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DOG OWNERS ARE surrendering their pets to pounds and rescue organisations to avoid forking over money for a kennel while they go away on holidays this summer.
New figures show almost 2,000 dogs were put down last year, and while the figure has dropped by 10% since 2014, Dogs Trust executive director Mark Beazley said the reasons owners give up their dogs are as sad and trivial as ever.
“Sadly, we see this time of year people saying they’ve two weeks’ holidays and they didn’t realise how expensive the kennels were so the dog ends up in a dog pound. It’s a sad reason to see a dog in a pound.”
Particularly for families, what kind of message does that send to children about responsibility?
Figures from the Department of Environment show 1,824 unwanted dogs were put down in 2015. In total, there were more than 13,000 unwanted dogs and the majority were either re-homed or reclaimed from a pound or were transferred to dog welfare groups.
Unwanted greyhounds
Last year, 203 of the unwanted dogs put down were greyhounds, of a total of 366 who were seized, surrendered or stray.
The majority of these dogs were surrendered by their owners and Beazley said this shows the total lack of responsibility taken by some people in the greyhound industry, who will abandon a dog as soon as it is too old to race or has been injured.
Of those 366 that enter pounds, 300 were surrendered by their owners. These aren’t stray greyhounds being picked up off the street, the owners are making a conscious decision to hand them over to the pound.
“We’ve been saying that greyhound owners need to take the responsiblity to rehome their greyhounds once they’ve finished their racing career,” he added.
Most of the greyhounds who were saved were taken on by welfare organisations – just 19 were either rehomed or reclaimed.
There are still misconceptions about greyhounds, Beazley said, that deter people from picking them as pets.
However, they are actually very placid dogs and need only a short burst of exercise before they curl up for the rest of the day. This makes them an ideal pet for people living in apartments.
Rescues
Beazley said there is now a greater awareness among the general public of the merits of adopting a rescue dog, rather than buying from breeders.
“We’re not going to have pedigree dogs in there, in many cases it’s the cross breeds that come in here but we fully realise that some people do want to get a pedigree dog,” he said.
He advised those looking for a particular dog to educate themselves beforehand so they know what to ask a breeder for, and to ensure they are not buying animals from a puppy farm.
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Instead of criticising him, how about we applaud the fact he made such an embarrassing admission and is taking steps to correct it. There are many bigots who say things like “AIDS is god punishing the gays”. If you’re in that bubble it’s not surprising that you don’t have all the facts. There is nothing wrong with his proposal to raise general awareness instead of just awareness for most vulnerable groups. The campaign could do both.
Yes, I agree, however he represents those who vote for him?
Does he also know that men cant get pregnant ?
They can’t? My belly has been slowly getting bigger for years. What the hell could it be?
@Dessie Curley: Have you seen the film ‘Alien’?
The DUP ladies and gentlemen.
@Cillian McCormick: If this is indicative of the DUP, we could do with some of that down south!
When was the last time you saw any politician or political party admit their flaws and humbly acknowledge their mistakes?
Stubborn ignorance has been a prevailing mentality for far too long and people throwing stones at his former ignorance, well, their glass houses must be pretty drafty at this point.
In this day and age this is quite amazing but fair play. Hopefully it will start a conversation about HIV and sexual persuasions.
He must be from the Healy Rae school of scientific thought
Does he know the Earth isn’t flat?
Wow just wow
Waterford whispers news must be kicking themselves having missed such a gem of a headline. The mind truly boggles.
What rock was this guy under the last 20 year…..you can be sure he wasent stuck for company under that rock…….we have the biggest rock in the world looks like in the cabbage patch
Wow! More Brains in a Turnip
Ignorance personified
Their party only knows bigotry. So of course he didn’t, not even news.
Some truth in that very few heterosexual men will get hiv
@joe Do you have a link for that claim?
There’s millions of infected heterosexual men infected in the developing world
It does effect gays disproportionately
Your comment makes u as ignorant as him
From the article above: “He argued against an amendment to the proposal put forward by People Before Profit MLA Eamonn McCann. McCann had proposed that the campaign stressed the disproportionate impact of HIV on gay and bisexual men.”
*affect
@Colm O’Connor: maybe colm but they didn’t contract it by having sex with women.
@Anthony Healy Poroloniczak: ignorance is a lack of knowledge. So I will pass on some knowledge to you. Men very rarely contract HIV by having sex with women, that is a fact. Feel free to show your ignorance by denying this.
