Celebs turn out in force for pet project

BERTIE AHERN was behaving yesterday like he was top dog.

Almost proving a handful for his handler, he put a young pup in his place with a well-placed snarl.

Otherwise, the top of Dublin’s Grafton Street was a joy-filled place as celebrity animal lovers helped to launch Pedigree/Whiskas World Animal Week, an initiative promoting responsible pet ownership.

Bertie Ahern? He’s Twink’s pit bull terrier, one of her seven dogs.

“I was driving home one day and a woman driver glanced off him and sent him skating into the footpath. She just drove on. He was only a puppy when I found him cowering under the counter of the shop in Rathfarnham,” she said.

“As he was knocked down under a poster of Bertie Ahern and it was election time and we were thinking of a name for him we called him Bertie Ahern.”

Sheltering under an umbrella with newscaster Anne Doyle, Marty Whelan announced: “Mine’s at home sleeping. He’s a border collie called Buddy, Buddy Collie.”

Said Anne: “I’ve got news for you - there are people who actually don’t have dogs.

“My cat is called Lotto, which means she is far too lucky to go out in the lashings of rain,” she added.

Puppy walker Noreen McGowan was socialising Jagger, a placid Golden Labrador now being trained to be a guide dog for the blind.

“We bring them on buses and trains and into restaurants and pubs to socialise them,” she explained.

“I bring him around the shops, just to get him used to crowds.”

Green Party leader Trevor Sargent and his wife make space at their North Dublin home for animals who are rescued.

“We have a couple of cats. It’s important they’re neutered, because there is a large amount of feral cats. Also it is important to neuter dogs that have been abandoned. It really comes down to responsible pet ownership.”

Accompanied by a German Shepherd, Linda Martin explained that each of her 15 dogs has been involved in a cruelty situation of some description.

“We worked with him for six months. Slowly but surely he started to come around. Now, he’s turned out to be a big gentle giant. He’s called Basil.”