‘Staff get a lot of grief from public’
IT is claimed that animal lovers in Limerick are frustrated that a Charity dealing with cruelty cases is not responding to calls.
The Limerick SPCA (Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), has come under fire from members of the public, who allege it is closed and that calls are not being returned.
The Society insists, however, that a cruelty inspector is in place, and calls are being dealt with as they come in.
It further asserts that, as it is not a busy time of year, the inspector is not inundated with work, and that the office was closed in recent weeks due to the illness of a staff member.
Inspector Co-ordinator at Limerick SPCA, Geraldine Nardone, told this newspaper that the charity workers “get a lot of grief from the public”.
“They haven’t taken the time to see what we’re trying to do.
“It’s a disgrace to say we’re all slated when we’re volunteers”.
A concerned member of the public told the Limerick Post that he rang the society’s office “for 15 consecutive days and the phone was not answered and the mailbox was full”.
He believes that “there is no inspector, and hasn’t been for several months.
“Anyone who calls and does get through is told to ring the gardaí because they can’t do anything”, claimed the Limerick resident.
However, the situation has since been rectified and the office has reopened between the hours of 10am to 2pm, Tuesday to Saturday.
Ms. Nardone moved to clarify the issue.
“There is a male inspector, but we can’t give out his name.
“People can ring the office to get in touch with him and the message will be passed on.
“We had a girl working at the office, but she has been out sick for some time, which is why the messages built up.
“We recently took on a temp, but we can’t get someone permanent yet because we’re not sure when the other girl will be back.
“There are few animal charities that even have an office”.
She said that there had not been a huge amount of calls of late, but that many of those that were received related to stray cats.
“There’s not much that we can do because they could belong to neighbours, so we advise people not to feed them so that they’ll go home”.
In cases of cruelty, Ms Nardone said that there wasn’t much that could be done and that the gardaí have to get involved.
“With cruelty cases, it’s very hard to take the animal off their owner because we have to bring them to court, and there is a long wait involved.
“We liaise with the gardaí because we don’t have any powers”.
She said animals are not left injured on the street.
“They are collected and brought to the vet, who makes the final decision.
“If they are well enough, we try to rehouse them”.
As she spoke to this newspaper, Ms Nardone said that she was on the way to Rathkeale where she was to meet with gardaí to inspect a cruelty case.
Deputy Willie O’Dea, who is one of the trustees of the society, told the Limerick Post that, as far as he was aware, there was an inspector in place.
“I’m not completely up to date but I believe they got a new inspector.
“They showed me the accounts at the AGM.
“My understanding is that there was a girl employed at the office who is out sick and the funds aren’t there to replace her full time”.
