A dog training company, which held a protest yesterday against Dublin City Council's ban on 11 breeds of dangerous dogs, said it has received legal advice that the ban cannot be enforced on existing tenants.
Dog Training Ireland said it believes the ban on keeping any of the 11 dogs in council houses or flats cannot be applied retrospectively. Dublin City Council said yesterday it is acting within tenancy legislation.
Members from Dog Training Ireland and the Alliance For Animal Rights picketed the city council's offices in Wood Quay yesterday. Well-behaved dogs were being held accountable for the actions of irresponsible dog owners they said.
"Dublin City Council does not enforce the existing laws in relation to muzzling dogs and keeping them on a strong lead, yet they are going to try and eliminate dogs that in the majority of cases are even-tempered family pets," said Lisa Whelan, director of Dog Training Ireland.
In cases where tenants already had a legal agreement with the council that does not forbid keeping dogs, the council may be acting illegally in imposing the ban, Ms Whelan said.
"The council has said that they will be applying the ban retrospectively to existing tenancy agreements, but this would mean changing a legal document and our legal advice is that they can't do that." A spokesman for the council said there was no legal issue with implementing the ban.
Dog Training Ireland is asking the council to suspend the ban in order to engage with a working group of animal welfare organisations in order to find a solution to dog attacks.
The DSPCA, which was not involved in the protest, yesterday called on the council tenants not to surrender their dog to a pound, or otherwise dispose of it, until they had spoken to the council.
"We've had reports of dogs being abandoned on the streets or people having their dogs destroyed because they are afraid of eviction. We had a call from a man in Tallaght who had his three dogs put down, we then had to tell him that the ban didn't apply to him because he doesn't live in the Dublin City Council area," Jimmy Cahill, DSPCA general manager, said. He said he was still hoping to reach an alternative solution with the council but had no response to his offer of talks .
The banned breeds are: English Bull Terrier, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, American Pit Bull Terrier, Rottweiler, German Shepherd (Alsatian), Doberman, Rhodesian Ridgeback, Japanese Akita, Bull Mastiff, Japanese Tosa and Bandog. Cross-breeds of these dogs are also banned.
