New dog laws coming into place in Northern Ireland

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GinaB

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Apparently 1/3 of the UKs stray dogs are in Northern Ireland and 7000 are picked up by the dog warden annually.

To help combat this they are increasing the license fee from £5 to £50 and microchipping is going to become compulsory. They hope to bring this into effect in June 2010.

More can be read here...
 
Oh great, so those of us who already pay £5 per dog per year are now going to be stung £50 even though we are the responsible dog owners, and all the others won't bother with a licence anyway just like now
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For those who don't know, in NI we still have to have a dog licence and the dogs wear a coloured tag on their collars with a number on them - quite a lot of people simply don't bother
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Seems quite unfair to penalise the responsible dog owners!

Why not fine dog owners without a license or have a hefty release fee at the kennels if your dog does not have a microchip/license instead?
 
Initially thought this sounded great but of course people who didn't buy a licence at £5 sure as hell won't buy one for £50, so pretty pointless unless it's enforced.
 
I have been talking about this with my sister who works for DARD and she said these laws have NOT been okayed to come into effect next year. In fact, they are only in consultation stage, but the media have caugt wind and just ran with it!
 
I heard Michelle Gildernew (the Agriculture Minister) being interviewed on Thursday morning, she said that pensioners & those on low incomes won't have to pay anything. Also neutered dogs will receive a 50% discount.

The yobbos on the Donegall Rd with the 'pit bull type' dogs still won't get one though, it will be the normal law abiding dog lover walking their dog in Tollymore who will be pulled in and fined though.

Fiona
 
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