A new Facebook awareness campaign set up to rehome dogs is a huge success following an update from council officials this week.
SDLP Councillor Thomas O’Hanlon explained: “The Facebook account has been an outstanding success, with officers telling us it is averaging 20,000 views per month.
“This is a staggering achievement in such as short space of time and is a great way of letting people know if dogs have been picked up by the Dog Warden or if the owner is no longer able to look after their dog.
“I raised this issue in February of this year when a family in the Keady area had their dog lifted; when they contacted the Dog Warden the dog had already been re-homed. It was a heart-breaking story and to make things worse the person who re-homed the dog refused to return the dog to its worried and heartbroken owners.
“The Facebook account is only one way of raising awareness of the service, but it embraces new technologies and it reaches those who quite possibly wouldn’t normally come into contact with the Council’s services.
“To date the account has over 3100 followers with over 20,000 views a month. This is a huge success and I want to commend all involved.
“What is amazing about the service, is we are re-homing more dogs than before and that means fewer are being destroyed. More importantly we are reaching people beyond Armagh with dogs having been re-homed in the Belfast, Castlereagh, Antrim, Ballymoney and Craigavon Council areas; on top of people have also travelled form Cavan, Monaghan and indeed Donegal to try and re-home a dog.
“This is a fantastic achievement and bodes well for the future. I want to see as many dogs reunited with their owners as possible and where owners have surrendered them for re-homing I want to see them re-homed rather than being destroyed.
“This is a fantastic service and if anyone is interested in taking on a pet, then get in contact with the Dog Warden at the Council and give some poor wee dog a new home.”
