Exceptionally, I sign a petition - on a life and death issue for Irish dogs
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2013-09-20 13:17:56 - Graham EllisI'm not a great signatory to petitions I know little about - in fact I won't sign without a strong knowledge of the subject - either directly or from a source I trust.
So it's exceptional for me to have signed up to a petition calling for dogs to be allowed to continue to travel from Ireland to the United Kingdom without a rabies vaccination given 21 or more days prior to travel. EU law calls for this requirement between countries, but it has never been enforced from Ireland to the UK, and with both Ireland and the UK rabies free it's "just" more red tape. Except it's more than just red tape. It's a significant extra cost on transporting dogs and, regrettably, there are many dogs in Ireland - greyhounds especially, but others too, that need to be rescued. Unfortunately, in Ireland dogs are often treated as a commodity and dog pounds there put large numbers to sleep. Oh - that's a euphemism - they kill lots of healthy dogs.I don't know - in reality - how many fewer dogs will be rescued if the regulations, which exist to counter a rabies problem that does not exist from Ireland, are enforced. But I do want to say "enforcement would be madness". And I have checked up on that - the following is from the trustees at the dog rescue centre where we adopted Billy from:
"We are obviously worried about this as we try and help the greyhounds of Ireland as much as possible as they have very little chance of being rehomed as they are just not seen as family pets!! - so sad. It this happens it will be extremely bad news for the people in Ireland trying to save these lovely dogs." - [see their site]
So, I have put my name to
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/649/515/007/eu-ruling-threatens-the-future-of-dog-rescue-organisations-in-ireland/.
I don't know where that goes; I don't know what difference it can make. I don't even know if there's anyone in the UK who can influence this. I don't know how serious the threat of enforcing this apparently senseless rule is. But I do know that I'm proud to stand up and say that I consider that enforcement would be a silly step. And, yes, I do know that the whole underlying problem is the overbreeding of dogs in Ireland, and if that could be solved ...
For the record, neither Gypsy nor Billy happen to have Irish origins - certain people in England treated them as badly before they were rescued - but that's another story