One of the dogs rescued from the pound by Animals In Need.
A Donegal animal welfare group has slammed a report which shows that more than 500 dogs were dumped at the Donegal Dog Pound in Letetrkenny.
A total of 533 dogs ending up in the Letterkenny Pound last year according to the latest figures for 2015 which have just been released by the Department of the Environment.
Of those dogs, which included 33 greyhounds, 341 were surrendered by their owners and 156 were seized. Six of the dogs were rehomed by the Pound to the public, 3 were in the Pound, 54 were reclaimed by their owners, 286 were taken out of the Pound by animal rescues and 184 were euthanised, including 26 greyhounds.
Local animal rescue group believe these shocking statistics reflect the sad fact that too many unwanted pups are still being born in Donegal as people are not availing of the discounted neutering schemes available and many dogs are being discarded when their novelty wears off or they don’t make the grade as working dogs.
Once they arrive in the Pound, dogs have only 5 days to be reclaimed, adopted or rescued or they could be put down. Donegal based charity, Animals In Need rescued and rehomed 206 of the dogs released to animal rescues that year, including the 7 greyhounds.
Currently there is no holding place or sanctuary for dogs in the county.
A spokesperson for Animals In Need said ‘these figures show just how urgently we need a holding place for the dogs here in Donegal.’ She explained ‘At the moment the rescued dogs all have to be looked after in the unpaid volunteer’s own homes and with such a huge volume of dogs coming out and only a handful of foster homes available, this situation can’t continue indefinitely.’
Many of the rescued dogs travel to re-homing sanctuaries in the U.K. where wonderful homes await them but since the enforcement of the Pet Passport laws, which require each dog to wait 21 days before travelling after receiving a rabies vaccination, the foster homes are now backed up with dogs waiting to travel.
The spokesperson explained ‘what we need is a proper fitted out holding place where the dogs can stay while they wait for their Passports or while home checks are carried out if they are being adopted locally.’
Several suitable locations for a dog hub have been sourced in Donegal, including one already fitted and ready to use and with nearby local vets willing and able to help out.
The Animals In Need spokesperson continued ‘Already in the first 5 months of 2016 we rescued 143 dogs and pups from the Pound so things look to be getting worse, the bottom line is that we need help. We can’t do this on our own. We need backing and support to set up and run a hub otherwise more dogs are going to die, which would be a tragedy.’
Animals In Need is a completely voluntary organisation. For further information on adoption, fostering, volunteering etc, please contact the main helpline on 087 1356188. For cat/kitten enquiries please call 087 7644420.
Animals In Need Donegal is also on Facebook and has a website.
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