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SCOTLAND IS A state of some 5.3 million people, about 15 per cent more than Ireland. Every year in Scotland about 500 dogs are destroyed, according to the Dogs Trust. In Ireland we kill almost that many in a month. Fifteen dogs that end up in pounds are put down every day, about 5,500 in a year.
These are not dogs being euthanised at the end of their happy lives by tearful families. These are creatures that have been abandoned and abused. Perhaps the image springing to mind is of awful breeders keeping puppy farms in squalid conditions, but the reality is that many of these 5,500 dogs sent to slaughter are put there by negligent but otherwise normal families.
Before Christmas animal charities under the banner of the Animal Rights Action Network (ARAN) pleaded with people to cross pets off their gift list unless they were absolutely committed to taking care of one long term. Then, like the inevitability of the Sun rising in January we hear from dog welfare groups that the annual dumping of dogs is proceeding apace.
The Cork Dog Action Welfare Group reported last weekend that they had run out of places to home abandoned dogs, with an increase in the number abandoned versus the previous year. The ISPCA pointed out to TheJournal.ie that they typically see dog abandonment peaking towards May, as puppies “have gotten bigger or started chewing on the sofa and may have lost their cute appeal”.
Kathrina Bentley, spokeswoman for The Dogs Trust, said there was a shift in the trend with more people abandoning their dogs before Christmas than after. “Lots of people were getting rid of their one-year-old dog from the year before,” she explained.
The charity’s kennels have been overwhelmed in the last month and are now full to capacity.
Charity organisations like The Dogs Trust do not kill animals that come into their care. But kennels that get the overflow put the animals down after about five days, old or young, collared or chipped or not. It is cruel, but there is only so much money available to look after abandoned animals.
It is not the blame of kennels that so many pets are abandoned. It is the fault of callous, shallow minded individuals who are incapable of making good decisions or living with their poor ones.
Dogs piss on the floor. They eat shoes. They will chew through furniture. They do, surprisingly to some, get bigger. Indeed, after thousands of years of observation through domestication we can actually tell how big depending on the breed. Cats will scrape things, including you. Hamsters escape and run riot through homes. None of this ought to come as a surprise to anyone intelligent enough to dress themselves. For everyone else, there’s Google.
Animals are not humans, and they do not require the same protections in law that, say, children do. But animals are the next best thing to humans on this planet, and particularly domesticated pets that we have bred to be mostly incapable of independent survival.
There is no reason why 5,500 dogs have to be killed in this country every year. They’re not bred for food or work, but purely for domestic pleasure. Owning a pet is an entirely discretionary activity.
The only reason they have to die is because otherwise ordinary folks are happy to turn a blind eye to the consequences of their actions. They abandon a pet that has the mental age of a two-year-old person and that is fiercely and unconditionally attached to its family, and then tell the neighbours that it ran away or that they just couldn’t cope. Well, bully for you. The dog, meanwhile, will wander lost; be picked up and put in an unfamiliar and distressing pound; and then die on a cold slab for lack of a better alternative.
Oh yes, you didn’t actually inject the dog with the poison used to kill it. But you got a dog, driving demand for more dogs to be bred. You decided you didn’t like it and abandoned it. The only reason it ended up on a cold slab in a drab kennel is because you put it there.
We give more thought to car ownership than pet ownership. My car is registered to me. It’s my responsibility to keep it in shape and if it’s found somewhere it shouldn’t be, abandoned or otherwise, it’s my problem unless it was stolen.
I don’t think that we need to see dogs and other pets die on such a massive scale. Pets are supposed to be registered and should be micro chipped as a matter of course. This should be better enforced. Then, when an animal is abandoned, the original owner should be forced to pay maintenance to the pet charity or kennel that keeps it until a new home is found.
Why not? Nobody forces a pet onto anyone except the kennels and charities that look after them once they’re abandoned. Decent quality dog kennels will charge about €15-€20 a night to keep a pet, say when you’re on holiday. That might be a bit steep, but frankly my sympathy is limited.
If people have a genuine reason to need to give up a pet, they should firstly make efforts to find it a new home and if that doesn’t work then the cost of pet maintenance could be abated. Genuine reasons might include a family member becoming sick, or someone getting older and becoming too infirm to look after a pet.
Otherwise, pets that are taken into your home ought to have a right to stay in a home until the natural end of their lives. It will encourage pet owners to power through the difficult teething phases; or to find their unwanted pet a new loving home.
Five hundred dogs are destroyed in Scotland each year – 5,500 meet a needless end here in Ireland. Doesn’t say a lot for us as a civilized nation, does it? We should take steps to end this shame.
You can’t say that though you can call for Jihad
If he has used the term Isreali rather than Jew and called for destruction of Israel woukd he have got jail sentence…
Whilst the libtards want the world to be lined with cotton wool, I also agree this is ridiculous. Obviously if there is outright incitement to and encouragement to violence then jail. But otherwise, free speech should be paramount. Yes this man is a horrible person but we should hear what he says, listen to his arguments and learn from him, then demonstrate the stupidity and hatred in his philosophy. Hiding him in jail just facilitates them even more.
