The behavioural expert who appeared before us previously spoke about the importance of responsible dog ownership, training for people who want to get dogs, how it is far too easy in this country to get a dog and how people will go to a shelter and because the shelter does due diligence, if they are not happy with that or do not meet the bar, they go and get a dog from an online advert. What are the witnesses' views about having some sort of mandatory training for people in addition to an education programme? In the North, if someone wants to get an exotic pet, he or she must have training and be able to demonstrate he or she knows how to look after an exotic pet. If they can do it for exotic pets, why can we not have something similar for dogs - even if it is just for certain breeds?