Live95 Limerick Today Podcasts
Calls for a clamp down on puppy farming
Dog Advocacy Ireland's John O'Callaghan and Dr Cyril Sullivan from the ISPCA join Joe to discuss the recent rise in cases of "puppy farming" and the steps that need to be taken to eliminate these institutions.
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- Broadcast on:
- 20 Sep 2024
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- other
(upbeat music) - Your views, your news, your limerick today with Jonette on live 95. (upbeat music) - Well, you've heard of poppy farms where dogs are bred over and over to produce as many poppies for sale as possible. John O'Callaghan from Dogs Advocacy Island is with me now as is Dr. Cyril Sullivan from the ISPCA and you are both very welcome. Jon, I know you have advocated in this area for a long time. Are we making any progress in the country when it comes to poppy farms in your view? - Good morning, Jon. Thank you for having me on. I'm afraid not, it's actually getting worse. And it stems from the sources really, Joe, if you don't mind me saying, dog stroke animal welfare protection is really badly managed by government and all local authorities. Thus, responsibility is to run across three government departments that's agriculture, the Department of Rural and Community Development and the local government, which means everybody's responsible and nobody's responsible, which absolutely leads to chaos. They're contributing hugely to the proliferation of poppy farms in this country, which is causing major, major problems, poor poppies being bred in atrocious conditions. And there is no governance structure in place. There are no inspections taking place. So it's a free for all. - Right, so, Sullivan, do you agree with John O'Callaghan on that? - Yeah, and good morning, Joe, good morning, Jon. Yeah, so I suppose, to large defense, there is an element, a significant element of what John is saying is to incense that local party system is, whatever number of local parties across the country, it's not standardized. So you'll have, a county veteran would be very vested in DBE legislation and then you'll have a level that's not. So what you find in the consistency across the system in terms of the governance, as John says, you have the Department of the RCD, Rural and Community Development and they're responsible for this legislation. However, we report in the ISPCA, we operate under the animal health and malefract, rather than the dog breeder's salvation act. And we report department agriculture. So you have two different departments involved. And we have to sort of bridge both of them in terms of this operating dog breeder's subject. So there's a certain element to treat in it, but I would say in defense, like the local parties do their best in what they do. But unfortunately, it's not resourced and it's national priority for them. So it's a lot of what John is saying is true. It's not something that is turning out working at the moment. The folks with the local party system, the department of Excel Police on the ban coming in and restricted breeds. It's a piece of legislation that has been cut by. - And can I ask you, Cyril, and just your line is waving and out, we can get the phone a bit closer to yourself. That would be fantastic. Is it the case that Ireland is, unfortunately, one of the big countries for poppy farms? - Yeah, and I think John has made that point. And I think I have to agree with this. It's a case that there's millions to be made through breeding of dogs in Ireland. Some of them are legal and compliant. And just to make sure, 'cause we're in the center of this, we actually have our centers and our inspectors. And we have the follow-up of this if it doesn't work. But the, in terms of the legislation, in terms of the operation of it's a case that's, there's a lot of work to do to develop it. Just to go back to your question again, Joe, what was that? - No, no, I'm just asking that very question. Are we particularly bad when it comes to poppy farms? And you were saying that we are, yes. Cyril Sullivan from the ISPCA is with us, as is John O'Callan from Dog's Advocacy Ireland. Now, John, we did get on to our local council, Limerick City and County Council about this. And they say under a Section 81 agreement, Limerick City and County Council takes up the services of the two veterinary officers at Kerry County Council, this type of sharing of resources is common between local authorities. They also say that from January, the functions of local authority vet officers in relation to food safety controls will move to the Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine. It's envisaged that local authority veterinary officers will also transfer to the department. And in relation to dog breeding establishments, all dog breeding establishments in Limerick are inspected by Limerick Council dog wardens to ensure compliance with regulatory standards and vet officers are brought