Des Groome - A blog on Pets and Politics

Moving to wordpress!

2010-07-27T10:16:00.000Z

This blog is transferring to wordpress and from now on can be accessed directly on the homepage of www.kildarevet.ie

Fight Club- Nearer than you know.

2010-07-12T15:57:00.000Z

The term pitbull is usually used to refer to a type of dog rather than a specific breed. A Pitbull terrier generally describes any crossbreed of the American PitBull, English Bull Terrier or Staffordshire Bull Terrier which has been bred or trained for the purpose of fighting another dog in a ring. These dogs are not naturally any more or less aggressive towards Humans than other dogs and it is acknowledged that these breeds arent dangerous when raised properly.

Pitbulls are valued by performance, like racehorses and greyhounds. Top fight winners can be valued as stud dogs at up to $20000 in the US where pit bull fighting is a growing underworld activity. Pups from fighting bloodlines of the Staffordshire Bull Terrier change hands in Ireland for more than double the price of a non-fighting Staffordshire pup. At 12 to 15 months prospects will be trialled and potential game dogs selected and trained. A rejected dog deemed unsuitable for fighting may find its way to an animal shelter and be adopted as a pet from there. Or they may be used to bait other dogs.

Staffordshire bull terriers and other pitbulls can make excellent companion dogs as they are loyal and intelligent.But their perceived menace is often a source of conflict between neighbours in built-up areas. Owners of other breeds of pet dogs in housing estates often speak of feeling intimidated by the presence of pitbulls in the area. Behind the perceived menace there is also an unknown menace if a pitbull terrier has been bred from fight winners' bloodlines or "rescued" from a dog fight trainer.

Companion animals learn boundaries and their role and place amongst people by process of socialisation as pups. Just as greyhounds and police dogs are not raised as pets, rescued fight dogs can not be relied on to have the same conditioning as dogs which have been treated as pets since birth. In the US escaped fighting dogs have killed children. Many are simply too aggressive and damaged to be rehabilitated as pets and must be euthanased.

This week in a midlands town near one of my clinics Gardai were called to a house after neighbours reported a man for keeping large numbers of dogs in confinement. Gardai found a number of pitbulls in cages along with equipment for training these dogs such as chains, treadmills and weighing scales. They found anabolic steroids which were being given to the dogs for muscle development. There were also a number of dead dogs of assorted breeds which were believed to be stolen pets used to bait the fighting dogs during their training. A freezer contained body parts of various dogs. These were believed to be pets which were stolen to feed the fighting dogs.

My wife asked me not to write a piece on dog fighting. I will limit the tags on this blog entry so that it is not picked up by anyone other than the usual few who read here. Her fears are not misplaced because the details in that house are the outward trappings of a darker capability. Those who become exercised by the animal welfare and cruelty issues of dog fighting are missing the real point. One of my recent posts on this weblog ( Tokyo Kittens and Urban Cowboys) cited research about varied types of behaviour which are considered "signposts" of sociopathic and psychopathic disorders. Animal cruelty is considered a "gateway" behaviour. We are familiar with the idea of a gateway drug. Theoretically some habits lead to more harmful ones. Psychologists believe exposure to and practice of animal abuse causes erosion of empathy. Violence towards humans is the next step forward, just across a fragile moral barrier.

There isnt a lot of Irish research on this issue. We have an ambivalent attitude to animal abuse. We prioritise more immediate interventions. We have an inadequate and reactive approach to dealing with institutional child abuse and providing support to the vulnerable. Proactive interventions to target animal neglect and abuse arent even on the social agenda. But maybe they should be. The Humane Society of the US has convincing evidence linking dog fighting and pet abuse with child and spousal abuse. Since July 2008 when a famous American footballer was convicted of organising a dog fight club, many states have amended the RICO statutes to give prosecuters a greater range of charges with which to target dog fight organisers. The famous Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisation act recognizes that where you find dog fights there will be other violence, drugs, money laundering and illegal gambling.

Dispersal of a single fight kennels this week in the midlands scratches at the surface of these issues. Like a brief glimpse under a heavy rock, lifted then dropped. Unprecedented numbers of family pets have gone missing in recent months. Owners of missing small dogs can presume the worst. We must also presume there are other fight kennels in the region.The Law in Ireland lists dangerous breeds- American PitBull, Bull Mastiff, Doberman Pinscher, English Bull Terrier,German Shepherd, Japanese Akita, Japanese Tosa, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Rottweilar and crossbreeds of same. These dogs must be muzzled and kept on a lead in public and cannot be owned by anyone under 16. We also have dog licence laws which apply to all dogs. Our dog laws could be an effective instrument for Gardai to target and link criminal patterns of behaviour as the US RICO statute now does. But dog laws that arent implimented are pointless and a list of breeds without a register of either the breeder or the dog itself is an unenforceable list.

