Photo: One of the dogs seized by Gardaí in a recent search
One of Ireland's largest classified websites has suspended the sale of dogs after a recent spate of canine thefts in the past number of weeks.
In a statement released today, DoneDeal has said:
"DoneDeal works closely with several animal welfare groups including the ISPCA and Department of Agriculture in order to comply with legislation and meet the standards set out by bodies such as IPAAG (The Irish Pet Advertising Advisory Group), of which we are a member."
"DoneDeal take our responsibilities as an advertising platform very seriously and will continue to introduce measures to further improve animal welfare and advertising transparency in Ireland.
"As we work on further solutions to improve animal welfare and in light of unprecedented demand in Ireland we have taken the decision to temporarily suspend the dogs section from 7th August 2020"
The site has also introduced new measures to help combat the sale of stolen dogs, including introducing 2 factor phone verification for advertisers, capturing the microchip number of dogs and seller registration numbers, as well as the country of origin on the advertisement.
It comes as animal welfare officers are still caring for a number of Irish dogs after they were seized in Scotland.
The 11 puppies and 2 adult dogs were found in a vehicle coming off a ferry earlier this week.
None of them were microchipped and there was no paperwork showing ownership or vaccinations.
While earlier this week Gardaí seized ten dogs that were believed to have been stolen after a search at a house in Limerick.
During the search in Rathkeale on Saturday, a number of dogs, including labradors, springer spaniels and huskies were seized after seeing they had no licenes or proper identification papers.
One of the dogs, a Cavalier King Charles, has been reunited with it's owner after going missing on June 9th.
