<a class='url' href='http://www.limerickanimalwelfare.com/law/crueltycases.htm'>http://www.limerickanimalwelfare.com/law/crueltycases.htm</a>

I warn you this is very very upsetting

I just wish we could do something more to make a difference. One of the girls who goes on LRNW is going over to Ireland to go and pick up Serena

I have been weeping at all the poor animals especially that poor horse

Run free your poor little love :)

Lucy
xx

awful :( i have no words :( :( :( poor neddie :(

how awful (or words to that effect) :(  I kept looking even though I wanted to come out of the site.... poor poor creatures. Why?????

Words fail me..how very sad...for those poor dogs.

absolutely heartbreaking,I am sobbing and can barely see to type.

why...

absolutely heartbreaking,I am sobbing and can barely see to type.

why...

absolutely heartbreaking,I am sobbing and can barely see to type.

why...

Why? Why? Why? heartbreaking!!!

Had to stop reading at the second picture (Hubert) :( :( Heartbreaking :(

What is wrong with these people who can let animals suffer in this way the punishment for them usually community service or the like and thats if they catch them in the first place. What sort of mind can watch a poor animal suffer and deteriorate in this way.
I am so upset...even more so angry

sorry I posted 3 times above...it kept saying I had done something wrong but had obviously posted each time it said it couldn't??

It is very sad :( and Irish Charities deserve all the financial support they can get to educate people and care for these animals.  I am probably going to upset somebody here :) but I do not really feel mainland charities should be spending money going across to remove animals and place in a home here when the RSPCA are putting down 7000 dogs a year in England because there are not enough homes for them.  It does not make sense to me and seems to waste valuable resources on ferry fares etc.

The rescue I work for and another I support help Irish Labs and Lab crosses come over and this is without ever turning away any dog on the mainland away :) It is done with the support of many people both with both practical and financial support :)

Sorry, Lucy, I suppose if that is what the money is collected to do then those people giving obviously wish to see it happen but I still don't understand the logic of it :)  We know that many, many dogs are not homed in the UK.  If a charity finds themselves with excess funds and no dogs at present in their care needing it why not support other charities within the UK that do have a deficit or simply donate it to the Irish Charities to do their work there.  We know that a problem exists in Ireland and much education is needed. That way no money is wasted on transport costs?

have spent hours on the site and still havent finished reading about the sad dogs- the greyhounds in particular are breaking my heart as is the thought of some yobs setting their pitpulls on a poor lab cross that they tied to a fence. its been an eye opener for me, it seems a lot worse than in uk? i want to donate but feel i should donate to uk as well.

I am all for donating where ever your heart tells you :)  It is only the spending of the money that I like to see done logically and with the maximum benefit.

Had to stop reading.

How can people be so cruel.

Very very sad. But its always worth reading just for the happy endings.

that may possibly be the same one I am relaying on Saturday Lucy....:)

The transportation cost are covered by the people who relay the dogs, not the charity.... I am a chain in the link on Saturday where a Lab is being brought to me and I will then take him on another leg of his journey etc....(somehow managed to get a lurcher it tow too, as this boy was being put to sleep today just because he is 10....he is being moved to a rescue who have a no destroy policy) and he is joining me from the 1st leg of the Labs journey.....

All this costs are borne by us (a few quid in petrol and a few hours of our time) leaving the much needed finances with the rescues :D

Love the new siggy Lucy...  :D   Sue from LF came up from Swansea for a visit and was pinned to the wall for ooooh 15mins :D :D

If no donated money is being used then, yes, if that is what people want to do it's entirely up to them but I do still feel any transports costs can be spent in a more productive way to help animals in a more general way instead of individuals.  Everybodies petrol will add up and I know ferry fares to and from Ireland are not cheap but I do appreciate it is the heart that reaches out to individual dogs :)

