Irish General Election 2016: how do the parties rate on animal welfare

Animal welfare is important to many people, yet to date, it has not featured in the debate leading up to Ireland’s general election on 26th February. In the vet spot on Newstalk’s Pat Kenny Show this week, Pete Wedderburn discussed some of the topical issues on animal welfare and the different parties’ manifesto promises on the subject.

For detail on the policies, please read Pete’s blog written here last week.

Pete made a slip of the tongue in the initial discussion, saying “Fianna Fail” twice: what he meant to say that Fianna Fail do NOT mention animal welfare in their manifesto, while Fine Gael DO have an extensive section on animal welfare.

As usual, Pete also answered queries from listeners.

1. Mary’s daughter has a dog who poos on the carpets at night-time, and she wants to know how to stop this.
2. I put my dog to sleep yesterday and I am heartbroken today.  He was 12 years and nearly 10 months he had spleen cancer for the last 7 months and he was struggling to walk for a few weeks.  Do you think I did the right thing or should I  have kept him a bit longer.  Was that a good age?
3. I got a pug/jack cross, he seems to be in pain recently when he barks. He tries to bark but it turns into a yelp. Paul
4. Can you ask Pete if he knows how the Dept of Agriculture aligns the production of halal meat here, with Irish standards of meat production and welfare? From Liz
5. I have a rescued Tibetan spaniel cross for ten years and Lucy was microchipped before I got her. How do I find out in what name is she registered so it can be transferred into mine? Paul in Whitehall