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A CAMPAIGN TO save the life of a seven-year-old American bull dog Labrador cross is waging online.
The dog, named Lennox, is in the care of Belfast City Council dog wardens after being removed from his owners on 19 May 2010.
On the website Save Lennox, the dog’s family say that the pet “committed no crime nor did any member of the public complain about him”.
They say that as the council believe he is a pit bull-type dog, he is to be put down.
A 28-day reprieve for Lennox following the last court date about his future runs out at midnight. The family lost their appeal against Lennox being put down for being a banned breed.
The case was brought to court under the Dangerous Dog Act, which was extended to Northern Ireland in 2011.
Belfast City Council said it would not make a comment, only to say that it was the “courts who made the decision and it is in their hands”. However, a spokesperson from Belfast Crown Court told TheJournal.ie that it is now up to the council to decide when the dog is to be put down.
The situation has gained attention worldwide, with the official Facebook page for the Save Lennox Campaign getting 12,897 ‘likes’.
Dog trainer Victoria Stilwell has offered to find Lennox a new home in the USA, the Belfast Telegraph says.
Lennox’s family released a statement last week saying:
We have fought to have Len returned to our family from the moment he was seized but we have been advised that the legal fight is at an end.
They added:
It has been almost impossible for us to accept that we have to admit defeat. We always believed that there was some hope and that justice would prevail.
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It was agreed in a meeting between the HSE and IMO, why didn’t the IMO tell their members?
I will wait for the IMO to come out and explain all this
Ridiculous that GPs can reinstate medical cards. They are hardly objective when treating their own patients and this approach results in the old system of he who shouts the loudest getting a medical card. Or as happened in FF’s time, you simply wrote to a TD to get a medical card.
2 million medical cards in the country. Onwards and upwards from here – let’s make it 3 million !
well done FG/LAB…you have even managed to make GPs look stupid – that’s not a good idea because they are not !
Please Sean just wait, the truth will out.
Great to see that Michael Healy Rae got his degree in medicine …. and he wearing the cap and all …humility on a grand scale !
I call BS, I work for a GP, we certainly have never heard of it….. But I could give lists of cases where people who really need and deserve medical cards are still bein messed about by PCRS…. So Varadkar now resorts to lies, one word comes to mind…. Disgusting…. The whole lot of them should be ashamed of the human cost of austerity forced into our most vulnerable. How many more people will consider suicide like that poor young guy in Galway? It’s really distressing listening to people who are already ill become hopeless in the face of the incompetent stonewalling of the HSE….
Cathy. My GP described this possibility to me last year. If he knew about it, I’m sure that your employer was also told about it.
There are stats on GPs using their reinstatment power…so clearly some GPs did get it. A chat with 50 GPs along the lines of ‘did you read such a letter in 2011-2012?’ does not go anywhere near a representative number of GPs in ireland (rep. about only 2% of them). So obvious some GPs did receive and read the letter…the lack of the latter being the most likely cause of confusion in this case.
My practice staff can confirm that not only could they not reinstate a card once it had expired, but when they telephoned the PCRS they were told that the patient would have to complete another application form regardless of their personal circumstances
We were promised it but it never happened. Another false dawn.
So not 1 gp actually read the agreement? Highly unlikely
Sorry, I can categorically state it was never said to our GP, do you not think that we would have used it for patients with cancer? Or an autistic child? It would have been used if it was policy….
Also, they are giving more discretionary powers to local HSE offices…. That’s the way it used to be done, ridiculous to wrap it up as a ‘new’ measure, it’s nothing of the sort!!!!
You’d swear they were gearing up for an election or something with all these ‘new’ anouncements.
Would GP’s have the same criterias as HSE and people would have to send their GP all the personal info re income and other data to be read? And if unfair dismissal of the card whom should one ask for a revision?
Is there any end to this government’s stupidity, even there “supposedly good news stories” are full of glaring holes and not properly thought out.
get’s broken down in the translation from German to English ….
Michael This does not hold true in the waiting room. Here we all wait and join the queue. If you ring to make an appointment you are given a time but when you get to the clinic you give your name at reception and you join the queue. It does not matter whether you are a private or Medical Card patient. Only Medical emergencies get priority and thankfully that is a rare enough occurrence. But otherwise you wait ….. and wait.
Plonkers!!
That’s given GPs a open check book – hey buddy come 1000 times a year
We are not paid per visit so that argument doesn’t hold up. I can state categorically that it is not possible to reinstate a medical card. I use the HSEs system and it doesn’t have this functionality. No circular came re this. Why would I spend previous time writing begging letters to the HSE if I could just reinstate cards with one click ?????
Point of information. GPs are paid an annual fee for looking after each patient regardless of the number of consultations. We don’t get paid per visit or house call during surgery hours. 2012 OECD data forecasted to 2014 after 2013 FEMPI will show us amongst the lowest earning GPs in the OECD as a proportion of average income. HSE administration amongst the highest earning.
These comments represent all regular GPs inhabiting planet earth. HSE comments must be referring to virtual GPs in satellite clinics.
My mother who is 83 and has very bad Dementia, has had her medical card removed. The forms to reinstate it would stop a qualified accountant in his tracks.
Surely to God Gov. knew this and if not why not. Imagine announcing something already in place whole Gov. should hang their heads in shame. How come Drs that knew about it didn’t say a word when parents came on radio/tv to appeal for help for seriously ill children.
Shame can be spread around on this one.
Do you actually believe government media releases. When were they ever fair or honest regarding GPs? I must commend their ability to produce black propaganda in order to distract attention away from reality.
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