UP TO 45,000 dogs from unregulated Irish puppy farms are being exported to the UK annually, a coalition of veterinary and animal welfare organisations said yesterday.
The groups made the claim as they issued a joint statement in support of the proposed Dog Breeding Bill yesterday. They said Ireland had become the “puppy farm capital of Europe” and the unregistered and unregulated actions of unscrupulous breeders were driven by profit in an export trade worth €20 million.
Dogs, they said, were being produced in dreadful welfare conditions and because of the recession there was now overbreeding due to unsold puppies being bred.
British breeders who had been banned from the trade were moving into the State to take advantage of the lack of regulation here.
The coalition is made up of Vicas (Veterinary Ireland Companion Animal Society), the Irish Kennel Club, the Dogs Trust, Dublin SPCA, ISPCA and the Irish Blue Cross. Its purpose, said Pete Wedderburn of Vicas, was to correct misunderstandings about the Bill, which was well-considered and was about animal welfare, not anti-hunting.
“There have been suggestions that the legislation is somehow part of some larger, anti-countryside conspiracy. This is clearly not the case: animal welfare and stamping out animal cruelty are the central aims of the legislation,” said the joint statement.
Barbara Bent of the ISPCA said no one knew exactly how many puppy farms were operating here but the best estimate was about 250. Dogs were moved by ferry and there was no supervision of them. She knew of one farm where there were 250 dogs being cared for by just two people.
Mark Beazley of Dogs Trust said he was aware of one farm where there were 600 dogs but no one could gain access to it.
Seán Delmar of the Irish Kennel Club said its members insisted on dogs having proper papers and microchip identification, something which was being resisted by puppy farm operators.