Pound Dogs Need a Second Chance!

Recently there have been some questions about how we do the work we do at DAWG. Dogs come into our care in a variety of ways; we rescue abused, surrendered and abandoned dogs to give them a second chance at finding loving homes. We also take dogs on ‘death row’ in pounds from all over Ireland whenever space in our foster homes or sanctuary allows.

The sad truth is that kill rates in many Irish pounds continue to be extraordinarily high. This set of statistics comes from SpayAware.ie and shows figures for 2013 gathered from the Department of the Environment:

These numbers are appalling: dogs going into county or city pounds in Limerick City (52.83%), Cork County (66.05%), or North Tipperary County (53.95%) are more likely to die than to be re-homed.

The admirable effort and changes in the county and city pounds with the lowest kill rates shows that this problem can be addressed and more dogs can be re-homed. In common with many other animal charities, rescues, pounds and shelters, we work to educate the public about the benefits of adoption and the necessity of spaying and neutering.

Our two most recent pound rescues are Ethel and Mona, who came from Monaghan County Council Dog Pound in April on the day they were scheduled to be put to sleep:

Today both dogs are in the care of DAWG fosterers, adjusting to family life and looking forward to the day they are ready to be put up for adoption so they can start new lives with new, loving owners. Sadly, last year more than 3,500 dogs like Mona and Ethel never made it from city and county pounds into adoptive families or rescues, and were put to sleep. Thousands more dogs like these urgently need change in many of the country’s worst city and county pounds so that they too can have a future.

Photo ©Ichtor