Red-list setters - Irish dog breeds in decline

A DOG may be a man’s best friend but, apparently, the reverse of that old saw may not be true, or at least as true as it might be. 

The film producer, David Blake Knox, in a new book, warns that the populations of six breeds of dogs regarded as specifically Irish have fallen to such a low ebb that their survival may be in question.

That the breeds — the Irish red and white setter, the Irish water spaniel, the Kerry beagle, the Kerry blue, the Glen of Imaal terrier, and the Irish terrier — were developed for activities now frowned upon by today’s puritans is the primary reason for this decline.

So too is the sad fact that we have reimagined our relationship with dogs, especially those from what are termed working breeds.

Now we regard them, if not as minor humans then as part of the character and interior decoration of our homes, as if they were little more than animated hearth rugs.

This corruption is a factor in our ever more bizarre understanding of the natural world, of our place in it and our responsibilities to it.

The threat to these dog breeds is symptomatic of a changed, pasteurised world.