25% of abandoned dogs were destroyed

A quarter of the 17,500 dogs abandoned or given up by their owners last year were destroyed even though many were healthy.

As animal shelters struggle to cope, figures show wardens seized 6,903 dogs and puppies in 2012. A further 10,574 were either surrendered to authorities or collected by wardens.

More than 7,100 dogs were either re-homed or reclaimed. A further 5,706 were transferred to dog welfare groups to see if they could find them homes.

However, 4,500, or 12 per day, were put down and 107 died of natural causes.

For Dogs Trust, a major concern was the number of animals voluntarily handed over by their owners, almost 30 dogs per day.

“When a dog is picked up by a dog warden and enters the pound system as a stray, the pound has a legal obligation to keep the dog for five days in case the owner comes forward looking for their pet,” said Dogs Trust director Mark Beazley.

“However, when a dog is handed over by its owner, the pound has no legal obligation to keep it for any length of time and the dog could be put to sleep the same day.

“The majority of these dogs are healthy animals surrendered by owners who cannot or, in some cases, will not, care for their pet any more.”

Mr Beazley said no breed was exempt from being abandoned or surrendered.

“Since we opened in 2009 we have re-homed almost 3,000 dogs and we have genuinely seen almost every size and type of dog come through our doors.”

Noel Griffin, chief executive of the ISPCA, said that by international standards Ireland had an exceptionally high level of dogs having to be destroyed. He said there were a number of factors which contributed to the huge throughput of animals through the pounds.

Mr Griffin said the recession had seen more people who could no longer afford to look after the animals and also fewer people were coming forward with the means to give those in pounds a new home.

He also said the throughput of animals highlighted the need for far greater neutering. He referred to a case very recently where a bitch which came into an ISPCA centre pregnant with 10 pups, nine of which survived.

While all were successfully re-homed in that case, it illustrated the fact that abandoned dogs would continue to mate and each time the female would have an average of five to six puppies each of which could then mate again.

The figures published by the department show exceptionally varied levels of seizures by wardens.

In Cork City, Galway City, and Co Waterford there was not a single animal seized by wardens while the seizures in Co Wexford and south Dublin totalled 898 and 868.

Cork City and Co Waterford have one full-time warden each while Galway City has one part-time officer. Even though Co Cork is the biggest in the country, there were only six dogs seized last year.