Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)

This amendment would protect the rights of the owner. The Minister of State made assumptions in his response, which is not always best practice legally. Significant issues arose in the recent past related to the seizure of animals and the right of people to enter premises. That is why the rights of owners should be particularly well protected in the legislation. I accept that if banned drugs are present, it would not be reasonable or practical to return the animals to the owner but where there are no grounds for suspecting ill treatment of the animal, it would make sense that the owner would be informed and the animal returned. It is important primarily from the point of view of protecting the rights of the owner of the animal.

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