PAWS (People’s Animal Welfare Society )

On the 5th of November, John, a volunteer from the PAWS (People’s Animal Welfare Society ) organisation visited the school to deliver a talk about PAWS’ work to the 3C class who are doing their CSPE action project. PAWS is a work in progress and started out in February 1997 with the intention to rehome unwanted dogs. PAWS’ initial site was in Kildare but they have now moved to Mullinahone on the Kilkenny/Tipperary border. All dogs rehomed from Paws are neutered,vaccinated, wormed and micro chipped before adoption and given all veterinary care. This all costs a lot of money as thousands of dogs come in to the shelter each year. A check up, neutering, worming and micro chipping all costs €207 per dog. This is excluding the feeding costs while the dog is in the shelter.

PAWS depends totally on the public to help them to keep their doors open to abandoned and abused animals. The National lottery have thus so far ignored pleas from Animal Welfare groups to grant aid to their work and the Department of Agriculture very kindly give a small grant each year to rescue centres. Sadly, however, this covers only a minute portion of the running costs.

John, our guest speaker, informed the class that at the moment the Mullinahone rescue centre has 36 kennels. The capacity for each kennel is 2 dogs, therefore they can only shelter 72 dogs at a time. In spite of this, they get a lot more dogs sent in and must keep them outside of the kennels or put them in kennels where there are already 2 dogs living.

The busiest time of year is after Halloween as fireworks scare many dogs and they run away. Also, after Christmas many families have received new dogs and decide they cannot deal with them. At the moment, PAWS has only 4 full time workers. They cannot manage to walk every dog each day which is why they would really appreciate it if you went to walk a dog or two once in a while. You may not realise this but it is a great help to PAWS. They hold an annual sponsored dog walk so you can take part if you wish! It is held each year at different venues. Dog lovers get together for a fun day.

Another fact about Paws is, unlike dog pounds (paid by the government), they don’t put dogs to sleep. Once a dog comes into a pound, it is kept there for five days to give the owner a chance to find for their lost pet. After the 5 day period, the dog is put to sleep. PAWS does not treat any animal in this way. PAWS do house checks if a person is looking for a dog to rehome. They are very strict in having a garden with a fence to enclose the dog. The dogs are given free of charge but the owners are always asked to give a donation of at least €100 to PAWS.

The 3C class have obtained a lot of informative facts about the work of PAWS and are all eager to help them. They will be carrying out a number of fundraisers in the coming weeks. On behalf of our class, I would like to thank John for taking time from his work to give us a talk and for the gifts which he gave us. If you wish to contact PAWS; please contact any of the members on +353 52 9153507.

People’s Animal Welfare Society Animal Rescue 
Mullinahone
County Tipperary
Ireland
www.paws.ie