Bad day for Irish welfare.Fuming reading this

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Aru

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ISPCA CEO released a statement here.
Absolute disgrace what he said and is coming across as ignorant to dog breeding and uncaring to dog.
Im sitting here reading it and a thread on an irish forum(boards.ie) about im absolutely fuming!

Cant send sunday times link as its subscriber only but..From today's Sunday Times:

"Noel Griffin, the ISPCA's chief executive said that his group's put to sleep figures were higher than other pounds because it does not give dogs to other welfare groups to rehome in Britain. He questioned how other Irish animal-welfare groups were managing to find homes for dogs that he said were of "no value" & "not the prettiest".

"The exporting of dogs to the UK improves the statistics but I would question where these dogs are going" said Griffin.

Griffin questioned why rescue groups in Britain, who accept Irish strays were taking "a load of old mongrels". "With all due respect to the little dogs they are not the prettiest so what is the attraction ?. Why would someone take five or six dogs to England ?. These are not thoroughbreds that have a value. When a dog has no value I think animal welfare goes out the window".

Griffin said that the ISPCA did not give unwanted dogs to charities like the Dog's Trust".

Firstly the ISPCA pounds put down more dogs than any other.Then he infers that rescues sending dogs to england unreliable???!because no one would want crossbreeds and older dogs!
His very mentality is horrific considering he's the head of the main fecking welfare organisation in the country!!

To imply that sending dogs to england to be rehomed is worse than PTS..wtf? most rescues do keep track of their dogs.I have yet to come across horror storys of a dodgy rescue that eports to england because there are more costs involved before the dogs can be moved....plus to suggest that crossbreds are not as good as pedigrees *head desk moment..sigh
Its a supply and demand thing.There arent as many strays in the UK as many people neuter your pets and more people seem to rehome dogs!
Here we have hugh problems with irresponsible dog owners and dog breeding plus rehoming isnt as common......but thats a whole other issue.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/most-dogs-rescued-by-ispca-destroyed-2622180.html

pitiful retraction that ISPCA released after...
http://www.ispca.ie/news_detail.aspx?footer=1&news_id=358

Im sorry its such a ranty most.Im just so very pissed off right now. :(

also sorry about no doubt horrific spelling and grammer.il try to edit after lecture.
 
I think I may have interpretted what he has said here differently to you. Essentially I think he's questioning the logic of sending dogs to Britain for re-homing that may well stand little chance of being re-homed - due to their age or 'window' appeal. I suspect he says this from a position of understanding that we too have a re-homing crisis - with only the luckiest of dog finding a new, permanent home.

He also states in the Independent article that he knows for a fact that dogs are being exported in appalling conditions to the UK. And that the agencies involved could not honestly say they knew where the animals ended up.

Clearly the agencies should know where the dogs are ending up and clearly dogs not fit to travel should not be exported. Both points are extremely valid.

I think he's also comming from a position of practicality rather than emotion, which as a Chief Executive is vital, imo.
 
I'm kind of with Amymay here, thought do think the CEOs choice of wording is poor.
I don't know about there not being so many strays in the UK , I think most of the rescue kennels here would dispute this. I do wonder sometimes why Irish dogs are sent over here, just more disruption in the poor creatures lives. I am not a fan of the approach some rescues over here have of keeping dogs alive no matter what, sometimes a quick peaceful end is for the best.
I do understand that there is a huge problem with strays, and irresponsbile breeding in Ireland, and do not really have any answers.
 
I agree with him to an extent. There's too many English rescues being PTS as they aren't rehomed... Why ship over Irish dogs for the same fate, just 6 months later than in Ireland...
 
Part of the reasoning behind why Irish rescues are shipped over is pure logistics...ie the population of UK is I don't know how many times bigger than Ireland so a dog does have greater odds of being rehomed due to sheer volume of homes available This does not make it right but in terms of numbers it does sound logical. TBH though I do not feel all the blame can by laid at Ireland's door...the UK rescues do take these animals when they could say no. And not all dogs are transported in bad conditions....similiar to all animals there are good & bad in all these situations. There are Irish people adopting dogs every day of the week but as a nation we are simply not big enough in terms of population. I am not saying there is no welfare issues here, there is but its not like we are randomly just shipping our problems across the sea.
 
I don't see where it's implied that their fate is worse if sent to England?

What I don't understand is the charities here collecting them, Many Tears being the big one I'm thinking of. The rescues here are overflowing so I don't understand the logic of going out to get yet more.

