The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
CLARE Fianna Fáil TD Cathal Crowe is calling for a new and separate criminal offence of companion pet theft to be enshrined in law. He said that recent weeks have seen a significant spike of such incidents around Clare, with the use of drone footage reported as one method of scoping out potential animals to steal. “Irish law considers dogs and other family pets to be property, meaning that if someone steals a family pet, such as a dog, it’s punished in the same way as if someone steals the likes of a mobile phone or a power tool,” said Deputy Crowe. “The current law does not reflect the emotional harm that can be caused to victims of pet theft. The penalty for pet theft should be more severe than for the theft of a non-living property. Currently, there is no specific code on the Garda PULSE system to record theft of animals, the same code is used for all …
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