Kennels closed
Thursday, 29 July 2010
The USPCA dog kennels at Benvarden which are to close in a few days time.
SPECULATION that the USPCA dog kennels at the old Safari Park site at Benvarden are to close at the end of this week has been confirmed.
The move comes just a few weeks after the contract to kennel up to two hundred stray dogs a year from Coleraine Borough Council was lost.
Confirming the reports USPCA spokesperson Mr David Wilson said: "The kennels as such will close to the public at the end of the month, there will be no dogs at Benvarden after that." He continued: "The tender with Coleraine was coming to an end, and we were not that troubled to renew it. The income barely paid overheads, which are very expensive. But we did offer to renew it and informed them of the conditions where we would - there would be a limited number of dogs and we would not re-home dogs from the Benvarden site.
“Coleraine Council put the contract out to tender and they found it was cheaper elsewhere. If we had matched the price it would have meant that we were subsidising Coleraine Council. We would prefer to put money into our core activity of stopping animal cruelty."
There is speculation that a group called BARK (Benvarden Animal Rescue Kennels) may continue looking after and re homing all animals in need. This was not confirmed at the time of going to press.
DISGRACE
Animal lover Mrs Triona Grimason, who lives nearby and who got two of her six 'rescued' dogs from Benvarden, said: "It's an absolute disgrace, where is the funding going? What are people to do who want to give a home to a rescued dog that is in danger of being put down. It's awful."
Subscribe to read full newspaper »
Send to a friend
Please complete the following form to inform a friend about this page.
