Dublin City Council ban - July 2007

On July 2007 Dublin City Council announced a ban on the eleven restricted breeds from all Dublin City Council properties. This includes; houses, flats and estates and is with immediate effect. The council also plans to amend by laws which would include a ban in public parks also. The council have written to the Minister for the Environment, Mr John Gormley, calling for a nationwide ban.

There has been a lot of talking about this ban and its legitimacy is still unclear. Our advice to anyone who may be affected by this move by Dublin City Council is to seek legal advice and do not give up your dogs or let the dog wardens enter your property to remove the dogs - see POWERS OF DOG WARDENS for more info.

This ban is a discrimination act against council tenants as well as any responsible owner of one of these breeds. Therefore we are calling on all owners of restricted breeds to write to Dublin City Council and the Minister for the Environment to register their opposition to the councils’ decision and proposal of a nationwide ban on these dogs.

Further information may also be obtained from ANVIL.

Tuesday June 10 2008

DUBLIN City Council is to allow some of its tenants to keep so-called "dangerous" breeds of dogs, provided they are spayed and micro-chipped.

In a review of its ban on 10 breeds introduced last year, the council has decided to allow tenants to keep their pets provided they had them before the ban was introduced on July 1 last year.

Yesterday, the local authority said it had joined with charity Dogs Trust Ireland to provide neutering and micro-chipping of dogs free of charge for council tenants. But if owners do not avail of the service by September 30, the council will consider them to be in breach of their tenancy agreement and they could be evicted.

The ban on some dogs including pitbull terriers, bull mastiffs, dobermans and English bull terriers was introduced following a number of attacks.

Parks

The city council banned them from all council-owned property including public parks.

The council said it had decided to allow existing owners to keep their pets. However, tenants will not be allowed acquire the dogs in the future.

"In respect of the 10 restricted breeds of dog, we acknowledge that a number of our tenants are responsible dog owners and have built up a relationship with one of these breeds and would, understandably, be upset if they had to give their dog away or have it put down," Vincent Healy from the council's housing and residential services said.

"Accordingly we are happy to allow them to keep their dogs provided they agree to have them micro-chipped and neutered/spayed. "However, we remain steadfast in achieving our primary objective to ensure that our streets, parks, and council neighbourhoods are safe for people to walk and for children to play in.

"Where tenants persist in illegally keeping one of the 10 restricted breeds of dog in their home, the council will consider such action to be a breach of tenancy, will issue a notice to quit, and this could ultimately lead to eviction."

The restricted breeds are American pitbull terrier; Bull Mastiff; Doberman Pinscher; English bull terrier; German Shepherd; Japanese Akita; Japanese Tosa; Rhodesian Ridgeback; Rottweiler and Staffordshire bull terrier.

id like to know how they will change the terms of an existing tenancy agreement without the tenant agreeing to it, council tenants still have not been notified by DCC by leaflet, the press release from DCC has no power to back it up..