Over 900 dog fines handed out by Council in 12 months
By Lynda O'Donoghue Donnelly
FIGURES released to The Echo by South Dublin County Council this week reveal that more than 900 dog fines have been handed out in the last 12 months.
The figures comes just weeks after two vicious dog attacks were reported in the paper when one dog killed another in a South Dublin park.
A devastated dog owner witnessed his two 10-year-old Papillon dogs attacked by another dog in Glenaulin Park earlier in July.
Palmerstown man Gerry Kennedy told The Echo that the Staffordshire Terrier that killed his dog was off the leash along with two other dogs and their owner had no control of the animals.
Mr Kennedy reported the incident to both South Dublin County Council and Dublin City Council as the park straddles both local authority areas.
On Tuesday the council confirmed that over the last year 901 dog fines were handed out in the county but just 33 of those fines were Section 9 offences – dog not under effectual control.
In addition to this only four fines were handed out in the South Dublin County Council administrative area under Article 5 where dogs are unleashed or unmuzzled in public.
Earlier this month Dublin Mid-West TD Derek Keating told The Echo that there are many incidents involving unmuzzled dogs in the county.
He described these incidents of unleashed and unmuzzled dogs a “disaster waiting to happen”.
According to the council the remaining 864 dog fines handed out in the last 12 months were issued under Section 2 for no licence.
These figures reveal that more than 95 per cent of the fines handed out this year related to owners not having a licence for their pet.