So many rightards who don’t understand the difference between Free Speech and Hate Speech, not surprising given the low levels of intelligence amongst the Alt-Right cohort.
I think that a longer sentence would be appropriate as a deterrence.
@OpenBorders: I agree. The statements were false, prejudiced, extremely hateful, a dangerous denial of the human status of the victims and likely to stir up anti Semitic violence.
I disagree with his statements, but I’m not right leaning. Whether or not what he did was disgusting (and I think people who think like him are disgusting), I still think he should have the right to do so, once he does not specifically invite people to violence. And I want to know these people rather than have them locked up. Essentially he is being locked up for thought crime. He still thinks what he said I am sure. Also, because he said it without the protection of religion (some religions look unfavourably upon Jews) he could be prosecuted. If he stated the same thing from a religious stand he would not even be prosecuted.
@Clever Jake: What you point to is to a certain extent correct, but there is still an unimaginable lack of accountability at higher levels. Those people , are unfortunately above, and protected from all laws, national and international. Still a few brave and honest people around though. :
VIDEO: Rep. Tulsi Gabbard Introduces Legislation to Stop Arming Terrorists
Washington, DC—Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (HI-02) introduced the Stop Arming Terrorists Act today. The legislation would prohibit the U.S. government from using American taxpayer dollars to provide funding, weapons, training, and intelligence support to groups like the Levant Front, Fursan al Ha and other allies of Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, al-Qaeda and ISIS, or to countries who are providing direct or indirect support to those same groups.
https://gabbard.house.gov/news/press-releases/video-rep-tulsi-gabbard-introduces-legislation-stop-arming-terrorists
@John B: I don’t think that there should be a right to spread hate, prejudice and hold up any group to contempt and hate by adopting the viewpoint of the Nazis.
@Pat O’Dwyer: Rep. Tulsi Gabbard said, “Under U.S. law it is illegal for any American to provide money or assistance to al-Qaeda, ISIS or other terrorist groups. If you or I gave money, weapons or support to al-Qaeda or ISIS, we would be thrown in jail. Yet the U.S. government has been violating this law for years, quietly supporting allies and partners of al-Qaeda, ISIL, Jabhat Fateh al Sham and other terrorist groups with money, weapons, and intelligence support, in their fight to overthrow the Syrian government.[i]
“The CIA has also been funneling weapons and money through Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar and others who provide direct and indirect support to groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda. This support has allowed al-Qaeda and their fellow terrorist organizations to establish strongholds throughout Syria, including in Aleppo.
“A recent New York Times article confirmed that ‘rebel groups’ supported by the U.S. ‘have entered into battlefield alliances with the affiliate of al-Qaeda in Syria, formerly known as al Nusra.’ This alliance has rendered the phrase ‘moderate rebels’ meaningless. Reports confirm that ‘every armed anti-Assad organization unit in those provinces [of Idlib and Aleppo] is engaged in a military structure controlled by [al-Qaeda’s] Nusra militants.’
@OpenBorders: I have little doubt that you are highly excremental but you are entitled to your opinion and to express it as you wish since you are merely attempting to ridicule me as an individual and not because I belong to a particular group or type.
So press ahead all you wish.
You’ve probably sussed it Tony but that last reply was from one of my admirers from Cork!
@OpenBorders: I knew that but it allowed me make a point.
The point is that people can express hate, abuse, contempt, ridicule and insult but as long as it is towards the individual as an individual it is legitimate and fair expression.
@Tony Daly: and the remark was directed to your admirer since yiu already know the point.
Free speech ?? As a counterbalance to (Mis) and (Dis ) information :
Jeff Bezos, Amazon endorse holocaust denial! (UPDATED)
By Kevin Barrett, Veterans Today Editor
In what amounts to a ringing endorsement of the claims of Holocaust revisionists, Amazon.com has apparently concluded that their books cannot be effectively refuted – and therefore must be banned.
M.S. King, author of The Bad War, has been notified that his book has been banned from Amazon. The explanation:
We’re contacting you regarding the following book: The Bad War: The Truth NEVER Taught About World War II. During our review process, we found that this content is in violation of our content guidelines. As a result, we cannot offer this book for sale.
Amazon did not explain precisely which guidelines had been violated, nor did it cite specific passages. Therefore the “violations” claim is an obvious lie. The real reason King’s book and others were banned is that Jewish-Zionist pressure groups have mounted a campaign (timed to accompany the “cemetery desecration” PR stunt?) aimed at making Holocaust revisionism books unavailable. Obviously they believe the revisionists’ claims are irrefutable — and have convinced Amazon that such is the case.
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2017/03/08/bezos-denial/
Hate speech, as damaging as it is, is just that – speech. You wouldn’t see 4 years sentences for serious assaults yet putting hateful comments online, which people have to follow you to see, is deemed worthy of a substantial sentence.
