Chip use in dog breeding Bill 'vital'

WELFARE GROUPS:A COALITION of animal welfare groups has emphasised the need to retain microchipping in the dog-breeding legislation.

The groups were willing to accept concessions to allay concerns of the greyhound industry as long as these did not “compromise standards of welfare and specifically the need for microchipping pups”.

Dogs needed to be identified before they left the dog-breeding premises, said a joint statement from the Dogs Trust, the Dublin and Irish Societies for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and the Irish Blue Cross.

Negating traceability would be a “concession too far” because it would make it “impossible to regulate the industry and bring charges against offenders”, the statement said.

The Dog Breeding Establishments Bill is expected to require the microchipping of all dogs by the age of 12 weeks or before they leave the establishment.

Orla Aungier of the Dublin SPCA said the majority of dogs would be sold well before they were 12 weeks old, so the requirement to microchip them before they left the premises needed to be retained.

Microchips were the only practical way to permanently identify a dog and ensure traceability, the animal welfare groups said. Traceability would help prevent the spread of diseases and improve Irish dog breeders’ credibility, the statement added. It urged the Dáil not to dilute the integrity of the legislation and to ensure accountability remained at the core.

The Bill was necessary to ensure that Ireland would no longer be the “puppy farm capital of Europe”, the statement said.

Some 90,000 puppies are bred every year and about half of these are exported in a trade valued at €29 million, according to the animal welfare groups.

The Dog Breeding Establishments Bill is designed to regulate so-called “puppy farms”.

It provides for inspection, regulation and microchipping of animals and has been opposed by greyhound and hunting-dog breeders.

Separately, Vicas (the Veterinary Ireland Companion Animal Society) said it was impossible to identify any causal effect between microchipping and cancer.

About five million microchips have been implanted in UK pets since 1996 and there had been two reports of microchips at the site of tumours, a Vicas statement said.