Owners dump Christmas puppies

Monday, January 27, 2014 12:00

Owners dump Christmas puppies

UNWANTED: Dogs Trust staff are looking for a home for Woodstock who was found dumped on a busy road earlier this month.

A LOCAL animal charity is reporting a ten-fold increase in surrendered dogs this month including many bought as Christmas presents just six weeks ago.

Finglas based Dogs Trust says it has received a record number of unwanted pets during January, including some recklessly abandoned by their owners.

Just five days into the new year, on Sunday, January 5, over 20 dogs were surrendered including a terrified Springer Spaniel who was callously left in the Dogs Trust car park that morning.

The charity also recently took in two beautiful six-week-old Collie Cross pups, which were heartlessly dumped in a field. The pets, christened Mickey and Minnie, were discovered two weeks ago alongside a sister who had already died.

The surviving pups are now being fostered after receiving treatment and will be rehomed when they fully recover.

Staff have been so inundated with post-Christmas abandonments that Dogs Trust has been unable to offer places to pound dogs, many of which will end up being euthanized.

The charitys executive director, Mark Beazley, last week reminded the public of the enormous commitment involved in rehoming a dog.

Very simply, a dog is for life and not just for Christmas and the pressure and demands for our services this January just shows that unfortunately, a flippant attitude towards dog ownership still exists, he said.

We received in excess of 100 surrender calls last Monday alone. These are people who have very clearly told us that their dog is no longer wanted in their homes or lives.

The charity is also extremely concerned at the growing number of dogs being dumped from cars, which it says compounds whats usually an already deeply stressful situation for a dog.

Two weeks ago a Staffordshire Terrier Cross was found dumped on a busy road near Dogs Trust. Terrified and scrambling for his life, the dog was rescued by the Dogs Trust operations manager who witnessed a series of cars swerving to avoid hitting the abandoned dog.

The abandoned dog was taken into care at Dogs Trust and named Woodstock. Staff are now looking to find him a loving, caring home.

The DSPCA is also enduring a busy month and rescued 31 dogs over the Christmas holidays. Only five of the dogs were microchipped but none were registered on microchip databases so owners couldnt be traced.

Two weeks ago DSPCA officials were called to a Dublin housing estate to investigate a reported case of dog cruelty. When inspectors arrived they found four dogs living in appalling conditions in the house and an outside shed.

The floors were covered in faeces and waste material and all dogs were in terrible conditions suffering from emaciation and multiple other conditions, a DSPCA spokesperson said.

The animals were removed from the premises with the assistance of the Garda. The skeletal and decomposed remains of a number of cats were also found in an outside shed.

Unfortunately due to the severity of their conditions, three of the dogs had to be euthanized by the DSPCA veterinary team, the spokesperson continued.

The remaining dog is in a very serious condition and is being monitored 24/7.

Despite the high number of abandoned and neglected dogs in the city the market for puppies is still increasing in Dublin. In the week before Christmas DSPCA officials closed down a so-called puppy farm in Dublin 15.

The closure, which included the surrender of several dogs into the care of the animal welfare charity, followed a month-long investigation by the DSPCA.

CEO, Brian Gillen, said that many dogs from puppy farms are sold over the internet and despite pleas to the public, online purchasing of dogs is rampant.

Puppy farmers and traders now take multiple advertisements offering a small number of puppies for sale and therefore people think they are buying from a single owner with a litter rather than a trader, he said.

As long as people purchase online, these illicit breeders will continue to sell online.