74% of dog owners do not have a licence
New figures show the country’s dog population is rising steadily and there are now 728,000 dogs in Ireland but only 26% of these are properly registered.
Euromonitor International’s industry research said the number of dogs has grown by 14% since 2002 while the cat population has increased by 36%.
Unlike cat lovers, dog owners are obliged to hold a licence and renew it every year.
In response to a parliamentary question last week, Environment Minister John Gormley said in 2006, 197,000 people had paid the €12.70 to register their dogs.
This helped local authorities claim €2.6 million from dog control measures, including revenue from punishments.
“Nine hundred and fifty persons paid on-the-spot fines and 103 were successfully prosecuted in 2006 for breaches of Section 2 of the Control of Dogs Acts 1986-1992, relating to licensing requirements,” Mr Gormley said.
Cork city’s dog warden Barry Bridgeman said given the amount of dogs and the resources available to the warden’s office policing the pet sector was problematic.
“It is fairly difficult to get people, you can warn them but under the law they still have 10 days to pay their licence after you approach them so it is impossible to follow up on everybody.
“I am on the job 14 years and the number of cases that go to court for fines is very small.
“You still go to the doors and have people brush it off with the attitude ‘if I have a black and white dog do I need a black and white licence’ or ‘my dog stays in doors so I don’t need a licence’.
“At the end of the day it is about getting through to people if you have a dog you need a licence no matter what,” he said.
He explained there are multiple uses for the licence system including identifying animals killed on the roads and catching those involved in biting incidents.
However, he said attitudes are changing especially among young people as more people accept the need to have their pets registered.
“Recently I am seeing it at the door when I ask about licences more people have it to hand or are able to produce it.
“There is still a lot of people without one but it is changing,” he said.
He said there are new difficulties with dogs in apartment blocks causing arguments between neighbours but he said this is an issue for individual management committees not the dog warden.