I wish to reply to this  Isabel as a rescue who do take dogs from ireland.
The thing is that the homes are not avaiable in ireland the homes are few and far between and if in my case Labs can be brought here to safety and a new home then why not.
We try to take a few a month but we also set up Jacobs fund in memory of a lovely lab boy who had been badly neglected he came over here to a new and loving home sadly Jacob died so we decided that if people felt strongly as I do that the money could go into the irish fund so that people could choose if they wanted to help us with the irish dogs or not therefor not using general fund for transport costs then if an adopter kindly gives a donation for an irish lab then the money goes back to jacobs fund to help another dog.
You would need to really talk to the helpers over there to realise the terrible problem they are having.
there is alb bitch coming over she has been dragged all through the streets in saeson by packs of dogs the poor girl is traumatised she is coming over we will spay her and she will find a good home
The simple thing is its ok to send money over  yes to their rescues but they do not have the homes thats where the problem lies and so no amount of discusion alters that we are lucky the couriers will bring them over for us.
I spoke to someone today about the irish situation he said he went over last week and it was like england in the 50s dogs roaming around all over but these were pedigree dogs and  the pounds have a no homing policy so if a dog is signed in by an owner its put down the same day  but if its a stray he gets 7 days that is the golden hour if you like when rescues can get working to get the dogs out.
Long may the Irish rescuers seek and find help here those people are saints they truly deserve a medal

I understand you are doing what you want to do, Mattie, but I'm afraid it doesn't change my view.  You say homes don't exist but they do just as much as they do in England the only difference is those homes are not taking in rescue dogs.  That is why money needs to be spend on education and rescue promotion.  You say we are lucky but the RSPCA put down 7000 dogs a year in England, any one of those could have benefitted from a home given to a dog brought in and the money spend shipping him over could have been spent on the work needed to promote homing there.  By my thinking that means two dogs benefit instead of just the one.

Some of the 7000 dogs PTS - although that's probably RSPCA figures to try back up their campaigns - will not be able to be rehomed through temperament problems, ill health etc.

My local city dog kennels just doesn't have the same amount of dogs coming into it that it had, rarely do I see a dog roaming freely on the streets even in the more run down areas of Dundee.   There just aren't the same amount of strays here that there used to be.

I'm glad to hear they do not have the same number coming in but I doubt you would find it empty :)

I think that rescues who wish to bring dogs over should be allowed to follow their own conscience as long as no dog is missing out by doing so for my part its labradors I think  this country is getting to grips with it by the many nuetering schemes  available now but our goverment do not give grants like the irish do to help with the stray problem the reason they give grants is because of the terrible problems there.
Ireland,scotland,wales whats the difference I take dogs from those other places many a time so whats is the difference? in fact its cost more to transport a dog from scotland than from ireland sometimes.
also the Irish rescuers will vaccinate and often spay the dogs first so if we do not have that to pay for as we would with and english dog then in fact they can be hardly anything in it.
This  year so far our small rescue have taken in and homed 132 labs  this month   five  of the bitches bitches have come in from homes in england and each one unspayed  two not even vaccinated .
I know that  the stray problem is bad in england but its nowhere near as bad as ireland
as I say  IMHO we should be entitled to do as we feel right after all its us thats getting up at 3.am meeting couriers and caring for and finding homes so its our own decision wether we want to do it or not.
There are quite a lot of very well off breed rescues sitting on vast sums of money donated by kind people  in this country who wont even fork out kenneling fees for for dogs here but thats another story

surely a dog is a dog no matter where we rescue it from. Lab rescue never turns any dog away. We are lucky enough to have lots of supporters in our rescue, they all know where the donations go, and that is to help a labrador from wherever it comes from.
carol

Are you saying of the 132 homed only 5 were English dogs?  You are quite right Mattie, you do a good job for these dogs but I'm afraid I have heard nothing to convince me of the logic of it.  It's work on the attitudes in Ireland that needs to be done then dogs here and there can benefit so to that end it seems illogical to me to spend money shipping one dog into a home that another will lose.  It's good they are getting grants but they obviously need to spend a lot of money on promoting welfare.  Whatever improvements there may have been in the Labrador situation I cannot believe there are not still many needing rescue here at home.  If it is expensive to move them from Scotland I would rather financial support was sent there instead too.

