I am sure if I were to ask everyone in here to raise their hands, including the kids in the Gallery, if they do not like dogs, those who do so would be in the minority. Sadly, we lost our Cosmo, a 12-year old husky, five weeks ago. The house feels empty without her. When I get up in the morning or I walk into the house, I do not hear the patter of feet or hear her. We are a nation of dog lovers, but right under our nose we know that dogs are being mistreated, abused, used and discarded. Yesterday, we heard horrendous stories of female dogs arriving into the care of Dogs Trust expecting a fifth or sixth litter, although they were barely puppies themselves. I cannot believe that somebody would allow a six-month old dog to go through that. It is absolutely horrendous. They were left with multiple scars from C-sections and some were so ill-treated that they were matted with their own faeces and they had to be sedated to be groomed and to enable them to give birth. Let us imagine the trauma that would have on the mother and the pups inside her. We would be horrified to think of that happening to our own dogs. The Dog Breeding Establishments Act introduced in 2010 only makes it a legal requirement for any facility with six or more breeding dogs to be licensed through the local authority. There is no cap on the number of breeding dogs that a facility can have. That is just unbelievable. At the moment, legislation also states that the ratio of staff to dogs in kennels must be 1:25. That is one person for 25 adult dogs. If we multiply that by each dog having up to six puppies, that is 1:175, which is unimaginable. Dog rescue facilities must be properly funded and resourced to cater for and continue to do the amazing work they do for dog welfare and highlighting the responsibilities that come with being a dog owner. We must end the process of cruel breeding practices and so-called puppy farms. There must be an urgent review of the Dog Breeding Establishments Act and legislation and guidelines must be strengthened. The cruel practice of female dogs being reared as puppy machines is inhumane and must stop. We support the intention of the Dog Welfare (Amendment) Bill. We believe that Deputy Whitmore's Bill will improve animal welfare standards for dogs and end some of the cruel practices that occur on these puppy farms. Dog welfare should also be looked at on a cross-Border basis. We need to bring the whole island into line with best practice for our dogs because we cannot have a situation on the island of Ireland where there is more than one set of legislation, as bad practices will just move to the other side of the Border. We must ensure that we work on a cross-Border basis so that all dog welfare legislation is co-ordinated.

Sentiment score: -0.06