These fashionable offences are dragging all the attention away from the old-skool but more harmful theft and violent crime.
Israeli politicians have made similar disgusting remarks about Palestinians but there’s not even condemnation of that!
Its par for the course with some extremists in that part of the world. You get Palestinian politicians/ clerics telling their people to go stab jews etc etc. Im guessing you condemn this too?
@Jimmy Ireland: this was extreme,y dangerous hate speech and hadca hugh likelihood of leading to attacks on people who are Jewish or suspected of being Jewish. I think that, for the purposes of effective deterrence, a longer sentence would have been appropriate.
@Tony Daly: you not going to respond to David Rafferty or Honeybadger197? didnt think so
I know it’s important for you to tell us about what some nobody in England said and all but will you be doing an article about the dangerous armed Albanian ‘refugees’ that we recently received into *this* country?
That’s the UK too.
@Lisa Saputo:
They were arrested in the UK. They applied for refugee status in Ireland. Being able to read is super!
And? What’s the connection to this story?
@Lisa Saputo:
No connection.
I’m just curious as to why thejournal writes about court cases in other countries that would barely make the local news yet they ignore stories about dangerous foreign criminals in Ireland.
Because it’s not that interesting to anyone apart from rampant xenophobes.
@Lisa Saputo:
I find the fact that we allow dangerous armed criminals to wander around this country and others to be interesting and I’m not a rampant xenophobe.
Reporting on foreign criminals who claim asylum in Ireland is now xenophobic?! The shark has been jumped.
What war is currently being fought in Albania that necessitates these guys to claim asylum here?
Speaking of dangerous armed criminals, how are the kinahans getting along?
@Dave Thomas:
Go read one of the multitude of articles about them to find out!
So because Ireland has a homegrown gangland problem we should allow foreign criminals in to, otherwise it’s xenophobic?! Take the rest of the weekend off, Dave.
Eh…. That’s in the UK bucko… Fact check much?
@Dubabroad:
Yeah, bucko – I fact check all the time!
If you did the same you would know that the Albanians in question applied for asylum in Ireland, as stated both in the article I linked to and by my handsome self earlier in this thread!
Ha ha! Take your medicine Naberius, you got owned!
@OpenBorders:
I own everyone, especially you!
He got what he desirved just because irish judges don’t like jailing people don’t think four years is harsh
Has the journal reported Dane Tyghe to the Gardaí for calling Republicans subhuman animals? ☺
@Andrew Corcoran: it is a false statement and utterly unjustified but I consider that Republicans are not a racial, ethnic or religious minority.
Tony> the hate crime laws in the UK are actually more inclusive than that. A goth girl was beaten to death for being a goth so they expanded the laws to include all sorts of groupings.
@Kal Ipers: I am not keen on beating people to death because of their identity or for any reason.
Hateful prejudice can be powerfully contagious.
@Tony: so it’s only wrong to call someone a subhuman animal if they’re a minority?!! Surely it doesn’t matter what religion you are, what ethnicity you are or what race you are.
As an American I find this appallingly retrograde. Still jailing heretics! Thought crime!
It’s not heresy, it’s the ramblings of a deluded, disgusting bigot.
That said, no one should be jailed for speech unless it’s a direct threat of violence or slander.
Locking up bigots will not stop bigotry.
It’s not a thought if you said it out loud.
Genocide> As an American your country doesn’t have laws that we have. Hate speech is illegal here in Europe and it isn’t thought police. We are fully aware of what can happen when you allow it. What do you care about it? Thinly veiled racist name along with the misappropriation of the celtic cross as racist symbol. Wonder why racists need to steal other cultural symbols to use do you not have any artist people about. Hitler was a painter why did he need to steal an indian symbol
As a European I find America appalling.
He was jailed for inciting hatred which is a crime.
“Make America White Again” LOL .How will you go about doing this ?
@StopWhiteGenocide: it was far more than thought crime. It was prejudiced, malevolent and potentially capable of leading to violence and ghettoisation.
@StopWhiteGenocide: When you say StopWhiteGenocide, I assume you are referring to the White Genocide inflicted on the indigenous people of North and South America, and Australia, by white people?
The conviction was by a jury of ordinary citizens. It was a conviction based on evidence. The statement were wholly false, unjustified and way beyond the scope of ordinary prejudice.
It is unfortunate but social media and easier means of broad communication is giving a small minority of people a platform for disseminating hate.
Hate tends to lead to violence.
Look at the assassination of the late Jo Cox MP by Thomas Mair when thevrhetiruc if the far right pushes impressiinable and disturbed people into cowardly assassination.
Killing a human being silences the human being.
Speech can be dangerous when it is poisoned with pure hate.
Would we be happy for such remarks to be made against the Irish living in England?
The Defendant, Lawrence Burns, got a fair trial more than he would have allowed his victims.
have your say