DOGS TRUST HAS said there is a “dog crisis” in Ireland after six puppies were found dumped in a plastic bag on the side of a road in Dublin.

The charity added that it is seeing more dogs being surrendered and abandoned than it has in previous years.

In November, a motorist was driving early one morning when spotted a puppy in the middle of the road.

Melanie Kevelighan from Dog Trust told The Journal: “He actually didn’t know what it was at first, but he got out to help and then he could hear the other puppies crying.

“He then looked to the side of the road and saw the plastic bag with the other six puppies inside.”

When the motorist looked inside the plastic bag, he discovered that two of the puppies had already passed away.

“He brought the rest of them straight into us,” said Kevelighan, “and we aged the puppies to be about four weeks, which meant they were far too young to be away from their mom, never mind having been left out and cold and rain.

“They were absolutely just soaked to the skin, it was really sad.”

Despite the best efforts of the veterinary team, only two of the puppies survived the ordeal.

“We called them Hope and Faith,” said Kevelighan, “and thankfully they’ve been adopted and they’ve been absolutely amazing in their forever home.”

Faith and Hope, who have since been re-housed. Dogs Trust Dogs Trust

While Kevelighan said she had “no idea why someone would abandon puppies like that”, she noted that they may have “felt desperate and felt like they had no other option”.

“But we always say to people there are kinder options than that,” Kevelighan told The Journal.

She added: “Please do get in contact with us if you’re struggling and even if we can’t take the dogs in, we will offer you advice and support and we’ll do our best to help.

“No matter what the situation, we will do our best to help and we will offer you whatever advice we can.

“If it’s the case that we can’t take the dog in, we will be there to offer you advice and support.”

While there is no fee involved in surrendering a dog to Dogs Trust, Kevelighan notes that the charity is “completely inundated with requests”.

“So we can’t guarantee that we can take the dog there and then, but we could try and look for a home while the dog waits in the home they are already in.”

Kevelighan also told The Journal that levels of requests have been on par with last year, when there was a 36% increase in the number of requests coming in.

“It’s around the same at the moment,” said Kevelighan.

She added: “In early February, we’ll know a lot more at that stage, it is still very early and hard to tell.”

When asked why some people would choose to abandon their dogs instead of surrendering them, Kevelighan notes that Dogs Trust does not have a cruelty investigation or welfare enforcement team.

“The most important thing for us would be getting the dogs into our care and looking after them,” said Kevelighan.

“We never want anyone to feel judged, there are always options there, so please come to us no matter the situation and we will do our best to help.”

Kevelighan also expressed concern that “Ireland is going through a dog crisis”.

“We are seeing more dogs being surrendered and abandoned than we have in previous years.

“Last year, we received the most surrender requests since opening our doors in 2009,” said Kevelighan.

“It was one of those overwhelming years and we’ve just been inundated with requests, and a lot of the dogs coming in seem to have more complex and costly medical issues.

“That’s another pressure on top of, not only the number of dogs, but the expenses that are falling on rescue centres like ourselves and it’s creating this crisis at the moment.”