A Proactive approach to animal welfare would recognize that greater policing of animal welfare will benefit society, deter abusers, impact favourably on other violent crime rates. First and foremost we need stiffer penalties and more forceful interventions which recognize the "gateway" behaviour phenomenon. A proactive approach would also acknowledge that dispassionate coordination between Vets, Gardai, Dog pounds and animal welfare groups is needed. There needs to be firm criteria to decide which dogs to rehome and which to euthanase.I believe if a dog on the dangerous breed list is brought to a pound, it should be euthanased. Otherwise what's to stop anyone selling an impounded pitbull back to a dog fighting enthusiast?

A few days ago a sullen character of about 25 turned up at another of our clinics with a hungry British Bulldog suffering from Dermatitis which he had been given from the pound. The ISPCA paid its Vet's bill and had given him this dog even though he was unemployed and had a Staffordshire already to look after.I pointed out that this dog, having Dermatitis, would be high maintenance and require regular Veterinary attention. I had a concern about the new owners limited ability to pay for the upkeep of two big dogs and the ramifications of bringing a second dominant alpha type into a house with a Staffordshire. The ISPCA local volunteer whom I then spoke with, was motivated by the usual compassion but used no rationale for rehoming this dog other than to avoid its euthanasia. From a broader social perspective euthanasia of THAT dog would be my choice.

We need a new approach to animal welfare which recognizes how animals integrate with and impact on humans. Veterinary scientists now approach farm animal health, welfare and hygiene from the standpoint of food security, food hygiene, human health and safety. Beyond the isolated political footballs of stag hunting and dog breeder levies we need proactive and comprehensive companion animal legislation for all society's benefit.

Dog Breeding bill falls victim to Reality Politics!

2010-07-07T17:10:00.001Z

The term REALPOlITIK is one I remember from history class in school.It conjures up images of shady negotiations across the iron curtain where ethics and ideology came second to preservation of uneasy alliances. REALPOLITIK is the difference between what we would like to do and what we need to do. The German term defines a form of politics based on practical and material things. That's not to say it is a bad form of politics. Idealism doesn't buy the dinner,address the national deficit,or placate the trade unions.

Our coalition government is preserving an uneasy alliance. The Greens have a left-centric secularist,post-modern and pro-environmental view of the world,Bless them. Fianna Fail's nationalist core is tempered by three generations of power broking, global hustling and prioritising commercial growth over moral absolutes. Dog Breeding Legislation is well down the list of priorities for a party which used to draw votes from affording special status to Ireland's racing, coursing, hunting tradition. Fianna Fail will reposition our country in a global marketplace as a pro-enterprise economy. In return the Greens will impliment civil partnership reform, animal welfare reform, carbon offset credits, water upgrades and support fiscal austerity measures which international bondholders want.And Social advancement will ultimately emerge from difficult compromise.

The full text of the 2010 Dog Breeding Legislation is well crafted political reality, combining as it does measures to raise significant revenue from the dog industry and measures to satisfy the ideals of dog welfare and population control. Department of Finance needs revenue. The black economy in Ireland in 2009 was estimated at six billion euro. Insiders like me know that the dog trade exists in this black hole of untaxed cashflow. Now in our hour of discontent, it's time to tax some of this black hole while simultaneously reforming one of Ireland's animal welfare problems, namely the hitherto unregulated puppy farm problem

The Croke Park agreement is a good example of REALPOLITIK in that it at least keeps the country functioning and our civil servants off the streets. Brian Lenihan's last budget was a brilliant example of REALPOLITIK. His first budget most definitely was not. Being politically tactless and badly prespun it elicited protests until its most austere penuries were reversed. But the most recent budget which was full of fiscal austerity and brought reduced prosperity to one and all was grudgingly accepted with barely a whimper of protest. And such is our understanding that the country needs reality politics that we have already resigned ourselves to the next budget of expenditure cuts.The Santa Claus politics of "fantasy benchmarking" and "who wants to be a millionaire social partner" are over.

The British always applied the logic of REALPOLITIK to their colonial rulings. Better to swiftly slaughter a few hundred unruly gurkhas and indulge the Maharajah's fetish for victorian china than destabilise an entire area strategic for tea, rubber or slaves.The history of Ireland's famine is a legacy to REALPOLITIK. As Ireland's wheat and beef left to feed the empire, Westminster's awkward quandary about what to do with a starving peasantry was solved by their cheap and easy exit on fetid ships.

As a small ungovernable colony, the Irish learned politics from a Machiavellian empire which once ruled half the globe. Surprising then, that Britain's new Con-Dem government has launched straight into the minefield of electoral reform, headlong into disagreement over how and what way a lukewarm electorate should vote next time. Shrewd politics would be to focus all energy on the depressed economy and all reformist enmity on Labour's wasteful expenditure. At least for the first full year. Instead Nick Clegg's overreach towards the holy grail of proportional representative voting will end in tears as Prime Minister Cameron hasnt even the tact to support his coalition partner in public. Survival instincts in Irish politics are stronger. Cameron could learn a litle reality politics from Cowen and Lenihan's handling of our banks, trade unions, the ECB and our US investors over the last 18 months.

