WATCH: Councillor chips in to help gardai roll out dog scanners in Limerick

GARDAI in the Newcastle West district have taken possession of two electronic chip readers which will enable them to quickly scan any dogs they come across to establish if they are stolen or missing.

The portable hand-held scanners were secured with the assistance of Cllr Francis Foley to assist in the garda response to the surge in dog thefts across West Limerick over the past year.

“This came as a result of various conversations I had with Superintendent (Aileen) Magner during my term as cathaoirleach of the Newcastle West Municipal District. I secured funding through Limerick City and County Council for two scanners and I feel this is the way forward because at least now we have some deterrent and there will be scanners in patrol cars and gardai will be able to carry out a scan on dogs if they need to,” said Cllr Foley.

Garda Gaven Griffin, who came up with the idea of acquiring the chip scanners says they will make a big difference to gardai on the ground.

“At crime checkpoints or incidents or if we come across a car with a dog that we have concerns about, we now have a way that we can scan the dog. Each dog has to be micro-chipped in the country and we have access to a number of databases now where we can actually identify the owner of the dog and get contact details should we need them,” he told the Limerick Leader.

“The price of dogs has gone up during Covid and there is huge concern in the community about dog thefts on the rise. What this means is we will have the ability to do these checks and there is a deterrent out there now and we can check the microchips on the dogs and these people (thieves) know that we will be able to identify them. Before this we wouldn’t have been able to scan the dogs so it is huge and we have garda mobility devices which grant us access to the Internet on the scene,” he added.

The devices, which were purchased from C&M Vetlink at Annacotty Business Park, are ready to use and will be utilised across the Newcastle West garda district immediately.

“I would like to thank Cllr Foley and Garda Griffin for their proactive work in sourcing and purchasing these two chip scanners. They will be an invaluable tool to gardai in Newcastle West district when investigating complaints of stolen dogs and identifying stray animals. There has been a much publicised increase in theft of dogs for resale, at huge prices, at home and abroad. These chip readers will be an instrumental resource when trying to combat such crimes,” said Superintendent Magner.