Seanad debates

Wednesday, 3 February 2010

Dog Breeding Establishments Bill 2009: Second Stage (Resumed)

 

Photo of John EllisJohn Ellis (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State in the absence of the Minister. When we debate animal welfare, and this is an animal welfare Bill, we hear about extremes and serious cases of neglect. None of us wants to see animals mistreated, whether by means of neglect or poor husbandry, irrespective of the type of animal.

We are all well aware that dogs and dog breeding have been an important business as far as this country is concerned. The greyhound industry has been a major source of income to people throughout the country and has been reasonably well run and controlled. The only fear I have occasionally about the greyhound industry is what becomes of the outcasts, namely, the dogs that do not manage to make it on the track. What is done with them when they are finished with? I am aware they are sometimes re-homed or humanely put to sleep but in that regard we are also aware that there are cowboys, so to speak, operating in dog breeding and they have caused some serious problems for welfare groups, local authorities and the general community.

We are all aware of cases where people involved in dog breeding have neglected dogs. There have been a number of cases where puppy farms were found to be in a seriously bad condition, with dogs not looked after or fed. That is something none of us wants to see happen. It is hoped this Bill will introduce controls but in doing so, will we create another bureaucracy to be run by local authorities? To what extent will the authorities have to fund it because I do not see it being self-financing in many areas? It is suggested it can be self-financing but I do not believe there is any hope of that. We all are aware local authorities are stretched to maintain other services. I am not saying there should not be controls in dog breeding but there must be a cost involved, and I wonder whether local authorities will be able to carry those costs. It is suggested there would be back-up staff, up to and including veterinary surgeons, to implement this measure. This is an area that might have been added on to the remit of the current county vets who would be in a position to deal with it because they are not overly stretched looking after abattoirs throughout the country to which they are assigned. There is no need to expand the number of personnel to run the service because it is a service that could be put under the control of those people. I suggest the Minister, when he is further instructing the local authorities, should instruct them to take that course of action rather than create another post with a salary of €80,000 or €100,000 a year that cannot pay for itself, so to speak.

Litter wardens do a good job throughout the country. When they are called out to deal with particular situations, they deal with them, but the various anti-cruelty groups are deserving of a great deal of praise when it comes to dealing with certain situations. There are also some individuals who have made enormous commitments to ensure dogs are re-homed if at all possible rather than being put down, which had been the practice in many dog pounds throughout the country where dogs were put down once the prescribed number of days had passed. That was not the proper approach. Re-homing is a more positive way to deal with that problem. There is a pound in Leitrim which does a tremendous job in re-homing dogs. Some dogs are re-homed in the United Kingdom. People make considerable contributions to those groups to ensure dogs are re-homed but none of them re-home dogs unless they are assured they will be well looked after for the rest of their lives.

Dog owners have a responsibility in this regard also. Every Christmas the anti-cruelty groups remind us not to give a puppy as a Christmas present that will be dropped at the side of the road the first week of January when it becomes a nuisance in the house or fouls the house and the mother decides she no longer wants to deal with the mess any longer and the puppy is dumped. People who take in a dog must be able to look after it properly. A puppy is probably not the best Christmas present to give a child, unless they are old enough to look after the animal properly.

Dog owners have a responsibility to keep and look after their animals and to pay their licence fees. They also have a serious obligation not to allow their dogs wander. We all know that wandering dogs can create havoc for farmers because they worry sheep, cattle and horses, sometimes causing severe financial loss for a farmer. In many of these cases, the dogs are neither tagged nor microchipped. The farmer may know who owns the dog but there is no way to prove it. It should be mandatory that every dog from a breeding establishment would be microchipped so that if it gets up to any mischief, it can be traced.

Some of the terms proposed for dealing with hunts are draconian and beyond what needs to be done. A basic approach should be taken and negotiated with the various hunting organisations to ensure a compromise acceptable to everybody. If one wants legislation to work, one must ensure it is workable and those affected by it do not suffer any serious consequential loss, financially or otherwise. Nothing creates a black market except a consequential financial loss to people. I appeal to the Minister to work with the hunting organisations and the greyhound breeders to reach an agreement on how the Bill should be implemented.

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