Seanad debates

Tuesday, 24 January 2023

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business

 

2:30 pm

Photo of Lynn BoylanLynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is great to see Senator Buttimer in the Chair and to see the new Leader, Senator Chambers. I wish them all the best for the coming term.

I want to raise an issue which probably will not surprise people, given it is about dog welfare. I put this down as a Commencement matter and I will appeal the decision taken because I think the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine has a role in this case. It is in the Cathaoirleach's own county. Cork County Council issued a closure order on a puppy farm in Doneraile over the Christmas month, having sent improvement notices and flagged a number of different issues with the millionaire heiress, Ms Broderick, who owns the puppy farm. It issued that closure notice in January. When the council vets inspected it, they came across 218 animals that were confined to undersized kennels in sub-zero temperatures, without any bedding or heat source. They were lying in their own faeces and, in some cases, the dogs were not groomed. They were displaying all of the behavioural signs one will see with dogs that are under stress, such as repetitive movements and eating their own faeces.

We then see those behavioural issues playing out when people bring the dogs home. They are coming out of puppy farms but they are not properly socialised, they are under stress and they are reacting. We then wonder why we have an increase in dog attacks.

This closure order was very welcome. As I said, there were 218 animals. Ms Broderick had a licence for 50 breeding bitches onsite but there were over 200 dogs when the vets inspected the site and they issued the closure order. A concern has been raised by a number of different animal welfare organisations that the notice for closure stated that it is now up to Ms Broderick to rehome or resell those animals that were onsite. It is very hard to get a closure order in that there has to be a direct threat to the life of the animal, so the bar is very high. If Cork County Council felt the bar was met in issuing that closure order, I cannot understand how it can leave those animals on the property of the person who is responsible for inflicting that harm on those animals.

I think that is an issue for the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, which is why I put in a Commencement matter. I will appeal the decision. There is an animal welfare issue here. Those animals are not safe and they are not on the property of somebody who cares about their welfare. A precedent was already set in regard to the Myshall puppy farm that closed in Carlow, where 340 dogs were seized. When that closure notice was issued, the dogs were taken and rehomed, so I would ask why Cork County Council has not seized these animals. The other question is whether it is because the pounds and shelters are completely at capacity. I was flagging in advance of Christmas, before the Christmas dogs are due to start arriving at the pounds and shelters, that they are already over capacity. Those dogs need to be taken out of that premises.

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