Ireland’s “shameful” standing as the ‘puppy capital of Europe’ was highlighted at a Monday morning meeting at the Mansion House.
Animal welfare advocates, including representatives from Dog Advocacy Ireland, met with the Lord Mayor of Dublin today. “Unscrupulous” puppy farmers across Ireland are earning €200 million a year from their ‘barbaric’ activity, a spokesperson told Gript.
Ireland has “shamefully” gained a reputation as the puppy farm capital of Europe, advocates told Cllr Ray McAdam, Lord Mayor of Dublin as they called for stricter enforcement of existing laws and further action to tackle the number of puppy farms.
Speaking today, the Lord Mayor said he understood the importance of highlighting dog breeders who are reputable.
He said he welcomed the fact that the EU is considering introducing minimum standards on puppy farms, adding that the Government will look in more detail at new legislation for Ireland in 2026.
The issue was raised in the Dáil earlier this month. During a debate on animal welfare, the chamber heard that pregnant female dogs can be bred over and over again in “horrific” conditions, often not getting enough water of light, care, interaction or love.
According to Dogs Advocacy Ireland, up to 30,000 animals are exported annually with legislation allowing for up to 300 breeding bitches per establishment.
A Sunday Times investigation earlier this year which tracked advertisements, dealers, and shipments of dogs that have been flown to cities across the world from Dublin Airport, said that Ireland has “quietly become the biggest producer of puppies in Europe.”
“Over the last number of years, the situation has deteriorated rapidly with the majority of newly bought pups in Ireland coming from cruel puppy farms,” said founder John O’Callaghan.
Dogs Advocacy Ireland are among those who are urging people to adopt, don’t shop, this Christmas.
“Do not buy a puppy for Christmas,” he added. “There are 237 rescue shelters with dogs needing loving homes.”
The trade in puppies operates on supply and demand, says O’Callaghan, who points out that 49 per cent of Irish homes now own a dog. There are 89 registered dog breeding establishments and an unknown number of unregistered operations across the Republic.
“We founded the organisation to address the appalling and intolerable negligence of animal welfare and dog welfare specifically. What we want to address is the dysfunctionality of the current government system in dealing with pupping farming.
“Our current government and successive governments have failed to address this alarming issue. There is very much a sense when you look for answers from the government that everybody’s responsible but at the same time, nobody’s responsible.”
Mr O’Callaghan continued: “The Department of Agriculture holds responsibility for the animal Health and Welfare Act, which, from what I can see, they are totally indifferent to. I have engaged with some senior government officials and they are totally indifferent. The Health and Welfare Act is simply not being implemented. It’s not being enforced.”
The Department of Rural and Community Development holds responsibility for the Control of Dogs Act. In addition, there’s the Dog Breeding Establishment Act, which the local government is responsible for enforcing.
“The responsibility for enforcement of the laws is strewn across different government departments, which has led to chaos and dysfunction. What we are seeing is a lack of governance and a lack of enforcement. We need urgent action to deal with the abuse and mistreatment of dogs.”
Mr O’Callaghan said that female dogs who can have up to six litters in their lifetimes, and many, still puppies themselves, are being forced to have their own pups.
Thousands of dogs are exported every year in what is a lucrative industry. Mr O’Callaghan says that licensed breeders are among those who are “making a fortune” from a demand for designer and pedigree dogs, with some pets being shipped to continental Europe and Asia from puppy farms in Ireland.
Puppies in Singapore, he said, can fetch €4,000 to €5,000 each, meaning that some breeders are earning up to €20,000 per week.
“Puppies are being taken away from their mothers at ten weeks old and they are being shipped ac ross the world to places like Singapore,” he says. “It’s a huge market.”
He pointed to a 2024 case in Cork, where more than 50 dogs were found emaciated and hungry at a “filthy” west Cork puppy farm. An animal welfare inspector told Clonakilty District Cork last year that animals were forced to sleep in their faeces and that one dog’s hair was so matted it was as hard as cement.
Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals welfare inspector Caroline Faherty reported that the dogs were kept in “appalling” conditions at the breeding kennels run by couple William and Eleanor Sheehy at Grange More in Timoleague.
Last December, the married couple, who operated the puppy farm from an old piggery on their property, had the severity of their sentences reduced on appeal in the Circuit Court.
Separately, but also in Cork, a case heard in Mallow District Court in January of this year heard that another owner kept emaciated dogs in such poor conditions that they were so disfigured they could only walk on their knees.
Vasyl Fedoryn kept 13 dogs in “putrid” conditions, many with no water, their coats matted in faeces at his home in Ballypierce, Charleville, Cork, the Irish Examiner reported.
“I was horrified at the state of the poor dogs in there,” an ISPCA inspector said. “I made the decision I had to seize the dogs and puppies as they were in danger.”
The dogs were all “extremely nervous” and were very difficult to remove, inspector Caroline Faherty said, adding that hens were also being kept at the farm with no bedding, and rats were living in the sheds.
O’Callaghan also pointed to the 2016 BBC investigation into a huge puppy farm in Co Cavan. The licensed puppy farm, Misty Meadow, run by Ray Cullivan in Poles, was discovered to keep dogs in conditions in breach of animal welfare rules.
Whilst the puppy farm was broadcast on Panorama, leading to outrage, including from TDs in the Dail, no action was taken against Mr Cullivan.
“It’s a national scandal,” Mr O’Callaghan told Gript. “As you and I speak right now, there are thousands of dogs all over the country being abused and mistreated in these hell holes. Female dogs are being bred like ATM machines.”
“These dogs are being bred in sometimes horrific conditions because of total greed, and the Government is complicit by its lack of action and indifference.”
The meeting on Monday highlighted the “dysfunctionality” of the current governance system, a lack of inspection, and the “gross mistreatment of dogs resulting unscrupulous breeders raking in hundreds of millions of euro per year.”
Dogs Advocacy Ireland now want to see a cross-party lobby group formed to specifically address the issue of puppy farming. In addition, the group believes that an independent animal welfare authority should be set up to ensure responsibility, accountability and transparency.
“We hope this meeting will help ensure we get that commitment. It’s a national scandal, and more people need to know about this and the scale of cruelty we are seeing. At the minute, when you ring the Departments who are supposed to be responsible, it is our experience that it is a case of ‘That’s nothing to do with us.’ Each Department is passing responsibility onto the other. It’s clearly not working.”