Isabel in Eire the way they treat animals/Pets is not as we do in the UK :)

I want the best for any animal in this country but I know I can only do as much as I can which is help with LRRSE www.labrador-rescue.org.uk and support LRNW www.helpalabrador.co.uk and I also support my MIL who helps out at http://www.wars.org.uk/aresc.html

Lucy
xx

At the end of the day, a dog being cruelly treated is abhorrent, no matter where it is and the animal cannot help what country/circumstances they were born into.   If offers are help are there to ease the already overcrowded rescue places in Ireland I think we should look at the dog's welfare first & not what country it lives in.

I'm not looking at the country it lives in I am looking at the logic of spending so much in transport costs.  If it was a case of dogs in Cornwall being shipped to Norfolk when there were dogs without homes already in Norfolk I would feel the same.  Those shipping costs could be spent on actual care and creating homes by promotion.  I would say that was putting welfare first. I can understand why people want to help these individuals when they read their stories but the looking at the broader picture could help many more.

Those shipping costs could be spent on actual care and creating homes by promotion.

Or maybe like the RSPCA do and spend money donated to them on huge public advertising campaigns which only serve to irritate Joe Public?

That's a different arguement, Mattie's not going to be doing that is she ;)

No what mattie said was this month alone five  of the  bitches which have come in from homes in england were unspayed  two not even vaccinated .
so the point being we used less funds bringing five spayed/vac  labs over than we did on vet fees getting the english ones spayed/vaccinated.
no matter where they come from Irish/english they all find loving homes.
carol

I think if you look you'll find most of the movement of these dogs is done by volunteers who collect from Stranraer etc.

So clearly there is work to be done in England and it may have been less funds spent but funds all the same.

Are you saying of the 132 homed only 5 were English dogs?  You are quite right Mattie<<<<

No Isabel sorry we have had about 20 from ireland this year all the rest from other places  here

there will always be transport costs involved in rescuing dogs as even when dogs are from here there are vet runs homechecking etc.. so Im afraid transport costs are always involved in some cases volunteers often will not take their petrol costs on small runs but some need to claim them back as they cannot always afford the added expense so thy can give their time for love but their household budget may not stand  the petrol fees.

I wonder if people think about also phone costs there is much arranging done on phones etc.. letters postage   My rescue send out over 300 newsletters  4 times a year to keep our supporters  involved and interested and to show them where their precious donations go.

I have read with interest peoples replies re this discussion.I help Mattie at the Rescue and go and collect the dogs from these couriers.I will defy any true dog lover to say that when the courier door opens and you see the dogs in cages no more that 18" wide, that we are not doing the right thing.
No we never refuse a dog from this country, but if we can help in a small way then we will. Again it all comes down to peoples perception of what is really happening in the dog world.
Yes true there are dogs in this country that need our help but as Mattie has explained a dog coming over from Ireland will only cost us £60, A dog that has been brought into our Rescue may end up costing us anything up to £100,.Many of the previous owners dont get the dog vaccinated, so that adds to our cost, some come in that may need medical attention that may not be apparent when the dog first comes in.Skin problems etc. So at the end of the day who is a real dog lover, why do people like to condem volunteers,who only want to help these dogs.
It all comes down to cost dosent it, hard cash. We are constantly fundraising,our volunteers are always trying to find ways to help the funds.
For me, well from picking up a dog from the courier, to him/her, going to their new home,seeing that dog running free ,without a care in the world, that feeling is priceless,and no amount of critisism, will stop me from doing it.

:( I want to take them all home with me :( Why are people so evil

I think you are getting a bit muddled here. I am certainly not condemning volunteers.  I am merely querying whether those hard won resources are being maximised for the benefit of as many dogs as possible.