in to inspect any dog breeding establishment that falls short of meeting these standards. So what's your reaction to that? - I'm afraid I'm not wholly taken in by that statement, but it's partly true, Joe, but for the authorities. - Let me ask you this question. What is it if it is true in your view? - Well, first of all, let me just go back. Ireland, without a shadow of doubt, is poppy farm capital of Europe, okay? There are 31 local authorities in this country. All local authorities issue these dog breeding establishment licenses, and there lies the problem. There is no governance structure in place and there are no inspections taking place. Like dog wardens, and you know, I don't have to-- - The statement is very clear from the council. I mean, they say in relation to dog breeding establishments, all dog breeding establishments in the metric are inspected annually by the council dog wardens to ensure compliance with regulatory standards. - Well, I've asked the county council to produce reports of inspections of what I call poppy farms are the title of dog breeding establishments over a five-year period that haven't been able to do so. - Would you ask for that under freedom of information? - No, I didn't go through the freedom of information, but if it's so well inspected as the statement says, well, then there should be no difficulty in producing a report. - Right, and from the ISPCA's point of view, Cyril, you know, what more can you do do you feel in this specific area of poppy farms? - And just to sort of go back on that point, we, I know for a fact that there are inspections taking place, it's just us, and I take, you know, that John has a point that, you know, obviously more resources to get put on, more resources to get enforcement. I wrote to the minister, myself, on this matter, and I highlighted a number of issues. So I suppose for an ISPCA point of view, this is what we'd like to see happen. You know, we need the 2010 Act, but there was a 2018 set of guidelines, and the guidelines really are how you must operate, but they're guidelines rather than legislation. So we want to ask, you know, things like number of staffs, the dog race, you know, number of animals on the side. Your line, unfortunately, is not like a whispering there, no? - Sorry, can you hear me now? - Yeah, a bit better, yeah. - Yeah, so we're just saying that we want those guidelines to be mandatory. We want a maximum cap and then over dogs in each one of the DBEs, because they can't be any number, and we want to sort of cap to keep reading dogs, staff ratios. We need a sort of a learner of novice permits for anybody who's made an application so that they are approved as a breeder, rather than just somebody deciding, yes, I couldn't do it today, I have 100 dogs, you know. DBE to flight is three or more female dogs, you know, because at the moment it's six, which means if you keep it at five, you can sell those dogs and not have to comply with any legislation. - Right, so I suppose the obvious question to ask then, Sarah, sorry, Sarah, if somebody, Sarah, is listening this morning and is thinking of buying a puppy, I mean, what's the best way to go about it briefly now? - Well, from a breeder point of view, you know, obviously, you know, they're quite breeder, they're in a good group to this breeder. I would suggest that you make sure you meet the breeder on their site and you get to see their establishment, because if you are buying a dog and you'll find that a lot of people will find, oh, I'll beat you and I'll come to dog over, don't. You know, make sure that you get to see the breeders establishment and see how they operate. That would be the key, because I think once you have, that's credibility piece and you can see how they manage, I think it would take a lot of pressure off the owner. And then after that, you know, make sure that they, if they have a large establishment, you can check in the office, it's hard to register to see if they're registered. I'm not there, they're doing their best to be compliant. So they're the key pieces of information from us. Obviously, from a nice PCA point of view, we have nearly 200 dogs in size. We would encourage people to adopt, don't shop. Everything is going to be well managed from our point of view. I'll make sure that you're in support. You also have a whole pile of benefits in terms of fostering without having to buy, because you buy from breeder, you can't be able to go back. So there's a whole pile of benefits of that, but I see you don't want to hear that. Okay, well, no, no, I mean, that's important, I think, to say. So ISPCA, go to the website, and you can find out more about all of that, is what you're saying. All right. Thank you very much for that. And thank you for talking to us this morning. That's Dr. Cyril Sullivan from the ISPCA. And John O'Callaghan from Dog's Advocacy, Ireland. - Your views, your news, your limerick today, with Jonet on Live 95. (upbeat music) [Music]