Inside the working day of a Tipperary dog warden – ‘we’ve become a disposable society’
For one of Tipperary County Council’s dog wardens, no two days are the same.
Kye Fassnidge has been working as a dog warden with the local authority for two years, and says a love of dogs was what inspired her to become a dog warden.
"Every day is completely different, so I turn on the phone just before eight o’clock every morning, listen to the messages that might have been left, if there’s nothing immediately urgent – normally urgent would be one of the restricted breed of dogs, if they’re out and about or someone has found one, that would be the first call.”
Restricted breeds in Ireland include pit bulls, Rhodesian ridgebacks, rottweilers, and German shepherds.
"Then I’d come into the office, check emails, check complaints that have come in, if I have routine calls to make, I’ll do that, but the day depends on stray dogs and trying to get those as quickly as possible, so as soon as I find the dog, they would go out to the pound,” Kye explained.
If a dog is microchipped and picked up by one of the dog wardens, they can be returned to their owner if all the information on the chip is up to date.
"If the dog is microchipped, it’s brilliant, I ring Fido, which holds the database of dog owners, if the chip is registered, Fido will give me contact details and I will always ring the owner, if I can get the dog home, the dog goes home and doesn’t go near the pound,” she said.
However, despite it being a requirement for dogs to have a microchip, many don’t have one, or are chipped but with out of date ownership details.
"A lot of dogs aren’t microchipped, or are still chipped to the breeder, again, despite the fact that regulations now state that breeders have to keep details of who they’ve sold dogs to, a lot of the time they say ‘I can’t remember’, or you might ring someone and they say ‘oh no, I gave the dog away’, so it sounds brilliant, but even if the dog does have a microchip, it’s not necessarily easy,” she said.
With the old adage that a dog is for life, not just for Christmas, Kye says that Tipperary’s dog pound, which is based in Nenagh, doesn’t see an increase in dogs surrendered directly after the festive period, but rather in the spring and summer when Christmas puppies have grown a bit bigger.
"You don’t see a huge amount more dogs coming in before Christmas, and I don’t even get as many calls about stray dogs coming up to Christmas, but coming into the spring when what was a puppy at Christmas is a little bit older and people realise it’s not going to train itself, and it does require work, maybe then in the spring you’d see a few more of these dogs that probably were Christmas puppies.
“A dog is a great addition to the family, but people really need to think if they have the right house, if they have the right garden and if they have the time,” she said.
The Covid-19 pandemic saw a boom in the dog trade, but since life went back to normal, Kye said that a lot more dogs were rehomed.
"I think we’re a very disposable society, I think people’s mindset changed since life got back to normal after Covid. We were all stuck at home, we were all allowed to go our certain distance, people got the dog, but I think that once life got back to normal and we can travel, and we can do things, people had forgotten what a big commitment dogs are.”
While there is a “typical” breed of dog that might be associated with dog pounds, Kye says that this has changed slightly in recent years, with more designer dog breeds now being brought to the pound.
"We’re starting to get more of the dogs that must’ve been expensive when they started off, but any dog can end up in the pound through one misfortune or the other, but we’re definitely getting a few more of those coming in now that we wouldn’t have seen.”
Once a dog makes it to the pound, the council are only legally obliged to keep the dog there for five days before rehoming it, but because Tipperary’s dog pound is closed at weekends, staff give people seven or eight days to pick up their dogs. If that doesn’t happen, two rescue charities step in and try to rehome them.
"We have two live-saving, Godsend rescues that come into us, we have Mo Chara down in Moyne, near Thurles, and Dogs Trust, they have hubs around the country, and they’re always really good if we bring in any dog that’s pregnant, so they will come every month and take dogs, but essentially we will leave the dogs as long as possible.
"We’ve got dogs that have been there months waiting for a rescue to have space to take them,” Kye said.
In 2024, 127 dogs went into Tipperary’s dog pound, with the figures for 2025 showing an increase already.
"We are up this year, I think it’s nearly 200 have come in this year, so the numbers are going up slightly.”
There is a north/south divide in terms of the most common dogs that enter the pound, Kye said, owing to the fact that Tipperary is such a big county.
“We do have large halting sites in the south so you would see a lot of lurchers coming in from Cashel or Clonmel, and the small terriers that are used for hunting, so you can see a clear divide from the south of the county. In north Tipperary I would have quite a few collies, but we don’t see a huge amount of restricted breeds,” she explained.
With Tipperary being such a rural county, Kye is often called to livestock attacks, which she says are something no one wants to be called to.
"You’re dealing with a farmer who’s very upset, and the law states that the farmer is entitled to shoot the dog. I did have one recently where that had happened and the dog was microchipped and registered and then it’s breaking that news to the owner of the dog,” she said.
Kye says one of the hardest parts of the job is picking up dogs who are living in bad conditions.
"You’re picking up dogs that are in poor condition, I’m a big softie, I’ve got dogs myself and sometimes some of the premises you go into, you’d be like ‘gosh, this is not good’, but there’s also injured dogs, and the livestock attacks, it can be very hard.”
Dog wardens can often face hostility in the course of their jobs, she explained, but said that it can be a very emotive situation for a dog owner.
"You’re often dealing with a highly emotive situation, I think people have a strong misconception about the actual powers that I have, people say ‘oh you can’t take my dog, you’ve come to take my dog’, but I haven’t come to take the dog, to take a dog I’d have to go to court and have a really good reason for the judge to say we can take a dog.
“I would always try to help, my first reaction would be to find a solution, find a way to help, and people should never be afraid to reach out,” she said.
People looking to adopt a dog can do so directly from the pound, Kye explained, but said that often, many people who are looking for a dog have a particular type in mind.
"The public are entitled to go up and rehome direct from the pound and in which case, all they need to do is produce a dog license, it’s €50 to rehome a dog and the dog will be microchipped, and vaccinated before they get it.
"A lot of people would phone and they’re very clear in their head what kind of dog they want, and it wouldn’t necessarily be the kind of dog that would come into the pound. The dogs that come into the pound, are there through no fault of their own, there’s no bad dogs there, they’ve just been let down,” she added.