The Irish do REALPOLITIK very well. We have a history of coalition governments held together by tenuous promise and bartered favour. The ultimate exponent of REALPOLITIK was the most cunning of them all whose singular defining triumph was to deliver the Good Friday agreement. The boy republican from Drumcondra who gave the Reverend Paisley a gift of a Jacobite Musket on the battlefield of the Boyne, finally stalled sectarian conflict in Ireland by doing what politicians often need to do as a means to an end. Real political success is the acheivement of impossible compromise. Ahern, the son of a Cork IRA man acheived that one great thing on Good Friday 10th April 1998 by painstaking brokering and building relationships to dilute ideology. Fianna Fail have always done REALPOLITIK very well; progress by process and by compromise.

But the Dog Breeding Legislation? Now watered down by default so that opprtunities of revenue gathering, regulation and welfare improvement are lost for now. Fianna Fail are hardly dealing with the UVF this time.Romantic Ireland is dead and gone surely. But REALPOLITIK is with Ahern back in St Lukes, Drumcondra. Have there been Paramilitary Continuity Dog coursers and Beagle baiters darkly threatening backbenchers lest the 400 euro six bitch levy pass into law? Will we have to summon John De Chastelain to Ireland's potholed rural seats of greyhound power to clamber into battered transits and up to Paddyjoes to check who has seven bitches and who has only five OR who bought their own microchips CHAPE off the vanman at the dogtrack last night? The party that wore down the provos have given in to the dogmen!

During todays debate in the Seanad I heard one remark amidst the confusion over breeding bitches and civil partners "Anyone would think Tipperary was full of homophobic, guntoting, deer hunters". Its not, of course. The country has changed. The appetite for regulation of hunting, for conservation debates, for animal welfare advancements has fanned out across the eastern seaboard into the midlands of Ireland with the migrations of the last ten years. Bord na GCon or should that be Bord Na Con have pulled a two fold conjob. They have convinced the government by vocal lobby that their view is still a majority view in rural Ireland and they have successfully pleaded the poor mouth to avoid paying taxes which the rest of us may well now have to pay. An opportunity lost. government TDs? You've been Bord Na Conned!

The Dog Breeding Establishment Bill 2010

2010-07-01T18:34:00.001Z

I read today that RISE which are the group representing the Ward Union Hunt spent 100k on their PR campaign before the wildlife amendment bill. In my view they got poor value for money. Not once in the months of publicity did we hear figures on exactly how many jobs depend on the Ward Union or just how much in tourist revenue does the Ward Union generate each year?I expect the outlawing of the live chase will not greatly inconvenience the ward union in reality as the hunt will continue in drag form which the vast majority of riders to hounds will equally enjoy. I believe that in a few years time we will marvel that it was ever legal to chase a 400 kg farm animal across suburbia with horses and dogs.

The shadowboxing of back bench TDs purporting to represent " Rural Ireland" will gather pace over the next few days as the government seek to pass a piece of legislation known as the puppy farming bill.

This bill will enforce an annual fee of 400 euro on breeders owning six or more bitches of breeding age.Local Authority Vets will be regulated to inspect licensed dog breeding premises annually or as warranted. Bitches will be restricted to three litters every two years. All pups will be microchipped by law. As I write there are indications that greyhound premises may acheive an exemption. This would be bad news as Vets and others in the animal industry know that the greyhound sector has a significant over production problem. The effect of traceability, regulation and a registration cost would be a reduction of puppy numbers at the cheaper end of the market which is where overcrowding and animal welfare issues are most likely to arise.

It is convenient for FF rural TDs to characterise animal welfare bills as part of a Green agenda or Green conspiracy. In fact this Dog Breeding Bill was put together in 2006 by Dick Roche in the previous Fianna Fail government working with the ISPCA, Veterinary Ireland and the Dept of Agriculture. My own profession want puppy farms reduced in number and size and subject to inspection. The desired end product will then be a healthy, well socialised pet with fewer genetic defects. A reduction of puppy numbers will be an important side effect of regulation in a country where over 10000 unwanted dogs are euthanased in council pounds each year.

Mattie McGrath reckons the Greens want to ban "the pussy cat from catching the mouse". Mattie is the one playing Cat and Mouse as a game of party politics. The real underlying issues are discontent with An Taoiseach's appalling retreat over the last couple of years into morose pedestrian communications, the government press office's bull in china shop relations with journalists and Fianna Fail members' real hunger for clear out and clamour for reform of party culture. Foremost though in Mattie's intentions will be the tight rope between clientalist management of his Tipperary voters and not burning his bridges completely within his party machine.

