Negative media coverage of cruelty uncovered at puppy farms has caused severe damage to the €25 million legitimate trade in exporting pedigree dogs, an Oireachtas committee was told yesterday. Some exporters had been arrested and questioned under British terrorism laws.
The recently-formed Dog Breeders Association of Ireland Ltd went to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food to ask it to help move the responsibility for dogs from the Department of the Environment to the Department of Agriculture.
Mr Paul Flood of the association said recent raids on so-called puppy farms had damaged the reputation of creditable pedigree dog breeders, who were exporting 15,000 to 20,000 dogs each year to Britain and 3,000 more to the rest of Europe and the United States.
"The UK breeders are delighted with the bad publicity which this tiny minority of so-called breeders brought down on us and they want to keep us out of their market," said Mr Flood.
"The publicity was so bad that some decent breeders here, and we do have a good international reputation, are getting out of the business," he said.
"As an organisation we want to regularise the situation, eradicate any cruelty and to set the best standards available for what is a very important industry," Mr Flood said.
"Dog breeding in Ireland is mainly a rural enterprise and over 90 per cent of people breeding dogs are small farmers or their wives, who use this additional income to support their families or pay college fees."
Mr Flood said: "We want the industry to become an alternative enterprise for farmers, their families or for people who need extra income in the country."
He told the committee his 500-member organisation advocated micro-chipping all dogs in the country and said this would put an end to the stray dog problem.
Mr Flood complained that there were problems with shipping dogs abroad and his organisation wanted the issue regularised and supervised by the Department of Agriculture.
"It has come to our attention that a number of legitimate shippers from Ireland have been held for questioning by the UK police and port officials, some for hours on end under the Terrorism Act, which is simply not acceptable to decent Irish citizens," he said.
He said the industry should be developed to include training. Irish dogs were being sold in Britain for €500 and trained there for drug and explosive detection.
People in Ireland then bought them back for between €15,000 and €20,000.
Similarly, dogs were being trained in Britain for "man work" - protection of people - to bark or attack on command.
They were being sold to Irish people for up to €20,000 each, and this training was not allowed here.
The committee agreed to forward the requests to the Department of the Environment.