Puppy farm legislation just published

Our man in Havana

http://www.oireachtas.ie/viewdoc.asp?DocID=13826&&CatID=59

Dog Breeding Establishments Bill 2009 [Seanad]

Bill entitled an Act to regulate the operation of dog breeding establishments; to require local authorities to establish and maintain registers of dog breeding establishments; to prohibit the operation of unregistered dog breeding establishments; to amend the control of dogs act 1986; and to provide for matters connected therewith.

The bill can be downloaded and read here.

FAYESY

About blooming time! Lets hope that this stops the unscrupulous uncontrolled breeding of dogs!

Discodog

It should be noted that there are still some potential problems. There appears to be no definition of what constitutes suitable welfare standards. Hopefully they will use the proposed new standards in the AWB.

The legislation only applies to keepers of more than 6 bitches but there must be a gap of 12 months between individual litters & each bitch can only be bred a total of 6 times.

There may be some confusion regarding microchipping. The act mentions that all dogs must be chipped but it's not clear if that will include pups.

The dog license increases to €20 but it is disappointing to see no exemption for rescues & the general license is up to €400.

Another concern is that as the act will be applied by Local Authorities there may be regional variations.

It is extremely important that this act & the AWB are pushed through before the Greens are wiped out in an election as none of the other parties have shown any interest.

lrushe

Brilliant, its a long time coming!!!:)

Our man in Havana

Remember this is the first draft. It will be subject to amendments when it reaches committee stage. Hopefully they will make some decent amendments to take into account what is going on in the real world.

There is nothing in the bill that defines a rescue. That should be addressed along with exempting them from the dog licence.

ISDW

At long last, something will be done, brilliant.

I hope they do change the General Licence, thats a big hike from €253 to €400.

Discodog

The definition of a rescue is not a problem. All the rescues that receive a grant have been through a vetting process. It is pointless to give a grant & then take back €400 for a license. Once a rescue qualifies for a grant then it should be immune from license fees & Pound fees.

dublindogcare

well a step in the right direction anyway...along time coming eh?

EGAR

I think rescues should be authorised to sell dog licences, i.e. if you adopt a dog from me, you must also get the dog licence from me. A percentage of that will go to the rescue, the rest to the authorities. Although it is in my rehoming contract that adopters must purchase a dog licence for the dog - I have no way of checking if they did unless I ask for a copy at the aftercheck.

Rescue should be excempt from licences and local authorities should put more emphasis on rescues than on pounds. We do ALOT of dogwarden work by taking in strays over the holidays/weekends when they are not working.

Discodog

We need a national license/microchip database. Either the Councils have to be made to submit details to a national database or someone else has to issue licenses.

At the moment we have huge regional variations in the numbers of dogs being killed. We also have big variations in the enforcement of dog licenses. Last year 4 Councils did not make one prosecution for non licenses.

Our man in Havana

The lack of enforcement is what needs to be addressed. I have never heard of anyone getting prosecuted for not licensing a dog.

I do agree that accredited rescues should issue licences. There are excellent rescues that do not get a penny from the government, so granting accreditation solely on the basis of receiving a grant would not be fair.

Discodog

It won't be fair but it is one way of accreditation as rescues that are in receipt of a grant have been vetted. The Local Authorities will oppose any license exemptions & Pound fee exemptions. The key is to find a system where rescuers & fosterers do not have to pay for licenses.

I think it extremely unlikely that rescues will be allowed to issue licenses. Enforcement varies a lot by area & you are more likely to get a visit from the warden if you have had a license ie you are on the database.

Our man in Havana

The only enforcement I see is where the warden is called out due to a complaint. I have never encountered mass checks of licences.

I wonder what % of dogs are licensed?

ISDW

Bond-007 wrote: »

The lack of enforcement is what needs to be addressed. I have never heard of anyone getting prosecuted for not licensing a dog.

I do agree that accredited rescues should issue licences. There are excellent rescues that do not get a penny from the government, so granting accreditation solely on the basis of receiving a grant would not be fair.

Do you not listen to Live Line?:D About a month ago there was a man in Louth that went to prison for a few hours because he didn't have a dog licence. Obviously the story was slightly more complicated than that, which became apparent as the programme went on. He didn't have a licence and didn't answer a letter, didn't turn up in court, so the Guards arrested him etc. He was taken to Mountjoy, but they let him go after a few hours because they said he didn't deserve to be there:rolleyes:

Discodog

Bond-007 wrote: »

The only enforcement I see is where the warden is called out due to a complaint. I have never encountered mass checks of licences.
I wonder what % of dogs are licensed?

The problem is that, whilst we know the number of licenses, I have never found a reliable estimate of the total dog population in Ireland - if anyone finds any figures please post or PM me.

The number of licenses issued in 2008 were as follows:
Individual licenses 214,724
General licenses 466

Regarding enforcement:

There were 3867 on the spot fines issued of which 2284 were paid.
There were 462 prosecutions & 153 convictions


There is a huge regional variation.