Dog Pounds

Every local authority must provide a dog pound in their functional area.  Dog control in Ireland was largely in response to attacks on sheep by marauding dogs.

The Control of Dogs Act,1986 was enacted to put a stop to dogs straying and to put more responsibility on owners. 

There have been various amendments and additions and these can be found on our legislation page.Stray dogs are taken to the dog pound adjacent to where the dog has been found.  

Owners can also surrender their dogs if they no longer want them.  A stray dog has just 5 days to be re-claimed by the owner.  A surrender may be destroyed immediately. 

It must be remembered that dog pounds are not animal rescues or shelters. Local authorities are obliged to provide a dog pound within their functional area under the Control of Dogs Act, 1986.  While they are not obliged to save the dogs in their care, we feel they have a moral obligation to do their best to try to reunite or re-home as many dogs as possible. 

There are big differences between pounds in terms of numbers destroyed. In many cases where local authorities appear to have low destruction rates, it is down to voluntary rescue groups who take photos of the dogs and get rescue spaces for them.  Without this band of hard working volunteers, the destruction figures would be very much worse.  

ANVIL would like to see standardisation of the pound provision service in all areas to include:

A minimum standard of care 

Accountability of local authorities for the care of animals and efforts to re-home and reunite dogs
(including working with rescue groups who can take the dogs)  

Financial help from local authorities for rescue groups working to save dogs within their functional area

Recognition of the work done by these groups by the inclusion of an extra column in the dog pound return figures recording the number of dogs rescued by these groups

Neutering, microchipping and vaccinating of all dogs re-homed by pounds

 
We would like to see a more open attitude when it comes to how these pounds are operated.  They are run with public money and it is our right to know how this money is spent.  

See also our other pages List of dog pounds in Ireland, Dog pound Statistics, Greyhound pound statistics,  Slide show