The loudest opponents of the dog breeding bill are hunt kennels and the greyhound fraternity. Hunt kennels are loss-making and rely on membership subscriptions. Traditionally kennels provided farmers with an essential service of fallen stock disposal. This source of revenue has now declined prompting hunts to seek exemption from the costs which are central to this bill. But microchipping can be done as cheaply as tattoeing. If this bill allows exemptions then we may as well admit loopholes.

Greyhound racing is seen as the poor relation of horse racing. As such it is heavily subsidised by government and no doubt this group will plead the poor mouth in the houses of the Oireachtas this week. However any insider will tell you the breeding and sale of greyhounds remains a thriving cash based trade. Declared revenues within this industry are only the tip of the iceberg where pups travel between UK and Ireland on pound note transactions. Bord Na gcon have their PR people but it is notable that there is an absence of greyhound trainers or breeders sticking their heads up to plead penury. This sector may acheive its exemption but is in fact best able to pay the modest levies proposed.

The greyhound racing industry would benefit most from Local Authority regulation for a number of reasons. DSPCA survey showed that of over 10000 dogs destroyed in council pounds in 2009, 10% were greyhounds. There are too few outlets for unwanted greyhounds which have retired or are simply too slow. The best remedy to oversupply is to discourage breeding from poorer quality bitches by imposing a cost and an inconvenience.

I and my colleagues hope this bill is passed in its entirety. Our current laissez faire animal legislation is anachronistic. In common with the now outlawed spectacle of riders on horseback following dogs in pursuit of farmed deer across suburbia I believe we will marvel in a few years time that anyone who saw fit was allowed to breed and sell dogs without regulation or licence.

Tokyo Kittens and Urban Cowboys.

2010-06-19T15:15:00.451Z

The words and phrases we use tell a lot about how we think about our pets. I meet owners whose fluffy bundle of joy has come from a "rehoming centre". Pets in these centres get a second chance because animal welfare advocates, in theory match animal to owner. A "rehomed" dog is implicitly part of the family."Adoption centres" are widespread. "Adoption" has a legal-sounding tone with connotations of responsibility and provision of care. "Dog Pounds" have austere echoes in our minds. They are the last chance saloon,akin to prison's death row for strays in which searching owners are in a race against time.Ten days is the usual grace period given in Ireland's crowded pounds before a dog is euthanased unless claimed.

What is significant about the words rehoming and adoption is their link to children. They have a borrowed use in animal welfare where it is understood that animals,like children inhabit our world and are our dependents. But the commonest term used in animal welfare,"rescue" is the most emotive of these words. Whether a "rescue dog" or a "rescue centre",there are negative connotations about the animal's previous relations with humans. Rescue dogs which are saved into new homes from neglect, abuse or euthanasia,are a growing phenomenon because animal abuse and neglect remains part of society.

In some countries vets encountering non-accidental injury such as obvious cruelty or neglect to an animal are legally obliged to report this.The reason why was illustrated this week by a story in the New York Times linking animal abuse to same household abuse of family members. Youngsters with "aggressive conduct disorder"(sic), according to research the NYT cited, become desensitised to cruelty and suffering by practice of animal abuse. Researchers looked at MRI scans of groups shown images of pain and suffering. Troubled youngsters within the study exhibited heightened activity in the brain's "reward centre" while viewing cruelty and abuse. The report concluded that some people have impaired systems of empathy and crucially that part of the brain involved in self-regulation switches off as empathy is eroded.

This report is not the first of its kind.Many serial killers began in their childhood with animal cruelty. Animal abuse is now in fact proven to be gateway behaviour which on a continuum of sociopathic relations with sentient beings is a stage towards cruelty to humans. There are also hopeful studies that have shown how empathy can be rekindled by caring for animals. Learning to relate to sentient beings such as horses can improve damaging behaviours towards humans. Equine therapy programs where teenagers muck out, groom horses and learn to ride are now common in urban areas all over the world including Ireland and form part of accepted interventions for troubled teens.

Why then are punishments and sentences for animal abuse and neglect not more severe? Animal life is valued so much less than human in our value system and perhaps rightly so. But proof of a behaviour gateway to murder, rape, domestic violence and child abuse strengthens the argument for severe addressing at source of sociopaths and violent criminals. This approach is an auhoritarian view of crime and punishment. But consider the problem from the liberal perspective. If you believe that most abusers can be rehabilitated, deserve a second chance and that early interventions can and do work, the question becomes this.Why are equine therapy programs,empathy building programs involving animal companionship, NOT a widespread and integral part of our legal justice system? The reason why not is because that debate is ongoing and unresolved. Prison rehabilitates some, if not others. Intervention programs help some also, if not others. And the most draconian penalties, even the ultimate capital penalty fail to provide an ultimate deterrent to some perpetrators of heinous violent crime.

