Over the next few weeks more dogs will be abandoned than at any other time of the year showing that people continue to ignore the message that puppies are not just for Christmas.
The Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals says that during January and February dogs are abandoned at dog pounds or just left to stray.
The ISPCA spokeswoman, Ms Niamh Delahunty, said from all the campaigns they would hope that people would get the message but it still did not seem to work. "I suppose children want puppies as presents and parents just give in," she said. "People have cute little puppies over Christmas and then over the weeks the dogs get bigger and start to chew the furniture.
The ISPCA will resume its re- homing service on January 5th. From then, people could come in and an ISPCA officer would discuss taking the animal home and make sure people knew what they were taking on, she said.
"Most definitely there is an increase in abandoned dogs in January and February," Ms Delahunty added. "They are either brought to dog pounds or people ring us. We're full to capacity all the time. Dogs are also left by the public to stray or are just dumped."
Eighteen-thousand stray dogs were put to sleep every year, which was a huge number, she said. There were also a number of cats being cared for by the ISPCA but they did not tend to be abandoned like dogs, she added.
Earlier in December, the ISPCA began a campaign against puppy-farming. It urged consumers to be aware of the need to buy a dog from a reputable breeder and to be alert to illegal puppy farms.
The association said it was particularly worried that people would buy from these farms over Christmas. At certain farms, breeding dogs were kept in unsuitable and cruel conditions.
Ms Delahunty advised that pups should not be bought without the customer seeing where they were born and the animal's parents. They should also ask to see vaccination papers and other documents in the case of pedigree dogs.
The ISPCA has raided a number of illegal farms this year where animals were kept in unsanitary conditions, suffering from mange and other diseases, and not fed properly.