{"id":205802,"date":"2025-12-22T22:14:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T22:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/205802\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T22:14:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T22:14:09","slug":"breed-and-greed-culture-making-ireland-the-puppy-farm-capital-of-europe-advocacy-group-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/205802\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Breed and greed culture’ making Ireland the puppy farm capital of Europe, advocacy group claims\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

The head of a national animal advocacy group has called on the Government to help stop the growth of puppy farms here.<\/p>\n

John O’Callaghan, the chief executive of Dog Advocacy Ireland, was speaking at Dublin’s Mansion House where he met Lord Mayor Ray McAdam to raise the issue of puppy farming.<\/p>\n

He said urgent action needs to be taken to strengthen dog breeding regulations in this country.<\/p>\n

\u201cIreland has a shameful standing as the puppy farm capital of Europe” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“There are unscrupulous puppy farmers, a lot of whom are registered dog breeding establishments, together with the backyard breeders, who are earning \u20ac200m a year. That is no mistake.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey get this for the criminal abuse and mistreatment of dogs. It\u2019s a breed and greed culture.<\/p>\n

\"FromFrom left: Isobel Wilson, from Arklow; Hugo Dalton, from Sandyford; Rowan Wilson, from Arklow; and Evander Dalton, from Sandyford, with golden retriever Zena at the Mansion House in Dublin. Picture: Gareth Chaney<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not being addressed and responsibility for dog welfare in Ireland is deliberately strewn across three government departments.<\/p>\n

“That has only led to chaos. If it was working and functioning, this would not be happening.”<\/p>\n

He said a singular animal welfare authority with sole responsibility and accountability is what is needed.<\/p>\n

The latest figures show there are 3,000 dogs stuck in pounds and rescue centres around the country.<\/p>\n

Abandonments have surged since covid, with the cost of living and housing crisis adding to the problem.<\/p>\n

Dog Advocacy Ireland said the country continues to license puppy farms.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is chaos, the local authorities issue these licences but currently there are no animal welfare officers in any of the departments,” added Mr O’Callaghan.<\/p>\n

\"FounderFounder John O’Callaghan, right, warned that unscrupulous puppy farmers and backyard breeders earn \u20ac200m a year for ‘the criminal abuse and mistreatment of dogs’. Picture: Gareth Chaney<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are no inspections taking place. The whole issue is scattered around the place.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“There is no central database, there are five different microchipping companies. It all needs to be scrapped and a new model set up.”<\/p>\n

Mr O’Callaghan was speaking as the minister for agriculture, Martin Heydon, recently launched a public consultation for the development of a new animal welfare strategy to cover the next five years.<\/p>\n

He has invited members of the public and stakeholders to provide feedback and recommendations to the Department of Agriculture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The head of a national animal advocacy group has called on the Government to help stop the growth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[16591,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-205802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-animal-cruelty","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}