World Animal Day 2026 was marked in Dublin on Sunday, 4 October, as well as by a couple of events earlier that week.
This year marked the 101st anniversary of World Animal Day being observed around the world.
The week saw two Oireachtas committee meetings at which the issues of puppy farms and pet theft were discussed. Dublin People spoke to three animal rights activists about the week.
Lisa O’Connor from Missing Stolen Animals Ireland first addressed the Oireachtas Petitions Committee a year ago and, during the week of World Animal Day, addressed it again.
According to Lisa: “To mark World Animal Day every year, I think, reaches more people and there are more people aware of how important animals are in our lives; that they don’t have voices and we need to speak for them.”
Lisa’s petition, which has over 11,000 signatures, and a formal request from the committee for the Minister for Justice to attend and answer questions on the issue of pet theft have been forwarded to Minister O’Callaghan.
According to Lisa:
“The committee have invited the Minister for Justice in. And he keeps replying that he is too busy. But the committee are going to keep pushing that if he can’t come in, maybe one of his officials can come in because it is really important that someone comes in and answers the questions that the committee has for him.”
Lisa told Dublin People that she is waiting “for the latest reply from the Dept. of Justice, which comes through the committee. I have given a list of six questions which I would like the committee to put directly to the Dept. of Justice. The committee are aware of that. So the next step is I just have to wait now until the next meeting of the Public Petitions Committee to discuss my petition again.”
The other Oireachtas committee meeting held during the week of World Animal Day was that of the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, where Minister Martin Heydon’s Dog Breeding Establishments (Amendment) Bill 2026 was scrutinised. Among those speaking before the committee were representatives from the NSPCA, Dogs Trust, Dog Law Ireland and the Kennel Club, as well as the owner of Dogs.ie.
John O’Callaghan from Dog Advocacy Ireland is also involved in this process and told Dublin People that he is “totally passionate about the intolerable abuse of thousands of innocent dogs through Ireland's shameful distinction as 'Puppy Farming Capital of Europe', which is permitted to continue unaddressed.”
Regrettably, according to John, Minister Heydon’s “draft legislation will do nothing to address the continuing mistreatment of thousands of dogs, held captive in many of these abusive establishments.”
According to John, senior officials in the Dept. of Agriculture, who hold responsibility for the Animal Health & Welfare Act and the Control of Dogs Act, “insist that there's a legal restriction on the Dept.'s ability to implement an upper limit (or CAP) on the number of breeding females permissible on any one dog breeding establishment site”.
John says that other jurisdictions have no such legal impediment. He also consulted a barrister on the issue, and “the barrister confirmed that no such legal restriction exists regarding the imposition of a cap on any one dog breeding establishment site.”
“By not imposing an upper limit restriction, the Dept. of Agriculture is actually complicit in maintaining Ireland's shameful distinction as 'Puppy Farming Capital of Europe'”, John told Dublin People.
The Party for Animal Welfare held the only publicised public event in Dublin, and possibly in Ireland, to mark World Animal Day on the day itself, 4 October, with a demonstration on Grafton Street.
According to Cathal Leavy, Dublin Area Representative for the party: “We were just raising awareness about animal cruelty and particularly focusing on animal lab testing. We were encouraging people to sign a petition. We have been keeping up this campaign for the last two-plus years and we are determined to get a change in the laws on animal lab testing.
“We got a lot of positive feedback from the public. We get a huge amount of positive feedback. It’s just bizarre why the Government doesn’t respond to this. People do truly care about animals.
“If more people saw what is happening to these animals, they would be horrified.”
