BOTH the ISPCA and Ballinasloe Fair & Festival Committee have responded to concerns about animal welfare at the recent annual fair. Several incidents, highlighted on social media and the sale of puppies caused the most criticism of the week-long event, which includes three days of a traditional horse fair.

“We didn’t get any reports of that incident,” said ISPCA Chief Inspector Conor Dowling, responding to the case of a small pony being mistreated as it was ridden by another youth. “Sometimes that sort of incident is over too quickly for people to report it. We did have some reports of young fellows on ponies and we did actually take such a pony that we had witnessed. We are authorised officers of the Animal, Health & Welfare Act. If people are obstructive towards us, then that’s an offence under the Animal, Heath & Welfare Act but the vast majority of situations we’re able to deal with the people involved.

“It [the fair] went quite well, we did deal with a couple of isolated incidents. We’ve got a very visible control point at Ballinasloe, some members of the team are always there and we’re on patrol all the time. We have people coming up to us for advice but we’re also there to deal with any incident that arises. If somebody is not treating their animal properly, we’ll deal with that,” he added.

Fair & Festival chairman Mal Croffy said: “I don’t think the criticism is justified. It’s a very small number of incidents that happen.” He also pointed out that the committee employ the two veterinary surgeons on duty during fair days.

“Normally in the run up to the fair, we’d have three or four meetings, starting around June,” said ISPCA’s Conor Dowling, explaining the liaison committee, also comprising of Fair & Festival members, Galway County Council staff and local representatives.

“Myself and Michael Connolly are the two councillors on the committee. We meet again after the Fair to review it and certainly any improvements that can be made and aspects raised will be considered,” said Cllr. Michael Finnerty.

The practise of some rescue groups buying animals at fairs, which are then used in emotive fund-raising appeals, is controversial and one Dowling felt is counter-productive.

“Purchasing animals for a rescue is not a solution, in fact its just a problem, you’re rewarding the people. It eventually encourages more people [to breed indiscriminately] if they think there’s a ready market there.”

The sale of puppies in the Showgrounds also provoked criticism. “We’ll address any welfare issue that we see. If something is illegal we will step in and address it. It’s not illegal to sell puppies, someone might object to the concept of a puppy in a cage while it’s there [for sale] and that’s their right. I think the solution is to campaign for change.”

Legislation was passed in the U.K in August to ban the sale of puppies there by third parties, such as pet shops or on the internet.