This article is from page 8 of the 2013-11-19 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 8 JPG
THERE are almost half the number of dogs entering the pound now as there was five years ago, and significantly less being put down thanks to voluntary re-homing schemes, an organised dog spaying system in the county and the use of social media.
That is according to Clare dog warden Frankie Coote, who said that approximately 1,200 dogs went through the pound last year compared to more than 2,000 half a decade ago.
He said Ennis dog pound gets a lot of help from a number of animal charities such as Rover Rescue in Ennis and Mandy Ellis in Kilkee who have taken hundreds of dogs between them to be re-housed abroad, usually Britain.
Shena Twist from North Clare has also taken dogs and re-housed them at home and abroad as well as providing the ISPAC with advice on donkeys and horses.
“If we lose their help we would go back to the bad old times,” he said.
He added that the local ISPCA have also re-housed dogs through a Facebook drive.
“It is very important to realise that not every dog that comes into Ennis Dog Pound is re-houseable,” he said.
He said that some dogs that come to the pound do so because they are very old and their owners have no way of disposing of them.
“There are approximately 100 dogs every year that are dangerous. They would have attacked livestock or people.
“We also find dogs on a regular basis that we have no history for so it would be very hard to put them in homes when we don’t know how they react with children for example.”
Mr Coote said that the ISPCA does not deal with horses and the control of horses is overseen by Clare County Council and the Gardaí.