It's horrific, but I sort of disagree with the fetching over of 'excess'. Ooh, sound like a right cow, but I reckon we should concentrate on sorting out welfare issues here before we take on the rest of the world's.
 
It's a toughie. Why would the government and agencies really work hard on an anti-indiscriminate-breeding campaign/rehoming publicity blitz/education programme, when they can ship them off to England?
I hate the idea that there are dogs over there suffering because an Irish dog has taken their space, if that makes any sense.
I do think we should sort our own back yard out first personally.
 
I think I may have phrased my initial response poorly.

The main point I was trying to convey was my anger at the fact that the CPO of the main welfare group in Ireland could not understand why people would want to rehome non "thoroughbred" therefore no value, and not the prettiest dogs....and that the fact that people were going to the trouble of taking them out of pounds and even across the water was a bad thing?

He claims appalling conditions of travel bth im finding that accusation very hard to comprehend.To travel on a ferry certain conditions must be met thats true but the dogs are no more forced to travel in appalling conditions than someones pet.
Plus I've seen a van that one of the most underfunded rescue uses to transport dogs...it was fine and judging on other people's comments on the rescue the dogs are taken out exercised,water etc en-route.

Yes it isn't ideal that we send our dogs to the UK and I agree that we should be ashamed of the welfare system over here that has led to that and that so much more needs to be done.Its true shipping to England isn't the answer to the dog problem over here.It never will be.But it gives a lot of healthy rehomeable dogs a second chance at life.

Education,a hugh increase in neutering and a clamp down on the breeding of dogs is seriously needed.But at the minute that is still a far away concept particularly with the economy being the governments main focus at the minue.

But the fact is our main welfare agency is the ISPCA! and they are working centres that are killing dogs.They dont have an active encouragement to neuter program. The Dogs trust,a Uk based charity run that over here!

However back to point the CEOs comments was in relation to him trying to justify why the animal welfare organisation, ISPCA run pounds had overall much higher kill rates than any of the others run by other organisations across the country...its odd is it not that the

I mean these ISPCA pounds put down 3 in 5 dogs they rescue....they justify the amount that they put down compared to the other pounds by saying it is due to other pounds handing out to rescue's who ship dogs to the uk


In another interview he claims dogs sent to England they may potentially end up in labs and dog fighting.
The fact that he gives a lab's as an example is clear that he's talking absolute BS. Laboratory animals are often bred in house and those bought in must be from a licensed supplier.
Uk rescues do tend to home check so Im not seeing how the dog fighting comment can be justified.

He also tarnishes the Rescue dog to rehome notion by saying pound dogs are sheep chasers, aggressive or strays of unknown status...and saying that after the other two first implies dangerous,not just unlucky to have crap owners.Oh and that collies should not be rehomed to urban areas....
Basically he's painting the dogs his organisation deals with every day as dogs that should not be saved....and that worries me!

Thats a mentality that is strong enough already over here when it comes to rescues.He should be encouraging dog rehoming to reduce their kill numbers but in none of the interviews I've heard so far has he ever even tried to do that.
His overall attitude of that the pound dogs, non pretty or older dogs are worthless was very concerning given the charity body he is ment to be representing.

It can see he has good points that sometimes other pounds are not responsible in who they rehome to but that again doesn't show why the charity pounds are so poor when it comes to saving dogs lives.I simply dont believe that all of the 85 percent of dogs who ended up in the donegal pound in 2009 were unrehomeable.

Its the general attitude.I know hes a former banker brought in to improve finances, but still you would hope that the CEO of a charity would be more knowledgeable and proactive about rehoming the dogs he is representing
these are the stats on the numbers of dogs PTS in ISPCA pounds in 2009.

Donegal 638
Roscommon 198
Kildare 186
Offaly 300
Laois 182
Kilkenny 172
Carlow 134
Clare 518
Wicklow 51

TOTAL 2379 dogs from ISPCA pounds put down in 2009.


The pounds statistics in percentages.

http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/2782/005je.jpg

If you look at the donegal.85 percent of dogs were PTS
The ISPCA are the dominant animal welfare charity in Donegal.So dogs that enter the pound unless picked up by their owner have very little hope of getting out alive.In other parts with the low figures you see they are close to cities and in many cases very active charities who are clearly working from the pounds!

Leitrim one of the nearest pound's to donegal has a 2 percent kill rate.In the year in question that ment 9 dogs were pts.
Mayo 39, Sligo 23..these pounds are run by other sources that the ISPCA.

Roscommon also in the same west north west area is at 80 percent..ISPCA run.

