State struggling to accommodate the pets of Ukrainian refugees

Ukrainian refugees are able to enter Ireland with their pets without all the necessary EU documentation but the state will struggle to accommodate the volume of pets which have to be taken into quarantine or isolation upon arriving into the country.

A shortage of accommodation for refugees in Ireland has led the State to embark on drastic measures, including getting the army to erect camp beds in community halls.

But now the State is facing another refugee-related accommodation crisis: it cannot accommodate the volume of pets which have to be taken into quarantine or isolation upon arriving into the country.

This is because there is a nationwide shortage of spaces in kennels and catteries, mainly due to the massive increase in pet ownership during the pandemic.

Department of Agriculture officials are now drawing up plans to deal with the crisis, including a mass transport plan to move pets around the country. Five three-month contracts worth €1m each are up for tender, with each one subject to three potential renewals for three months each. 

Pet travel

Ukrainian refugees are currently able to enter the State with their pets without all the necessary EU documentation for the transport of pets across state boundaries.

But they must pre-notify the Department of Agriculture that they are coming into the country with the pet, and a period of quarantine is required, which is currently allowed in the location the refugee is staying.

At least 485 refugees from the war-torn country had arrived in Ireland with just over 600 pets up to April 20, with over 95% of the pets being either cats or dogs.

However, a new tender notice by department officials, says there are “certain cases” where a vet might want to isolate “some animals” for a period following arrival into Ireland.

The problem is that there is a nationwide shortage of places to isolate or quarantine pets, like cats and dogs.

A departmental source told the Irish Examiner that officials are “struggling to find places to put the pets”.

It is understood that there are only around 100 isolation and quarantine centres in Ireland.

Vincent Cashman, who manages the CSPCA facility in Mahon Point, Co Cork, said: “There are very few places to isolate or quarantine cats or dogs in Ireland.

“I’d guess you’d be hard to find more than one or two in any county.

“If a dog, for example, has to have a rabies shot, it cannot technically be moved for three weeks.

And the quarantine in such a case is very, very strict: the dog cannot mix with other dogs, it cannot touch other dogs.

“So, where you might have ten dogs in a block, you can only have two in there now and that causes problems with space as the space is being taken up with very, very few animals."

Block booking

Echoing the situation with human refugees where hotels have been block-booked to house them, he added: “I’d say what the department will probably do is block book kennels and catteries.

“That, however, is going to cause problems for people who want to go on holiday.

“I hear that many places that are already totally booked out with animals for owners who have their holidays booked.”