The plight of Irish collie dogs has touched the hearts of a group of Germans, who are arranging a home for the unwanted collies in their native country.
Earlier this year, you may remember, the Friends of Animals Centre near Mullingar, Co Westmeath, received a large number of unwanted collies. They were hidden casualties of the decline in sheep farming and the early retirement of many farmers in the midlands. Mary Chundee, who runs the Mullingar centre on a shoestring budget, suddenly found herself overwhelmed with collies from the farming community.
While most people telephoned and asked her to take the dogs in, some created a serious situation by dumping them near her home. When the plight of the collies was made public a German journalist wrote about the issue. As a result contact was established with a group in western Germany, and Mary has just returned from a trip there with an offer to export the surplus dogs to Germany.
The Germans have a special interest in the collies, she said, and the centre has a constant list of people seeking to give them a home as pets.
The Germans, she said, were not interested in whether the collies had pedigree papers. The dogs are assessed on their intelligence.
"They tell us that they can rehome up to six collies a month," she said.
Mary and her helpers are currently teaching the surplus collies how to cope with the journey to their new homes on the Continent.
She said she was delighted with the German link and was satisfied it will provide a proper outlet for the unwanted Irish farm dogs.
Mary and her staff are teaching the dogs to understand basic commands in German, so that the change to their new homes on the French/German border will be linguistically smooth. She has enlisted the help of a student studying German in Mullingar to train the dogs to understand simple commands like "sit" and "walk".
Mary will travel overland with the first shipment of collies within the next few weeks and, while the travel costs will be met from the German end, she is badly in need of funding to have the dogs vaccinated and prepared for the trip.
Friends of Animals can be contacted at Cullionbeg, Mullingar, phone: 044-42205.