The volunteers with puppies Lexi and Alfie outside the court.
A MAN WHO abused two young puppies in Co Laois before throwing them over a wall appeared in court last week.
To mark his appearance, 22 volunteers from Cara Rescue Dogs, who cared for the two pups, turned up at the court, each wearing Cara Rescue Dogs hoodies.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, Lorraine McEvoy of Cara Rescue Dogs said:
It was not a protest – we staged a silent appearance. We were on the left hand side of courtroom, we all walked in quietly and sat quietly and left quietly. There wasn’t a word said.
She said their appearance was not to intimidate the judge, but to show their support for the prosecution of the man, who dumped the two puppies, Alfie and Lexi, over a 10-foot wall.
Injured
When the puppies were found, they both had a number of injuries. While Lexi’s face was injured, she also had burst blood vessels around her eyes and was discovered to be blind.
Her brother went unconscious on the way to the vet’s, and flinched when people tried to touch him. The pair are now in foster care.
The puppies had been at the dumping spot for up to five days.
Court date
“We really were hopeful for a good outcome,” said McEvoy, who said the man had given a full statement to gardaí about what had occurred.
This statement was read out in court. “It was very overwhelming for us,” said McEvoy.
I’m not lying when I tell you you could hear a pin drop in the courtroom.
The puppies were found after residents heard the pups crying from behind the wall. “They were very dehydrated, their little mouths were sore and blistered,” recalled McEvoy.
The man was fined and ordered to undertake community service in lieu of a custodial sentence. The judge said that the community service could preferably be undertaken with an animal welfare organisation, a decision Cara Rescue Dogs are not happy with.
When the judge announced the sentence, the Cara volunteers left the court.
“I took my handbag and left. There were mouths dropping open – we didn’t say a word and left the courthouse,” said McEvoy.
She said they were “really disgusted” about the fact the man was not banned from having animals at any particular time.
“I was physically shaking as the judge read out the sentence,” said McEvoy.
Crisis point
Cara Rescue Dogs has a “huge” amount of dogs in its care, and McEvoy said “you can never be 100 per cent sure what happened” to them.
We get an awful lot of nervous dogs and puppies in, but you can only assume [what happened].
“I really don’t feel enough cases are brought [to court],” said McEvoy, who described the abandoned dog situation in Ireland as a crisis.
“It’s a huge crisis – people don’t realise,” she said. “No minister, none of the government are really interested in this to be honest.” The centre spends between €3000 and €5000 on vet bills for the rescued dogs every month.
- All images provided by Cara Rescue Dogs.
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