I believe piecemeal interventions and a prison service which attempts rehabilitation in an authoritarian environment are only reactive answers to violent crime. We know animal contact helps us learn moral behaviour and build empathic relationships therefore schools should provide pet interactions or even contain small pet zoos. Young offenders institutions could teach dog grooming and animal training. Prisons could incorporate responsible pet care as therapy for recovering addicts and for those most socially disconnected. Meanwhile new large stable yards as equine therapy centres in the worst urban areas of the country should be properly funded. The urban cowboys of West Dublin, Ballymun, Limerick city have a culture already of horse ownership which it would be easy to officially endorse and build on. The earlier the young bareback riders of deprived urban areas can be helped swap kalashnikov for saddle and whip the more likely that cycles of feuds and poverty can be broken.

The case for rehabilitation by animal therapy is more than a liberal do-gooder delusion.There is a need in people which animal companionship can satisfy.Peata is an Irish organisation which brings pets on visits to nursing homes, hospitals and hospices where patients are shown to benefit medically from regular contact with dogs. Peata can be reached through the DSPCA.

Overcrowded urban living paradoxically enforces isolation. The need for animal companionship can be as powerful as the need for contact with other humans. In the city of Tokyo where cramped apartment dwelling is the norm, pet ownership is problematic. To fill the void Kitten Cafes have sprung up which are "staffed" by cats and kittens ready to play with customers who pay by the hour. Kitten Cafes can also provide customers with a "doggie date" as they can rent you a dog for an hourly-rated walk or play date.This type of pet ownership by proxy is a Japanese solution to an urban Japanese problem.What void would a "doggie date" fill in a Tokyo commuter's life? Perhaps the gunslingers of Moyross and Southill experience the same void and could be helped by equine or pet therapy interventions.Make love not war or trade ponies not bullets?

Urban foxes and Urban legends.

2010-06-13T13:12:00.001Z

The story of twin girls in a UK suburb who were savaged in daylight by a fox while asleep in their cots in an upstairs bedroom, filled a large slot in the news cycle this week. Urban foxes are part of the landscape and fauna of Britain nowadays. Recent wildlife census estimates a population density of 30 foxes per square mile in urban Britain. This is significantly higher than some population densities in the wild. In cities we now hear of humans and foxes interacting in closer and closer ways. Our relationship with this native wild species is thus changing.

Foxes are large predators who live on worms,beetles, mice,voles,birds and by scavenging.They are known to avoid human contact and are normally nocturnal in their habits. In the urban landscape foxes have no natural predator,if human hunters and pest control are taken out of the equation. Their habitat has dramatically altered in 100 years or so of urban sprawl.The British whose landscape once was parkland, forest and farmland are now essentially an urban people. How rapidly has the fox evolved to adapt to this change?

Perhaps our expectations about fox behaviour need to change to take into account its evolved lifestyle, instincts and even diet in an urban landscape. Householders in the UK now put food out for foxes at the end of their gardens and are forced to weigh down wheelie bin lids. Disposable nappies,filled with human excrement are a favoured target. Foxes are now known to enter kennels to eat dogfood, kitchens to eat catfood. Fast food outlets which throw out vast quantities of food are favourite gathering places for urban foxes.If they no longer fear humans as predators then it may not be long before the fox sees us as prey.

In common with foxes, urban living has separated humans from our predators. On first hearing of this fox attack on human babies I doubted it's veracity. The likelihood is that a young fox was attracted by the smell of freshly soiled nappy into the sleeping babies' cot. The injuries probably occurred as the startled fox struggled to leave the cot after the babies woke. But to have entered through patio doors, crept upstairs into a bedroom and then to climb into a cot, undeterred by human scents? This scenario implies an individual fox lacking the inhibition expected of its species. Is it hysterical to fear this mix of new brazenness and native cunning?

Foxes do not have a genetic history of centuries of coexistence on the edge of domesticity with humans as feral cats do.Domestic felines revert to feral with ease when survival instincts dictate.Dogs of course are wholly domesticated.Our pampered pooches, even the macho ones, bear little resemblance to the wild pack animal which was their ancestor. Yet even pet dogs can sometimes attack and even kill humans. Attacks which occur often when humans neglect to train their dog and assert the proper pecking order.

These isles which were thronged with wolves, bears and even large cats are now home to just one species of feral canine-the fox. Other indigenous wild species died out over thousands of years of whittling numbers and changing environment. Yet the fox has thrived through seismic habitat changes wrought in a mere 200 years since the onset of the industrial revolution.To survive these changes the laws of natural selection infer that today's fox must have evolved into a very different species from its pre-industrial forebearer. Our relationship and assumptions about foxes are formed from our tradition as farmers and hunters where the animal's fear of people is the key dynamic. If we no longer hunt the fox and we domesticate ourselves beyond recognition, surely that fear dynamic which works to OUR advantage could crucially alter.