@joe please show a link to where you got that information.
@Maurice: It isn’t an attack on homosexuals to say that. It’s a fact. 46% of new HIV cases in Europe are in the set of MSM. Men that have sex with men. https://www.google.ie/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.drugs.ie/resourcesfiles/ResearchDocs/Ireland/2015/HSE_HIV_2014.pdf&ved=0ahUKEwjxyJCIodDQAhWmKMAKHXQuD4MQFggnMAE&usg=AFQjCNE_grIWQLI2YghrRU1-XLLF_pEdgA&sig2=BTXDDmc4647hBS8Ssfo4bw
49% of new cases in Ireland are in the MSM group. Gay men should already know this. It’s not gay bashing to say this. If you are gay and don’t believe this then you are in denial.
@Maurice Bourke:
There’s lots of studies with but the numbers seem to support the view that there’s less risk for the man in a hetro relationship
http://www.catie.ca/en/pif/summer-2012/putting-number-it-risk-exposure-hiv
@hugh @joe. I wasn’t going to accuse anyone of gay bashing. I like to ask for links when someone makes a claim that sounds dubious, nothing more.
They do Joe. Any kind of abrasion or damage to skin or mucus membranes is an entry point for for the virus and while it’s less likely that a man will be infected by a woman it can and does happen. Mouth ulcers, STIs, BDSM practices are all additional risk factors.
No you wouldn’t and no she wouldn’t. Be careful out there.
BREAKING NEWS: DUP politician admits to being an ignorant thick.
Oh, dear. Deary dear oh dear..
HIV is a disease?
I thought it was a trucker license.
In the developed world it is predominantly a gay disease. Lets not ignore the statistics and treat the disease like the common cold, it has made a comeback among younger gay men in recent years.
Whenever I hear the word sodomy I get this song stuck in my head for days. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ulb0pLBgRCw
What the…..?
The film is Meet the Feebles. It was directed by none other than Peter Jackson before he hit the big time.
https://youtu.be/fH_4Zt6kokk The horrors of war and drug addiction.
@jumperoo: Bet you it’s in your head now.
@Hugh Mannatee: Your doing it wrong if it starts playing music?
S#!t kicker
The importance of sex education
To me this confirms one of my theories. There is a substantial portion of the Irish Population (and possible other populations) and their politicians who are a thick as planks. (more in keeping with the intelect of a crow than a person). They can get to comprehend comflex matters, but it takes them 30 to 40 times as long as me. If there is a particular emergency pushed on them, they will try to figure it out and this can abridge the time womewhat.
Their financial management system is “hold on to everything with a death’s grip” and try to persuade their relations to leave them goodies in their wills. This DUP one believes the AIDS virus is sexually sellective. I experience the same effect when I try to tell people wind energy is a scam and does not work at all. Its just an illegal subsidy racket. See valmartinireland you tube and the Irish Energy Blog (where I contribute)
The same in advising people not to buy newpapers and note to vote in elections. Its a fact of life, better get used to it.
@Val Martin: Yeah Val, I know someone who has the same issue when no one listens to him about Dinosaurs existing along side Humans.. It must be frustrating.
Shhh leave him alone and he’ll go back to telling NASA how stupid they are
I heard crows were quite smart Val.
Interesting off topic contribution there Val. But as you have raised it Denmark fares pretty well with wind energy.
Proposing an awareness campaign now he knows straight people can get it too. Ok for the gays to get sick though coz God hates fags.
It is almost impossible for a man to contract hiv from a woman since there is no transfer of fluid from woman to man. magic Johnson became hiv positive in 1991. since he said he was having sex with different women 3 or 4 times a day he said he got hiv from a women. cut to an expert. “impossible” the expert says. “statistically you’d have to have sex with over a million women to contract hiv” then magic Johnson admitted he had sex with men.
@Patrick Gough: No transfer of fluid from woman to man? What dried up women are you having sex with???
@Donal Martin: I’d say one of the highlights of Patrick’s sex life was when he go an inflatable sex doll for his birthday and immediately fell in love with it.
Don’t you put it in the belly button?
Not almost impossible Patrick. Just more difficult. See my comment in response to Joe O Hair
@ Patrick. I would say something but the stupidity of that comment speaks for itself.
@Patrick Gough: Patrick that is a dangerous thing to believe…
The birds and the bees Bible lesson???
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