Animal welfare and puppy exports
Deputy McAuliffe raised puppy-farm exports and support for cat rescue groups, after a joking aside about a kitten and the Pope. Deputy Coveney responded humorously, said he had sympathy for the issue, and drew on his own rescue-dog experience.
If Miriam Lord is to be believed, the Minister was once involved in a bribery allegation involving His Holiness the Pope, a family member and a puppy.
Comment on this
I raise with him the issue of animal welfare. Yesterday, the DSPCA said we need to do far more on the issue of exporting puppies bred on puppy farms. Representatives of the North Dublin Cat Rescue have told me that we need to do far more to support voluntary organisations spaying feral cats. Will the Minister raise these matters with the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Marine, as I also will?
Comment on this
It was actually a kitten rather than a puppy in order to get my four-year-old to present some flowers to His Holiness the Pope when he got off the plane. She got stage fright and I had to bribe her with a kitten. Approximately 40 animal shelters offered me kittens, one of which I took and is now called Spirit or the Holy Spirit in my house.
I have considerable sympathy for this issue. Both dogs in my house are rescue dogs. One of them, which I got through the DSPCA, was taken from the boot of a car in Dublin Port by the Garda. I am very familiar with this issue. I was the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Marine when we introduced the animal welfare legislation, which is substantial legislation. I will speak to the Minister on the issue. I believe he is very much of the same opinion as I am.