Surrendered Dublin dogs are being rehomed in Sweden and Italy

Dogs from Dublin are being sent as far afield as Sweden and Italy in efforts to rehome animals following the removal of Covid-19 restrictions and the closure of Ashton dog pound.

Almost 1,000 dogs have been delivered to the new Dublin county and city dog shelters over the last year following the closure of the Dublin 15 pound, which had been providing animal shelter services to Dublin’s local authorities.

Ashton closed last year after gardaí opened an investigation in relation to animal welfare issues at the facility. A number of individuals are before the courts. The Workplace Relations Commission earlier this month ordered the former pound to pay €18,000 in compensation to a dog warden who it found was subjected to retaliation for raising concerns about alleged animal abuse.

The closure of the pound has coincided with an exceptionally busy period for animal welfare services and charities. The advent of the Covid-19 pandemic saw a surge in pet ownership with many dog rehoming facilities opening waiting lists for animals due to the level of demand.

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However, the lifting of movement restrictions and the return to workplaces has seen an increase in people surrendering their dogs to animal shelters, with organisations reporting an increase in unwanted animals, particularly larger and older dogs.

The new Dublin County Dog Shelter, at Hollygrove near Newcastle, has been looking after dogs on behalf of the South Dublin, Fingal and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council for the past year. It has taken in more than 750 dogs in its first year of operations and has managed to find homes for about 600.

“The rehoming rate is great – the reclaiming rate could be better but there’s not much we can do about that,” Emily Nash assistant shelter manager said.

When stray dogs are brought to the facility by wardens every effort is made to identify the owners, she said, with particular attention paid to social media posts for lost pets. However, she said some owners often owners do not want to be found.

In almost all cases the shelter will find new homes for the dogs, or transfer them to animal rescue charities. The shelter has had to euthanise just six animals over the last year, mostly for medical reasons.

“We work with quite a lot of rescues,” she said. “They usually help us with dogs that are harder to rehome due to behavioural issues or medical issues. Ever since Covid the rescues are extremely full and can’t take as many dogs as they would like, but the dogs they do take they find great homes for and we are very grateful.”

Dublin dogs have been rehomed across Ireland, and even further afield, she said.

“We have rehomed dogs as far as Dingle and Achill Island. We get lovely updates from owners with photos we share on social media,” she said. “We have even sent dogs to Sweden and Italy, where it is harder to get a dog as they don’t have stray dogs over there due to having stricter laws. We get lots of photos from them and it is great to see them enjoying their new homes.”

Dublin City Council has operated a separate facility at Hollygrove on a temporary basis since the closure of Ashton, but plans to develop a new shelter, said Fianna Fáil councillor Deirdre Heney, who chairs the council’s animal welfare oversight committee.

“Dublin City Council is aiming to have our own municipal dog shelter somewhere closer to the city,” she said.

The animal welfare unit remained concerned about the mistreatment of dogs both through illegal dog breeding establishments and neglect by owners.

“We want to make sure that animals are not abused in our city, and that we don’t have dogs being left to roam, dogs not being looked after and dogs straying.”

The council had achieved considerable success in rehoming dogs since the start of this year, she said.

“To date this year we’ve had 226 dogs in our shelter, 126 of them sent to charities and 75 of them returned to their owners, and a huge number of dog licences have been issued. It’s a very positive story in terms of animal welfare in the city council region and we hope to lead by example.”

A spokeswoman for the city council said it would be issuing a fresh tender for dog shelter services in the middle of next year.

The county dog shelter has some 35 dogs seeking homes and can be contacted through the Dublin County Dog Shelter Facebook page.

“We would like to remind people that when you adopt a dog, it needs time to settle in and that they are not going to be this perfect dog overnight. It takes time and training,” Ms Nash said.

“Most of the time they go from being in a home to on the street, to then being in a van on the way to the shelter, being in the shelter a few days, weeks or months, to a new home. It can be a very confusing time for a dog.”