Seán MacConnell visited a unique 80-acre farm for animals which have been victims of cruelty
Some animals who have been victims of cruelty and neglect across the State have found solace in a unique farm a few miles east of Lanesboro, Co Longford.
The 80-acre farm at Derryglogher is the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals' National Animal Centre, a haven for the victims of violence.
The main roadway into the farm is guarded by electronically- controlled gates, which keep the €1.5 million facility secure.
"It also ensures that those who are facing prosecution cannot come in and steal the evidence, the animal involved, which has happened before in other places," Ciaran O'Donovan, director of resources at ISPCA, said.
The farm has its own purpose- built stables for horses, kennels for the dogs and a cattery for the many cats which arrive in the shelter. It also has a lecture centre, a veterinary clinic, a reception area, offices and a residence for the manager.
The kennels have their own private quarters for the dogs, with specially heated beds. Across from the kennels is a special playground for the dogs.
The cattery is an extraordinary building, thermostatically-controlled. Each cat has its own "pod", a special room with sleeping quarters high in one corner of a glass-fronted area the size of a large refrigerator.
In both the kennels and the cattery there are tape decks where "normal" sounds, such as a hoover, telephone rings and washing-machine tapes, can be played to the animals to help settle them.
Both the dogs' and cats' areas have isolation rooms and cleaning areas where the animals can be cared for when they arrive.
The new stables for the horses are of the kind of standard one would expect in the top-class studs in the country.
"For the time being we cannot take farm animals in here because we are re-seeding the land," Alastair Keen, director of operations, said.
"When there is a case of cruelty identified it is often easier to move cattle and sheep to adjoining farms or have them fed on the farms where they are being kept," he said. "Of course, we have had some farm animals here. We had a load of calves which were part of a cruelty case but for those reasons we moved them on," he said.
He said this had been a very bad year for cruelty on farms, probably because of the poor harvesting conditions last year. However, he said, there was no excuse for the number of farm dogs arriving at the centre.
"I must appeal to the farming community and other rural dwellers to have their dogs neutered. That is the way to prevent unwanted animals and the majority of the dogs we have coming in here are collie-types from farms," he said.
In the past year, since the centre opened, the staff managed to re-house 100 dogs and 220 cats.
"We do a lot of research before we hand over an animal to a new owner. All the family and the other pets in the home have to come here," he said.
"We then inspect the new home and we make follow-up calls to ensure that the animal is settling in," he said.
Alastair is one of a team of eight, including a full-time vet, working in the centre, which is open each day to the public from 11 a.m. to 3.30 p.m., except on Wednesday.
The centre only accepts animals which have been identified through its country branches and its team of more than 20 inspectors around the State.
It is expensive to run a voluntary operation, Ciaran O'Donovan said. "The costs here run to about a €¼ million a year. We rely very heavily on donations from the public and we could not have set up this without bequests."
The society, at 300 Lower Rathmines Road, Dublin, welcomes donations to the Longford centre.