Animal rescue workers ‘under pressure’ in Cork call for dog numbers to be reduced

Three animal welfare workers told The Corkman that more regulation is needed to govern breeding in Ireland and care must be taken by owners and would-be owners, so that less dogs will find themselves without a home.

Petra Stumpfova, co-founder of the north Cork-based ‘Homeless Animal Rescue Team’ (H.A.R.T), said it is time “to reduce the number of dogs to the point where we can comfortably find homes for them”.

“There’s more dogs bred than needs to be bred,” Mrs Stumpfova said. “There’s more dogs than there’s families to adopt them, or even buy them.”

Mrs Stumpfova says her group has been inundated with requests to take in unwanted dogs since it started rescuing animals over a decade ago, resulting in she and her fellow volunteers always feeling “under pressure.”

“You’re always chasing your tail,” she said. “You don’t ever have a feeling that you’re winning.”

Currently the charity, which does not own a shelter, pays €5,000 in private kennel fees each month, and many of the dogs it houses have been in its care for over a year.

Mrs Stumpfova believes large-scale breeders attempting to meet public demand for puppies should be curtailed to curb the number of dogs that become unwanted and make it easier to rehome those that do.

“I think the big puppy farmers should be completely written off because that you could just have double digits dogs that you can breed is madness, absolute and utter madness,” she says.

“The illegal puppy farms I’m not even going to go into that,” she adds. “But even the ones that are registered, that’s complete madness.”

“But it’s the demand, obviously they are doing it so there has to be money in it, because people being consumers, they will buy these puppies,” she says. “So, for as long as that’s happening this is going to be happening too.”

Mrs Stumpfova also feels that people should be more educated on “the huge responsibility” that dog ownership involves.

“If people are going to do it, do it right, make sure you can provide for this dog, make sure that you’re able to keep this dog and make sure you don’t add to the problem,” she said.

Anita Douglass has run Skibbereen Animal Rescue since founding it in 1998, and like Mrs Stumpfova, she has found her service is in constant demand as people look to get rid of their once “fluffy puppies”.

“I get dogs coming from Kerry and all over,” Mrs Douglass told The Corkman. “One guy brought two dogs down from Dublin because he couldn’t find anyone to take them.”

Mrs Douglass takes particular care when rehoming the dogs she takes in (or has left to her “in boxes” by her home), many of which have behavioural issues due to neglect or abuse, but believes it “is not humanly possible” for rescues to rehome the amount of dogs they take in.

“There’s not enough rescue centres and that’s it,” Mrs Douglass said. “There’s just not enough space for all these dogs and I’m afraid only the good [pedigree] ones get through.”

She thinks that current law (the Dog Breeding Establishments Act 2010 states that a dog breeding establishment means a premises at which bitches are kept, not less than six, which are more than six months old and capable of being used for breeding) is contributing to unsustainable dog numbers.

“It is totally legal to have five breeding bitches, you don’t have to register as a breeder unless you top the five bitches,” Mrs Douglass said.

“So, you could have five bitches and one little male dog and just keep breeding and breeding and breeding and nobody is going to say anything,” she said.

The animal welfare worker said that dogs being left unspayed by careless owners is another factor in the issue. She recently received a phone call from a man looking to get rid of three eight-month-old collie-pointer puppies, who are “running wild” with their parents on his land.

“They are chasing his cattle and his neighbour’s cattle, he hasn’t got the bitch spayed, she’s in pup again,” she said.

“Nobody cares and then they just want to dump them on the likes of us,” she said. “This is the story all the time, you know, ‘Oh we didn’t know she was in season’ or ‘We can’t afford to get them spayed.’”

Government action is needed to counter these issues according to Mrs Douglass.

“To get the bitches spayed, there needs to be a massive incentive to people, and they need to change the stupid law that you can five bitches before you have to register as a breeder,” she said.

“Less dogs definitely and stricter restrictions on breeding, the amount of bitches, and people should be fined they should get a certificate from their vet when a bitch is spayed, and they should be fined if their bitch isn’t spayed,” she said.

Also in favour of a government “clamp down” on dog breeding is, Jennifer Headlam, who has volunteered with West Cork Animal Welfare Group for over 20 years.

Mrs Headlam told The Corkman that the group are “very busy” rescuing dogs and trying to rehome them, which can be “a slow process”. She thinks much of the pressure rescue organisations like her own find themselves under is partially due to the “absolutely infuriating” attitude amongst the public towards dog ownership.

“All these people just go out and get pets without even really thinking about it,” Mrs Headlam said. “It’s just easy come and then it’s easy go when they don’t want them anymore.”

“Then they just ring their local rescue and almost expect that we should take them or certainly help them,” she said.

To counter this, she thinks dog breeding, which is happening “left, right and centre,” must be restricted so dogs won’t be readily available to careless owners and unwanted ones can be rehomed.

The volunteer claims there is “absolutely no control whatsoever” over breeding as things stand, while organisations that take in the unwanted dogs that result from this are subject to strict guidelines.

“It makes us laugh because we get a fairly small grant from the government form the department of agriculture,” Mrs Headlam said.

“They come, we have to have audited accounts, we have to have every regulation written down, explained, it took hours to get it in place this year,” she said. “They inspect the place, they ask 3,000 questions.”

“Meanwhile another department of government hands out a breeding licence to breeders, I mean you can have 500 breeding bitches if you want, there really is no limit,” she said.

Mrs Headlam believes change must “start at the top” if it is to happen.

“There should be a countrywide ban on any dog breeding for a few years to catch up with all these rescue dogs in shelters,” she said.

“If people really want a dog they can come to a shelter and get one.”