Great news from Ireland: drops in number of dogs abandoned and dogs put to sleep

Huge congratulations are due to everyone working in dog welfare in Ireland.

Latest Government figures show that there has been another huge drop in the number of abandoned dogs in Ireland as well as a big fall in the numbers of dogs put to sleep in Irish pounds.

Hats off, in particular, to everyone at Dogs Trust in Ireland. Since being established in Ireland 2005, Dogs Trust has neutered over 50,000 dogs and conducted around 2,000 classroom presentations. A Dublin Rehoming Centre was established in 2009 and is already rehoming over 100 dogs every month.

As a result of everybody’s hard work, the numbers of dogs destroyed in Irish pounds has dropped from 16,546 to 6,536 since 2005. That’s over 10,000 fewer dogs destroyed.

Obviously, there’s still a lot of work to do but we’re convinced that the numbers will continue to fall in the years ahead. Good work Ireland!

Dogs Trust goes International as Liza Fitzpatrick helps "fashion" a home for Man's Best Friend in Ireland

Dogs Trust is soon to have its 18th Rehoming Centre, and the first International site, with the creation of a state of the art complex in Dublin.

TV style guru Lisa Fitzpatrick is today helping us mark the start of work on the new site, which is the next stage of our work in the Republic of Ireland, which began in 2005. The aim is to bring an end to the destruction of stray and abandoned dogs through a national neutering campaign, an education programme and, of course, the new Centre.

Over 12,500 stray and abandoned dogs were destroyed in Ireland in 2007 for want of a good home. That’s the equivalent of 34 dogs every day. The new Dogs Trust Dublin which will care for over 1,000 stray and abandoned dogs from all over Ireland every year.

Located north of the city, (near junction 5 of the M50), the centre will provide everything an abandoned dog needs to get him back on his paws again including the love of our specially trained staff. The Rehoming Centre will be conveniently located off the Ashbourne Road so it will be easy to get to from both North and South of Dublin.

The Rehoming Centre will include the following:

• 24 rehoming kennels (all angled and glass fronted)
• 6 puppy kennels (all glass fronted)
• Indoor puppy play area
• 30 holding kennels (all angled and glass fronted)
• Sponsor Dog Suite with three glass-fronted 'homes' for sponsor dogs
• Underfloor heating for all kennels
• Surgical suite - see below for how you can help with this!*
• Behaviour assessment and training suite
• Training barn
• 6 free-running exercise and play areas
• Accommodation for 3 members of staff to live on-site

Dogs Trust Chief Executive, Clarissa Baldwin, said:

“We are so thrilled to be starting building work on our very first Rehoming Centre in the Republic of Ireland. We look forward to working together with our local partners in Dublin towards helping as many stray and abandoned dogs as we can. This new Rehoming Centre will enable us to care for over 100 rescue dogs at any one time and help us to find new homes for all these dogs with so much love to give.”

Lisa told us:

“It is a pleasure to be a part of this event which marks the beginning of a brighter future for dogs in Ireland. I look forward to seeing the finished results of this stylish and cutting edge Rehoming Centre in September 2009. I’m sure it will be amazing if plans are anything to go by!”

Dogs Trust will provide regular updates over the year on progress. Meanwhile, check out the picture above of the plans to get an idea of what to expect.

*Surgical suite: Building a fully equipped vet suite will cost £180,000. Can you help us raise the funds? If you want to contribute towards the building of the new suite, you can do so by simply making a donation on the Dogs Trust website, choosing "Dublin appeal" from the dropdown to ensure your money goes directly where you want it to. There is also a link to this appeal on our Facebook Page. The dogs in our care thank you for your generous support.