THIS IS THE emotional reunion of Joey the dog with his owner and brother Toby.
Joey, who is a Cavachon breed, went missing near his home on 3 October and, by Saturday, he was being offered for sale at the Ballinasloe Fair.
Suspicions were raised by members of the public and an ISPCA inspector scanned the dog.
Joey was microchipped so the ISPCA was able to track down the owner and reunite them.
Investigation
The dog was taken into the care of the ISPCA and gardaí are now investigating the matter.
ISPCA chief inspector Conor Dowling said: “This is further evidence, if it was needed, of the value of microchipping.
Without Joey’s microchip, we could not have established that he was missing and the ISPCA and gardaí would not have had grounds to intervene.
The ISPCA had four inspectors present on the three busiest days of this year’s Ballinasloe Fair.
In addition to Joey, inspectors seized a further 27 dogs and three horses.
For ISPCA inspectors to seize animals, they must have grounds to believe that offences under the Animal Health and Welfare Act have been committed.
Demand
ISPCA CEO Dr Andrew Kelly highlighted the fact that the sale of dogs and other small animals at fairs is driven by demand and that, if people did not buy these animals, then they wouldn’t be offered for sale.
He said: “This year in Ballinasloe we were made aware of a number of rescue organisations that were buying animals in order to ‘rescue’ them instead of raising their concerns with the ISPCA or An Garda Síochána.”
“Whilst buying animals may be very tempting, it is the opinion of the ISPCA that it simply perpetuates the problem and the sellers will be back in future years with more animals to sell.”
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