Last week I blogged about comments made by ISPCA Chief Executive Noel Griffin
A lot of smaller dog rescues in the country were up in arms over the comments, due to the fact they thought that the ISPCA was trying to shift the emphasis from them re their high PTS rate, to these rescues that send dogs to locations in the UK, if a suitable home can’t be found for the dogs in Ireland
The ISPCA alleged that the conditions of the vehicles etc that these dogs were sent from Ireland in were far from perfect.
Now we have the following situation
“After a period of investigation, last week ISPCA Inspector Lisa O’Donovan and the Gardai closed in on a self-styled animal rescue centre in County Cork. Twenty seven dogs of various breeds were removed from the property while three dead dogs were also found on site.”
We are all aware of the proposed Dog Breeding Establishment Bill, where dog “Breeders” in Ireland, were eventually going to be regulated, even if the proposed, and yet to be enacted bill, did not go far enough, in a lot of peoples opinion
Surely it would be in everyone’s interest if dog rescues / shelters were regulated / monitored on a more frequent basis.
A lot of people are of the opinion that there are far too many shelters / rescues in Ireland, and that if there were just a few main ones like the Dogs Trusts etc, things would run a lot more smoothly.
When anything is run on a voluntary basis, it’s hard to keep things on an even keel. I remember talking to a well respected man in the world of Dogs in Ireland, about his time spent working with a rescue in Cork, where he advised that in the end he left due to personal conflicts with some of the other members. He also advised that he had been advised that some of the dogs that were sent to the UK to be re homed sometimes found there way from the UK to some animal testing plants in Europe.
I’m sure we all think that the welfare of these dogs is paramount and that we are all singing from the same hymn sheet, but I’m sure we have all had friends in the world of dogs, that we eventually fell out with due to an un known belief or that persons actions.
I recall my time spent on a breed club committee, where it was often very difficut to get 12 members, all of whom adored the dog breed in question, to agree on certain issues pertaining to the breed.
As I’ve said on forum posts before, there is an awful lot of extremely good work carried out by some of the dog rescues around the country, but sometimes maybe the human element takes over, and it’s poor dogs like these that end up suffering.
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