I am delighted to speak in support of this Bill on dog welfare. I am a proud mammy of two beautiful fur babies, Benji and Frankie Byrne, and I was half tempted to hold up their pictures here today and ask how anybody could be so cruel or neglectful to little creatures like that. The Long Title of the Bill reads: "An Act to provide for animal welfare considerations in the operation of dog breeding establishments, including but not limited to a cap on the number of breeding bitches, the age of bitches allowed to breed, the age of pups when removed from their mothers, a staff-to-bitch ratio, and to prohibit the use of surgical artificial insemination [That is, apart from greyhounds]. There is nothing that makes me cry quicker than to read about the poor treatment of dogs and the breeding of bitches and puppies on some of the so-called puppy farms this legislation seeks to address. Any true dog lover knows just how much attention a pup needs, never mind a litter of puppies or multiple litters. The fact that there are currently people out there keeping multiple mothers and litters in unsanitary and unsupervised premises in 2025 is just unbelievable. The Bill puts on a statutory basis the need for a staff-to-bitch ratio of 1:10. Personally, I think that should be lower but we are here to support this Bill. Sinn Féin recognises the change to the code of professional conduct for veterinary practitioners to prohibit veterinarians from carrying out surgical artificial insemination in dogs due to ethical and welfare considerations. However, this does not apply to greyhounds, and I and Sinn Féin believe it should also include greyhounds. Leave the pups with their mothers for the first ten weeks. Let them play and be fed, watered, nurtured and looked after properly until they can make someone the happiest person in the world when they are picked up and brought to what is hopefully their forever home. We need to close any sort of loophole that could be exploited with regard to animal care but we support the Bill.

Sentiment score: 0.18