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.