New figures show that Laois has one of only two county pounds in Ireland where no dog died in 2017.
New statistics for the Department of Rural and Community Development show that Laois and Cavan are the only two county dog pounds where dogs had not died or were not euthanised last year.
In all, 228 dogs stayed in the Laois Dog Pound in Ballacolla in 2017, with 203 collected around the county, 16 were surrendered and nine were seized.
A total of 44 dogs were claimed by their owners within five days of being found, while 48 were rehomed.
The majority of the dogs, 133 of them, were taken from the pound by dog rescue groups. By New Year’s Eve, just three dogs in the Laois pound were waiting for homes.
Laois Dog Pound has one dog warden and is run by the ISPCA.
Official figures show that the service coss taxpayers €112,361 in 2017. While they have an income of €63,852, they have outgoings of €176,213.
Some of these figures were read out at the latest Laois County Council meeting.
Don’t breed dogs
Cllr Willie Aird urged people to stop breeding dogs. “I didn’t know 133 dogs were not wanted, will people please keep that in mind when breeding,” he said.
Based on issued licences, the official number of dogs in Laois is 3,321. That is less than one dog per 25 people.
The council’s environment section stated that the number of stray dogs has fallen from 363 to 228 this year. This is in line with national falling numbers.
Twenty on-the-spot fines were issued in 2017, eight were paid and there were no prosecutions or convictions.
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