A Senior ISPCA Inspector says a Tipp animal cruelty case is ‘one of the worst’ she’s ever seen.
Three members of a family in Cashel have been given jail sentences after pleading guilty to a number of charges under the Animal Welfare Act related to 17 dogs and 10 puppies.
Alice Lacey says when they arrived on the scene back in 2021 they began finding dogs in every corner, in awful living conditions.
She says she was delighted with Thursday’s outcome and hopes it sets a precedent.
Alice says on the day they immediately called for Garda assistance, with most of the dogs malnourished and without water.
“One of those dogs was chained so tightly he was actually in a hunched over position, he couldn’t actually move, get into a shelter or sit down, anything he was in that one position and that chain had actually started to cut into his neck and we needed to use a bolt cutters to actually remove it at the time, it was awful, yeah, awful.”
She says that she is hopeful this will pave the way for future court cases of this nature.
“We have the Animal Health and Welfare Act which came in in 2013, and came into force in 2014, we try to enforce that to the best of our abilities when we are out doing these welfare calls. We are trying to make people accountable, we only know about these cases due to the public picking up the phone and ringing in. I know other countries like Sweden where they have laws in place that you are not allowed to have your dog outside for a certain period of time without bringing it inside. I am just hoping that in the near future we will start to go down that route as well.”
