Draft Minutes of the First Annual General Meeting of the revived Donegal S.P.C.A.

Gleneany House Hotel, Letterkenny
9th. May 2007

Present

Opening Remarks by Barbara Bent, Chairperson of the I.S.P.C.A.

The Chairperson said that she had been in her present position for 18 months and it was a great honour for her to be there at the first AGM of the new Society.

She said it was a huge task to start from scratch but there was a good core of people to get it up and running and they also had the funds to do so. The aim of the ISPCA is to work with the Donegal SPCA to ensure they have good insurance and good training

From her experience she thought the main criteria for success was:

The ISPCA is hoping to draw up Codes of Practice to ensure everyone is “singing from the same hymn sheet”

There is an annual affiliation fee which at the moment is €127 which gives access to training, the web-site, reduced price public liability insurance and Health and Safety advice. The main commitment of the ISPCA and our affiliated societies is that WE CARE FOR ALL ANIMALS.

How will Donegal SPCA develop?:- By working together, complement and help each other with no infighting. Government’s biggest problem with animal welfare groups is that they see them as all fighting with each other instead of working together.

Negativity kills enthusiasm. We all have limitations but there is great enthusiasm in Donegal. There needs to be a good fund-raising committee formed- There is €556,000 in the bank account held by the ISPCA but for use only in Donegal but this would be seen as money for capital expenditure to hopefully build a rescue centre in the future when the society is established.

The basis of the Society will be to adopt a Constitution, elect a committee and officers and pay the affiliation fee and insurance to the ISPCA

There is much work to be done with Government to make politicians aware that we are not willing to continue to work under the 1911 Act for Animal Welfare which is not suitable for the 21st. Century. We will be looking for professionally trained Inspectors to have the Right of Entry as do the Garda.

There followed a talk by Mark Beazley, General Manager of the ISPCA.

Mark thanked the Chairperson for inviting him to the meeting . He said he was proud to be the General Manager of the ISPCA. They truly are a Society for all animals – from racehorses to chinchillas. The ISPCA is an umbrella for 23 societies and we learn from each other.

We participate in Eurogroup and it is important we are respected there.

2006 was a very busy year. Sometimes we are criticised for what we do or do not do- we cannot get it right everytime but hopefully learn from our mistakes and move on.

We are very hopeful of the success of the new Equine Rescue Centre in Mallow, Cork which will be taking in horses from all over the Country.

The NAC helpline had nearly 1500 calls needing visits from Inspectors and we had at the moment only 4 ISPCA Inspectors to deal with these which was a huge workload.

We have 13 counties covered by professional inspectors and 13 covered by volunteers.

At the moment the NAC in Longford is caring for about 50 dogs, 50 cats, equines and small mammals.

There is never enough room and we have to rely on local societies to care for some.

Many of the animals at the NAC are Case Animals which have to be kept for long periods of time and at great expense.

We do not receive state funding but were awarded an ex-gratia payment of €80,000 from the Department of Agriculture for which we are very grateful.

It cost €487,000 to run the NAC in 2006 and the cost is expected to rise by €50,000 in 2007. We are continually looking at our spending and trying to cut costs and make the most of our resources.

The Dog Warden Service is run in 9 counties by the ISPCA which are covered by 8 Dog Wardens (Carlow and Kilkenny share a Warden and facilities) - Mark said he would like to pay tribute to the dedication and commitment of our Dog Wardens in a very difficult job.-

Border Collie and BorderCollie Crosses represented 46% of all dogs taken into Donegal pound - a matter that we needed to address.

Mark added that the ISPCA had changed greatly since its birth in 1949 and was now the principle animal welfare society in Ireland. He was very aware that that was due to the huge amount of work done by volunteers around the country and together we have to move towards a more professional organization. The public are more aware of animal cruelty and have much higher expectations of Societies such as ours than they did ten or twenty years ago.

The Constitution

The proposed Constitution had been circulated to prospective members a week before the meeting and spare copies were available on the night.

A discussion on the document followed and one person present queried banning membership to those who supported hunting. This eliminated many people in such a rural area.

The Chairperson replied that the ISPCA had always been opposed to hunting and other bloodsports.

A member of the previous Donegal SPCA said that the Society already had a Constitution but it was pointed out that the old Society had been dissolved and therefore a new Constitution had to be approved.

This Constitution can be the initial one for five years and during that time it can be reconsidered.

If the Donegal SPCA wishes to be affiliated to the ISPCA it will have to be in agreement with the Constitution of the ISPCA. If it agrees to support hunting then it cannot be affiliated.

It was asked that if they do not affiliate to the ISPCA what happens to the money held in trust for Donegal. It was said that we did not know but would take legal advice if the matter arose.

Another person present asked if their committee could make their own decisions or is it answerable to anyone else.

Mark Beazley replied that each society is autonomous but we do have our standards.

There was a proposal to adopt the Constitution for 5 years -
Proposed by Frank McRory
Seconded by Virginia McCloon
19 votes for the proposition 3 against Carried.

Election of Committee

There followed the election of 6 persons to the Committee as laid out in the Constitution.

Nominated were:-

Kathleen Murray
Nominated by Shaun McCaffert
Seconded by Margaret McAteer

Glen Hughes
Nominated by Sir John McFarland
Seconded by Kathleen Murray

Cliodhna Kennedy
Nominated by Kevin McGinley
Seconded by Frank McRory

Larry Coyle
Nominated by Monica Dever
Seconded by Cliodhna Kennedy

Margaret McAteer
Nominated by Noreen McGeever
Seconded by Glen Hughes

Karen Reed
Nominated by Betty Quinn
Seconded by Kathleen O’Donnell

Kathleen O’Donnell
Nominated by Karen Reed
Seconded by Rose McEleney

The first 6 were duly elected.

It was decided that Cliodhna Kennedy would act as Secretary until the first Committee meeting when the Officers would be elected.

The next step would be to open a bank account with an initial amount released from the sum held by the ISPCA and to pay the affiliation fee of €127 and the Insurance premium to the ISPCA.

It was pointed out that this Society was not an Incorporated company and as such the Committee are responsible for its actions. Any acts outside the law or breach of Health& Safety Regulations will NOT be covered by insurance.

Five members of the Society would be entitled to attend the AGM of the ISPCA on 19th. May at 11 am in the Ashling Hotel, Dublin and if you have submitted your affiliation fee, Insurance and list of payed-up members and Committee you will be entitled to 1 vote at that meeting.
The committee were advised that Brid Sweeney at the NAC would be pleased to help them with any financial matters.

The Chairperson said that she was always available for advice and thanked everyone for coming and wished them luck with their new Society.