We now live cocooned in concrete and no longer kill by our own hand to survive. Instead we rely on remotely processed produce which we eat from plastic. We forget that natural eco-systems are not stopped by the city lines.We dont live in a bubble. After hurricane Katrina, crocodiles were caught in the flooded streets of New Orleans. Alligators are said to live in the sewers of some cities in the deep south of USA. When pet owners die in locked homes their hungry pets will eat their masters to survive.In April this year a particularly brazen fox crossed a frozen lake, scaled a fence and entered an island compound to kill 12 flamingoes in Helsinki Zoo.Wild foxes are showing exceptional ability to evolve and adapt to whatever environment and food sources are available.

As a Vet I have taken an oath to work for the care and welfare of the animal kingdom. I am however a farmer's son. My link with my rural past is only one generation broken. All farmers know there are inherent dangers in working with horses, dogs, cats or in close contact with livestock. Indeed any Vet would agree that the wild instincts of all companion animals should be treated with caution. In our interactions with nature we rely on a pecking order that we impose on animals, not by brute force but by millenia of conditioning and control. The majority of people now in the UK are six or more generations removed from rural life and the familiarity with animals that rural living gives. Those who put food out for foxes at the ends of their gardens are part of an altering dynamic,an evolving natural order and are sending mixed messages to this wild animal on the edge of domesticity. Sending mixed messages will have mixed results.

Epileptic Boxers and Tripping Cavaliers- a word about seizures.

2010-06-03T15:42:00.000Z

We have seen unusually high numbers of dogs presenting to us at both clinics in recent weeks either during or after seizure episodes. Full-blown seizures are dramatic and sudden in onset. This lack of warning and the violence of the convulsions mean that pet owners are often as distressed by the time they have reached Kildare Vet Surgery as the dogs themselves.

Epilepsy,a word we are all familiar with, is used to describe the syndrome of repeated seizures. It is often genetically inherited in dogs and can occur at almost any age but usually manifests between one and three years old. Secondary epilepsy is the term used to describe seizures triggered by any underlying cause such as liver disease, cardiac disease, metabolic disorder or other neurological disease such as meningitis or meningoencephalitis. Not all seizure cases will be epileptic. Nor indeed will all primary epileptic dogs develop full blown seizures especially if diagnosed early.

As I write this I am conscious that these paragraphs diverge from my usual style of(hopefully) accessible and not too reverent commentary and stray into the jargon of the science journal. This tends to happen when so-called experts are discussing topics of which quite a lot remains unknown.A great word we love to use is idiopathic which literally means "we dont know". In fact the next time you hear a scientist,politician,banker or economist baffling your eardrums with corporate esperanzo you can be sure they either dont know what they're talking about or dont want you to know.

So why would cases of seizure be any more common now than usual? One reason is certainly that we know seizures are triggered. Stress of any sort and changes in weather have both been identified as trigger factors. It's not too fanciful to think that animals in the current zeitgeist have picked up on some of their owners stress. During the recent good weather I have seen cases of latent primary epilepsy triggered by this heat wave and have also found that heat stroke can present to us as a kind of pseudo-seizure.

Precise data on the incidence of epilepsy is not available. But best estimates cite figures of between 1 percent and up to 5 percent of dogs suffer from epilepsy. Figures at the higher end definitely apply to some breeds. As much as 5 percent of Boxers are believed to suffer seizures. While the unfortunate Cavalier King Charles breed which has been the subject of controversy over selective breeding for it's unnatural head shape also have an above average incidence of seizures, epileptic or otherwise.

Treatment protocols for true epilepsy in animals are more limited than the human equivalents. But are relatively simple and successful. Once a diagnosis is confirmed we can often reassure pet owners by giving a quite favouable prognosis. The work will be ongoing. Treatment is continuous and dosages of medication will be modified regularly in the first year after diagnosis. We will be guided by both quarterly blood tests and the feedback we get from owners on how their pet has responded to the meds.

The tests we need to undertake to rule out a whole range of possibles before diagnosing primary idiopathic epilepsy are in themselves the best advert for Pet Insurance. At the end of all that ruling out our drug options generally narrow down to three namely valium, potassium bromide and phenobarbital. The trick however is often in the dosage and in the mix of all three. After that it's down to you the owners to live with your epileptic dog. Become good at giving pills!

The problem with Ivermectin and Collies....!

2010-05-30T12:53:00.000Z

This morning in Sunday clinic in Portarlington I have treated two cases of suspected canine Lungworm infection. It's a minor epidemic at this stage. When new pathogens or parasites emerge in the animal kingdom they propagate with impunity until medical treatments, host immunity or preventive controls catch up.

