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Animal groups dealing with abandoned hunting dogs
16 January 2013

Struggling animal welfare groups are being left to take care of hunting dogs that have been lost or abandoned in the countryside, the Irish Examiner has reported.

The January 07, 2013 edition of the paper outlined that the beagles and lurchers - from hunting groups or poachers - find their way to nearby towns and villages where they are picked up by rescuers.

"Eventually they seem to migrate into towns, probably through hunger, with the result that almost every village seems to become home to one or sometimes more of these poor lost dogs," Carol Mansfield of Lily’s Dog Rescue in Co Cavan was quoted as saying.

"When we get a call from a concerned member of the public about a possible hunting hound, my heart drops a little,” she added, referring to the difficulty of finding them homes.

Louth ISPCA inspector Fiona Squib told the Examiner that hunt dogs found wandering the countryside, "usually need feeding up".

She described dogs she had last year which were found wandering in fields as being "in dire need of care as they were covered in lice and needed worming as they had been scavenging". Among the dogs she has had to deal with are lurchers that "have been used in hare hunting and badger baiting."

Read the full Irish Examiner report

Videos: Foxhunting Cruelty

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