Penrose seeks changes to animal welfare legislation

An amendment to current legislation to give the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ISPCA) authority to enter establishments was called for by Labour Deputy Willie Penrose.

Addressing the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, he said a new Greyhound Industry Bill will incorporate the welfare of greyhounds “from the cradle to the grave”.

“There are people in all walks of life who may not take appropriate care of animals in the way we would like them to,” he said.

“It is important that the vast bulk of people involved in the industry as owners, breeders, trainers and everybody else do their very best in this regard. Anybody who does not take appropriate care or who behaves in an inhumane fashion in any form has to be excluded, whether that is from boards or from participation.”

Deputy Penrose said the Welfare of Greyhounds (Amendment) Bill 2017 is something in which the Dáil can implement particular standards, even though they need to be strengthened.

“Nevertheless, there is a good corpus of legislation dealing with welfare standards and we should acknowledge that,” he said.

“If there is a deficit of welfare in countries in which greyhounds or indeed any animal are being exported to, then we should call a halt to that straight away. That is apparent. Sometimes one might say that a certain country is not an acceptable place.

“We cannot do that. It cannot be based on anecdotal evidence. It has to be based on very strong empirical evidence for us to do those things. There is no use taking a blunderbuss approach and then living to regret it.

We have to be careful to do the right thing for the protection of animal welfare but we must do so based upon evidence as opposed to hunches or anecdotes.”