Vets, Doctors and Scientists share a common culture of learnng and vigilance in the face of evolving pestilence.At this time we, the veterinary profession are winning the war against Lungworm. Round one. Advocate is the simple and effective treatment and prevention against the Angiostrongylus Vasorum parasite. There are no miracle drugs in this life however. Medicines are only as effective as the protocols underpinning their use. By this I mean, in the case of Advocate for example, the pipette used must be the right dosage for your dogs weight and must be used monthly to prevent parasites developing partial resistance.

If your dog has signs of Angiostrongylus infection such as anaemia and coughing Vets may use other drugs such as Ivermectin or Moxidectin which can both be administered orally and by injection as additional treatments to accompany the use of Advocate.

Ivermectin is one of the oldest drugs of a group called Anthelmintics which control internal and external parasites in animals. Ivermectin is still very effective and widely usd. There is however an unusual genetic exception to its use. Dogs of Collie blood mostly have a genetic intolerance to Ivermectin and its mistaken use in these dogs has had fatal consequences in the past. Dogs with this genetic intolerance to Ivermectin include Collies (Rough and Border), shetland sheepdogs, minitiature shelties, Australian shepherd dogs, old English Sheepdogs and any crossbreed of these.

Lets face it- using ivermectin in any but the sickest of dogs is risky because every Heinz 57 in Ireland has some collie blood in them somewhere. Even the ones who dont look the least like sheepdogs.

Moxidectin is a newer generation derived avermectin and is contained in Advocate. It has the benefits of its older relative without any risk to dogs carrying the susceptible gene.

I can reassure any concerned collie owner that Advocate is safe to use in all dogs even the bluest blooded collie.

When is a cough not just a cough? .

2010-05-20T18:00:00.000Z

...When a Cough is more than just a Cough.

Climate change.Some of us are sick hearing about it.A growing number of sceptics are beginning to ask just what's all the fuss about. God knows we could do with a bit of global warming around these parts, since the ash cloud wont let us leave the island anyway. Eco-sceptics you could call these people(did I just make up that word?) who couldn't care less about the polar bears, the icebergs or the ozone layer. To these people however, I have two words of news today.
Angiostrongylus Vasorum.

Scientists love words of Latin mystery. Their own secret code to confuse the punters. The real mystery however is Nature. Just when Vets like me think we have the job sussed, Nature moves the goal posts. Or as in this case, moves the Climate. Angiostrongylus is what you and I can call Dog Lungworm. And it's here. It usedn't to be in Ireland , but it's here now.

Angiostrongylus was once known as French Heartworm and was confined to warmer regions. One more thing the French have given us;Sarkozy, Dog Lungworms and Thierry Henri (quel horreur!).This Lungworm which is carried by the Slugs and Snails in our gardens is now infecting greater numbers of Irish Dogs because wetter and warmer Summers have seen a massive recent rise in the Slug, Snail and Frog populations in Ireland.

French Heartworm which we now call Dog Lungworm has spread to Britain and Ireland as global warming has brought warmer weather allowing the Angiostrongylus Worm to survive further north. More Slugs, Snails and Frogs now carry the Lungworm and increasing numbers of dogs in Tallaght, Leixlip, Lucan , Wexford and Kildare have been reported by Vets to be infected with this sometimes fatal parasite.

So how do dogs become infected? Tell tale slimy Slug and Snail mucus trails which you find at this time of year on garden paths, on the dog's toys and feedbowls are full of Lungworm Larvae. Dogs are curious rummaging scavengers. Your lovable mutt with the palate and appetite of Homer Simpson may ingest Frogs, Snails, Slugs or even their mucus trail to become infected with Larvae which migrate through blood vessels to the Lungs where damage occurs.

YOU are not at risk from Dog Lungworm but your dog unfortunately is. Infected dogs can suffer fatal Lung Bleeding, Pneumonia, Anaemia and other clinical disorders. Infection begins with a cough, breathlessness or fatigue. Vets may then observe blood clotting anomalies and/or Anaemia.Severe cases can progess to signs of vomitting, seizures or diarrhoea. The good news is that this modern problem has a very modern prevention and cure.

A simple spot-on remedy which your Vet can prescribe will deal with infection. Importantly the same spot-on is recommended monthly by Vets like myself as prevention against not only Lungworm but also fleas, Lice, ear Mites and other creepy nasties. Advocate from Bayer, for example, is licensed to give just this peace of mind to dog owners. Vets all agree that prevention is safer than cure. If Angiostrongylus Vasorum are two words too many, then one word Advocate is enough. Just ask your Vet.
Des Groome,
Groome PetVets,
South Green road,
Kildare.

Nine Lives; Part Two- The Naming of Cats!

