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Demo against 'puppy farms', Dail, this Thur 23rd

  • 22-02-2006 1:59pm
    #1
    karlin
    Closed Accounts Posts: 86 ✭✭


    Demo and handing in of petition

    This Thursday 23rd Feb, 5pm, Kildare St gate of Dail Eireann

    Please come show support for this issue and bring your dog(s) if possible!
    Sign the petition: http://www.dogtrainingireland.ie/news_working_group_petition.php


    A demonstration outside the Kildare Street gate of Dail Eireann this Thursday, Feb 23rd, 5-6pm, will demand that the government stop dragging its feet on dealing with puppy farms and enact proper legislation to combat them now. Protesters will be there along with their dogs to ask for action on this long-standing issue.

    One of Ireland's darker secrets is that while it may be a tiger economically, it also lays shameful claim to being 'the puppy farm capital of Europe'.

    Due to weak legislation and effectively, no regulation, dogs can be bred in Ireland in battery-farm operations (small cages, cardboard boxes, darkened disused farm buildings, and worse) that have been condemned internationally for their cruel conditions and the poor health and quality of the dogs produced.

    Background:

    In 2004, after a series of particularly horrific raids, the government formed a working group to try and tackle this problem, through then Minister for the Environment Martin Cullen. Many months later, the group submitted a report and a solid series of recommendations ( www.environ.ie/DOEI/DOEIPol.nsf/wvNavView/Dog%20Control?OpenDocument&Lang=#I9 ), all based on enhancing existing legislation so that action could be taken immediately (taking the primary legislation route could take years). The Department itself asked for and received legal advice at the start of the process specifically to ensure the group could form recommendations based on existing legislation, to accelerate the process of tackling puppy farms and shutting down this cruel industry.

    That was last autumn. Since then, a new Minister for the Environment, Dick Roche, has dragged his feet on implementing the report ordered by his predecessor, offering a series of excuses that suggest the goal is to do nothing at all about puppy farms in the lifetime of this government. In particular he now says he is considering primary legislation, and seems unaware his own department has already received sound advice that this is not needed.

    Irish people -- taxpayers and voters -- care about this issue and are sick of this country having the appalling reputation as Europe's puppy farm capital. Organisers will be asking the Minister to act on the report and will hand in an online petition. You can sign the petition here:

    http://www.dogtrainingireland.ie/news_working_group_petition.php

    TDs from the opposition parties will be there as well as the tv and print media. We need **as many people as possible** for this peaceful protest so please, if you are in the area or can make it with your dogs, come along. Feel free to pass the word/crosspost too! Please try to be there for as close to 5 as possible as that is when the TV people are likely to be there!


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