So the dogs chances of survival in the west are significantly less when they go to the ISPCA,a charity based on animal welfare,run pound.
There is something terribly wrong with that.
Personally I wonder how far the CEO's apparent attitude of worthless pound dogs stems down the line to whoever is running the high kill count pounds.
 
I think I may have phrased my initial response poorly.

The main point I was trying to convey was my anger at the fact that the CPO of the main welfare group in Ireland could not understand why people would want to rehome non "thoroughbred" therefore no value, and not the prettiest dogs....and that the fact that people were going to the trouble of taking them out of pounds and even across the water was a bad thing?

He claims appalling conditions of travel bth im finding that accusation very hard to comprehend.To travel on a ferry certain conditions must be met thats true but the dogs are no more forced to travel in appalling conditions than someones pet.
Plus I've seen a van that one of the most underfunded rescue uses to transport dogs...it was fine and judging on other people's comments on the rescue the dogs are taken out exercised,water etc en-route.

Yes it isn't ideal that we send our dogs to the UK and I agree that we should be ashamed of the welfare system over here that has led to that and that so much more needs to be done.Its true shipping to England isn't the answer to the dog problem over here.It never will be.But it gives a lot of healthy rehomeable dogs a second chance at life.

Education,a hugh increase in neutering and a clamp down on the breeding of dogs is seriously needed.But at the minute that is still a far away concept particularly with the economy being the governments main focus at the minue.

But the fact is our main welfare agency is the ISPCA! and they are working centres that are killing dogs.They dont have an active encouragement to neuter program. The Dogs trust,a Uk based charity run that over here!

However back to point the CEOs comments was in relation to him trying to justify why the animal welfare organisation, ISPCA run pounds had overall much higher kill rates than any of the others run by other organisations across the country...its odd is it not that the

I mean these ISPCA pounds put down 3 in 5 dogs they rescue....they justify the amount that they put down compared to the other pounds by saying it is due to other pounds handing out to rescue's who ship dogs to the uk


In another interview he claims dogs sent to England they may potentially end up in labs and dog fighting.
The fact that he gives a lab's as an example is clear that he's talking absolute BS. Laboratory animals are often bred in house and those bought in must be from a licensed supplier.
Uk rescues do tend to home check so Im not seeing how the dog fighting comment can be justified.

He also tarnishes the Rescue dog to rehome notion by saying pound dogs are sheep chasers, aggressive or strays of unknown status...and saying that after the other two first implies dangerous,not just unlucky to have crap owners.Oh and that collies should not be rehomed to urban areas....
Basically he's painting the dogs his organisation deals with every day as dogs that should not be saved....and that worries me!

Thats a mentality that is strong enough already over here when it comes to rescues.He should be encouraging dog rehoming to reduce their kill numbers but in none of the interviews I've heard so far has he ever even tried to do that.
His overall attitude of that the pound dogs, non pretty or older dogs are worthless was very concerning given the charity body he is ment to be representing.

It can see he has good points that sometimes other pounds are not responsible in who they rehome to but that again doesn't show why the charity pounds are so poor when it comes to saving dogs lives.I simply dont believe that all of the 85 percent of dogs who ended up in the donegal pound in 2009 were unrehomeable.

Its the general attitude.I know hes a former banker brought in to improve finances, but still you would hope that the CEO of a charity would be more knowledgeable and proactive about rehoming the dogs he is representing
these are the stats on the numbers of dogs PTS in ISPCA pounds in 2009.

Donegal 638
Roscommon 198
Kildare 186
Offaly 300
Laois 182
Kilkenny 172
Carlow 134
Clare 518
Wicklow 51

TOTAL 2379 dogs from ISPCA pounds put down in 2009.


The pounds statistics in percentages.

http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/2782/005je.jpg

If you look at the donegal.85 percent of dogs were PTS
The ISPCA are the dominant animal welfare charity in Donegal.So dogs that enter the pound unless picked up by their owner have very little hope of getting out alive.In other parts with the low figures you see they are close to cities and in many cases very active charities who are clearly working from the pounds!

Leitrim one of the nearest pound's to donegal has a 2 percent kill rate.In the year in question that ment 9 dogs were pts.
Mayo 39, Sligo 23..these pounds are run by other sources that the ISPCA.

Roscommon also in the same west north west area is at 80 percent..ISPCA run.

So the dogs chances of survival in the west are significantly less when they go to the ISPCA,a charity based on animal welfare,run pound.
There is something terribly wrong with that.
Personally I wonder how far the CEO's apparent attitude of worthless pound dogs stems down the line to whoever is running the high kill count pounds.
 
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