This article is from page 13 of the 2014-12-23 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 13 JPG
THE CLARE county pound has been inundated in recent weeks with families “trading in” their old dog, before getting a new one for Christmas.
Over the past two years, the pound has seen an massive increase in dogs being handed or illegally dumped in the two weeks before Christmas. Many of these dogs are understood to have been been dumped by houses in order to make room for a new dog at Christmas.
Clare dog warden, Frankie Coote, is appealing to anyone who is thinking of taking on a dog this Christmas to think carefully and to remember that a god is for life.
“People getting a dog without thinking about it is a big problem, but what’s a bigger problem for us right now is people who want to get rid of their dog before Christmas – which is a new thing over the past few years.
“We are inundated with people at the moment – it’s because of the bad weather, or people are going on holidays over Christmas and they are just getting rid of dog.
“They just don’t want them,” said Frankie.
“We’ve seem this happening in the lead up to Christmas, especially the week before Christmas. Sometimes it would be people getting rid of one dog to make room for another young puppy.
“If we get in an older dog, which a family is getting rid of maybe, it can be very diff cult to re-home it. “The rescue groups are helping up but we are really strapped at the moment trying to f nd places for dogs. In the last few days as well we have three incidents of puppies being dumped.
“It might sound funny, but we are appealing to people to take a dog for Christmas. But when we say Christmas we mean for life.
“It would be a massive help for people to take on a dog, but obviously not abandon it right after Christmas.
“We would really to people not to buy a dog for other people over Christmas – without their knowledge. We get several calls directly, in the days after Christmas, with people saying that a relation or someone arrived at their house with a beautiful dog, but they don’t want it.
“It’s one think buying someone a record player or a CD without asking someone, but you can’t hang up a dog on the back of the door if you don’t want it.”
Meanwhile there was a boost to animal welfare in the county when grants of up to € 34,700 were announced for six services in Clare.
The Clare groups in receipt of payments include Clare SPCA, Newmarket on Fergus (€ 15,000); Second Chance Animal Welfare Ltd., Shannon (€ 9,800); Rover Rescue, Ennis (€ 3,600); An Cat Dubh Sanctuary, Clounlaheen East, Mullagh (€ 2,400); Burren Animal Rescue, Rockforest, Tubber (€ 2,100); and Irish Whale & Dolphin Group, Kilrush (€ 1,800).
The ex-gratia payments form part of an allocation totalling € 1,867,200 which is being distributed to 142 animal welfare bodies throughout Ireland to assist in their work during the coming year.
Welcoming the news, Clare Senator Tony Mulcahy said this year’s County Clare allocation is almost € 2,000 higher than the f gure received in late 2013 from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
“I am in no doubt that the money will be put to good use by the organisations in County Clare in providing the best possible service towards animals in their care,” commented Senator Mulcahy.
The senator also appealled to parents and others to think responsibly when considering giving a pet as a present this Christmas.