Raise money for expert advice

Cavan County granted planning permission to Edward Mulvaney for a puppy farm with 171 bitches.

The earlier part of our campaign focussed on a puppy farmer called Ray Cullivan. As Cullivan was the subject of a BBC Panorama expose many people already knew about him so we didn’t need to provide as much background information. Because the next part of our campaign is focussing on the planning application by Edward Mulvaney, it is important to explain why we are opposing this application and to give some background.

But before we get onto that this is just to say THANK YOU so much for all your help so far. You have been incredibly generous. We have a small short fall in funds so if we could possibly just raise another 1000 euros or so to obtain similar reports as we did for Cullivan it would be amazing. 

The applicant and the puppy farm

Edward Mulvaney lives in Kilduff, Redhills, Belturbet, County Cavan. This is the same County as Ray Cullivan. The puppy farm on this premises was registered from 2012 until November 2016 to Eamonn Mulvaney. Eamonn Mulvaney also goes by the name of Eamonn Jackson. In November 2016 Eamonn requested he be removed from the register. It appears from Cavan’s records that at the same time Eamonn was removed Steven, his nephew, was then placed on the register as the person responsible for this puppy farm. Until around August last year this farm was licensed to have 100 bitches, it was subsequently increased by the Council to 180, plus they allowed a further 45 hunting dogs.

Following the BBC Panorama programme highlighting Ray Cullivan joint inspections were undertaken of Cullivan’s farm and this farm. The joint inspection of this puppy farm involved Michael O’Sullivan (Cavan vet), James Madden (Leitrim vet) and Conor Dowling (Chief ISPCA Inspector). Of significance are the following points:

·      520 adult dogs were found on the premises. Of these 460 were adult females. Eamonn Mulvaney (the then licensor) had exceeded his license by having 360 more breeding bitches than he was allowed.

·      There was overcrowding

·      Some pens the dogs were kept in were exposed to the elements

·      Most pens did not have a separate area for sleeping and shelter

·      The whelping pens lacked ventilation

·      No provision was made for separate accommodation for the puppies

·      The wooden kennels were in poor condition

·      There was a complete lack of proper exercise facilities

Two more inspections took place. The conditions apparently  improved sufficiently to allow the improvement notices withdrawn.

Why oppose this planning application?

We have reviewed the further information provided by the Mulvaneys and we believe that this premises poses many of the same issues that Ray Cullivan’s does, albeit on a slightly smaller scale.  

1.     Animal welfare – whilst this is not the top concern of planning authorities we think it is an important issue and one that should be considered at the planning stage. Ignoring animal welfare issues at the planning stage risks allowing a facility to be built that may comply in all other respect with planning issues, but ultimately not be fit for purpose. Our position is that the facilities planned will not cater for the dogs’ needs and will have a negative impact on their welfare.

2.     Health and Safety – no consideration has been given to how the facility will store and dispose of the huge amounts of waste produced by the dogs. This waste poses serious threats to both human health and the health of livestock.

3.     Environment – large scale commercial breeding facilities pose serious threats to the environment. The waste generated by dogs is extremely high in Nitrogen and full of dangerous pathogens that can devastate water ways. This farm threatens Cavan’s fishing tourism and all the businesses associated with it.

Thank you all so much for your help and generosity. Any questions, please feel free to get in touch.

Thanks,

Michelle


__________________________________________________________
Help us to oppose planning permission for notorious puppy farmer Ray Cullivan to run a puppy farm with over 300 breeding dogs

We need to raise money to instruct experts to carry out an environmental impact report for a potential appeal to the An Bord Pleanala (the planning authority)

Hi, I am one of lawyers helping Pups Not Profit oppose Ray Cullivan's planning application for his puppy farm. I am writing to ask you for your help. 

Here is a bit of background for those of you who don't know about Ray Cullivan:

In May 2016 the BBC Panorama aired a progamme titled "Britain's Puppy Dealers Exposed" which featured  a puppy farmer in County Cavan, Ray Cullivan. Undercover footage was taken of this puppy farm. The presenter of that programme, Sam Poling, described scenes of dogs of all breeds, shapes and sizes shrieking and shaking. The footage showed crate upon crate of breeding bitches confined to tiny spaces with their litters of puppies, deprived of light and proper ventilation (see image below). She said that the conditions she witnessed on that puppy farm would haunt her for life. It haunts us and we want to do something to stop it - and this is where you can help.



Whilst puppy farming is legal in Ireland puppy farmers  still need planning permission in order to operate. Ray Cullivan does not have planning permission for his puppy farm and has been operating it in breach of planning law for over 10 years.

He has now applied to Cavan County Council for retention planning permission to run a puppy farm that can house up to 300 breeding bitches. We have looked at the plans and we believe they are deficient in a number of respects:
(1) There is no regard for the health and welfare of the animals. The facilities are competely inadequate for the keeping of 300 breeding bitches, around 50 studs and the hundreds, if not thousands of puppies that will be born in that puppy farm every year.
(2) There is no regard for the environment. The studies commissioned by Ray Cullivan are premised on estimates he has provided the environmental scientists. We believe that the waste produced on that farm will be at least 5 times greater than what Mr Cullivan maintains it will. Dog waste is extremely hazardous for humans, livestock and the environment and a failure to properly dispose of this waste could have disastrous consequences.
(3) We believe that the noise and traffic generated by a farm of this size will have a negative impact on the surrounding areas. Again, we believe this has not been addressed properly in the expert reports. 

An opposition to Ray Cullivan's plans has been submitted to Cavan County Council. A decision is due on 15 March. If Cavan apply the law correctly we believe that he will be denied permission. If he is given permission, even if it is conditional, we intend to appeal to An Bord Pleanala. This is where we need your help. The legal work that I and others are doing, we are doing for free. But we need environmental experts to undertake a study to determine the effect on the environment and prepare a report for us. We need to raise money to do this.

We are in the process of talking to a few experts to get  quotes - so we don't have a target yet. But we need to get the ball rolling, because once the decision is out, we only have 4 weeks to lodge an appeal. When we have an estimate we will update the page.

If we raise more money than we need, or if we do not need to appeal Cullivan's application, then we may need to use the funds to oppose other planning anpplications. Eamonn and Edward Mulvaney are also due to lodge their planning application in the coming months - we may need to commission the same type of report for them. 

In the event the money isn't needed for planning appeals we will come back to you all to discuss what to do with the money. We will at all times be completely transparent about how the funds are spent and we undertake that it will all be spent on the fight against puppy farms. 

(image from BBC Panorama "Britain's Puppy Dealers Exposed")