ASH Animal Rescue, Co Wicklow
By Karlin Lillington

Published in the Irish Times

Remi and Helena Le Mahieu live their lives to a daily chorus of dozens of barking dogs. The Dutch couple are high in the Wicklow Mountains where, on the first day that they moved here over a decade ago, they took in a stray chicken, a cat and a sheepdog.

That was the beginning of ASH – which stands for Animal Sanctuary Hubasha – which now looks after and, hopefully, place on average 70 dogs and another 20 cats. Some are permanent residents, along with a goose, a donkey and a horse.

“We absolutely love animals,” says Helena. “And there is a huge, huge need for someone to take care of stray and unwanted animals.”

Voluntary rescue groups like ASH, Kilkenny’s Inistioge Puppy Rescue, PAWS in Co Kildare, and West Cork Animal Welfare Group provide essential services to an Irish animal welfare system that is underfunded and understaffed compared to most EU countries.

Helena contrasts Ireland, where 20 per cent of dogs are impounded and 85 per cent of those -- an extraordinary 23,000 dogs annually – will be euthanised (the highest per capita rate in Europe), to the UK. There, only 5 per cent of dogs end up in shelters, and only 20 per cent of those will be put down.

A huge part of the problem is that people seem determined not to spay and neuter, she says, adding the excuse is often that “it’s not natural. But look: it’s not natural to put down so many dogs a year.”

People sometimes call ASH to see if they can leave in a now-unwanted pet, typically using the excuse that “it needs a better home than the one I can provide” – in lieu of actually trying to provide that home themselves.

Even worse is when the animals are dumped in their yard. ASH ends up with boxes of tiny puppies, traumatized unwanted pets, and sick animals in this way. ASH now has a van it uses to collect animals as well.

“In October in one long weekend, we picked up 14 unwanted collies, all from local sources,” sighs Helena. “It’s getting worse and worse.” Irish people particularly seem indifferent to their pet collies, lurchers and Labradors – dogs that ASH can sometimes place in UK homes.

Remi earns some income for ASH -- €80 per dog -- by bringing dogs from the various rescues over to UK families in the van. They also receive a small grant from the Department of the Environment. Otherwise, ASH is funded entirely through donations, and the money the Le Mahieus got from remortgaging their house after Remi left his job to help Helena out full time.

The cost of running ASH annually? €15,000 each in vet and transport bills, €10,000 in food, and €6,000 in miscellaneous costs. At the moment they are so swamped with dogs that they cannot take in any more and are asking for volunteers to help walk dogs, clean kennels – anything to lessen the burden placed on these custodians of others’ irresponsibility.