2010-05-17T10:54:00.000Z

Somewhere in the region of ten years ago, not long after marriage but well before the arrival of our children, Glenda and I decided we needed a cat. In so far as one ever needs an animal around the place we needed a cat. Perhaps as a counterfoil to the dog. Perhaps as a comforting presence on the windowsill. An urbane symbol of domesticity and settlement. But practically, rodent control was also a factor for consideration in a house beside a stable yard full of horses, full of horse feed and full of mice.

Friends in Newbridge had a litter of kittens delivered to them by their own queen.We went to visit and found four bundles of snotty matted taggly meowing catflu in our friends' kitchen."Pick the sickest one; You'll be able to treat it" said Glenda.We took home a jetblack Tom Kitten. We named him Ted. Our two dogs were Dougal and Jack. Around that time we also rehomed a terrier named Mrs Doyle. Dermot Morgan's bizarre TV show about the priests on Craggy island was popular in our house. Not least because our house itself with leaking roof, wind-tunnel corridors and telephone number heating bills resembled Fr Ted's parochial house in a field. Thus the black kitten became Ted.

Ted grew and thrived.He was the biggest young tom I had seen by the time he was a year old. After Neutering he grew even bigger. And being wormed regularly and fed sparingly he developed the sleek coat and body lines of a miniature cougar. He was allowed indoors rarely, perhaps at feeding time or on a particularly wet night. He curled up most nights in the stableblock with one or other of the horses and patrolled the loft above, ruthlessly maintaining it rodent-free.

He was regularly fed but hunted whether hungry or not. True to the independence of his species, he reserved the feral rights of his ancestors to come and go as he pleased. He would disappear for a day or two. Then reappear dragging a large dead rat, rabbit or misfortunate young bird. These he would drop at the back door.I regularly teased Glenda "He is doing you a favour- bringing you food. He feels sorry for you that you're not able to hunt for yourself". She fondly wrote "Ultimate Killing machine" in the space for "breed" on Ted's vaccination card. Though she was also conflicted.She felt a pang of sorrow at the feathered confetti he nonchalantly left as evidence. Proud that Ted kept our house and yard rat-free while appalled at his callous, sanguine approach to killing for fun. This was the dichotomy of nature. Feral cruelty alongside urbane hygiene in a species on the edge of domesticity.

The writer TS Eliot was a cat lover. But you dont have to love cats or admire them to respect them. Cats are a species of contradictions and retain some primeval mystery. The dog is man's best friend and in creeping close to stone age camps for warmth and food, formed an alliance with huntergather man which has endured the millenia. Cats were slower to trust, to be taken in. The cat is nobody's fool. Eliot's poem "the naming of cats" whimsically points out the elusive nature of cats "The naming of cats is a difficult matter, it isnt just one of your holiday games, you may think at first I'm as mad as a hatter, when I tell you a cat must at least have three names"... The meaning I take from Eliot's fun poem is that you may name a cat but you'll never really own one.

Ted disappeared early one winter a few years ago. We turfed him out after his supper to his regular night's hunting and that was the last we saw of him. Glenda blamed herself. He had wanted to stay in that night but as the mother of a sick baby which refused to sleep Ted was now a lower priority. I had also begun a boarding kennels at the surgery which I reckoned was a barking indignity to Ted's sensibilities. Ted had probably exercised his prerogative as a cat of means, by no means and hit the road. That winter we were plagued with mice and paid a pest control firm for the first time ever.

Last week,some three years since Ted was last seen,a new customer brought a chronically ill old neutered tomcat to me for treatment. His admittance forms and record card labelled him with some name which shall remain nameless and by which this lady client knew him. But I knew Ted and he knew me. He was in a critical state of viral infection, needed a battery of tests and IV fluids but I smiled as I explored his familiar ear scars and skin folds, knowing that Ted had come to the right place to have his new life,or the next one, saved. I also took my hat off to the poise, resourcefulness and self-mastery of a cat who finding himself in a life of barking stress and waning appreciation, had simply taken off to make a new life.

It is people and not cats who struggle to make new lives. Look around today at a jaded Ireland and see the human detritus of unravelled lifestyles. Some angry at lost business, collapsed equity or that collapsed house of cards. Others bewildered at lost identities, certainties, not to mention lost livelihoods. A feeling of being tossed out- like the cat on that cold winter night. Most of us are survivors. Some of us like the cat with nine lives, can reinvent, cope, move on. Those whose identity is wedded to a house, job, place or status will struggle.The hard part of coping with extreme change and upheaval is to retain an inner equilibrium of self,of moral compass, of identity and pride,of cherishing family and priority. And to shrug off lesser things before moving on. That's the trick of survival of the cat with nine lives.

When Ted came off the IV drip and gained some weight again I imagined I could see his inner equilibrium return.I called him Ted. His new owners called him something else. Glenda cried when she came to the surgery to see this surprise,the proud independent tom who had adopted a new family years ago and miles away. Like all cats he probably doesnt much care what anyone calls him. He knows who he is. A survivor. TS Eliot finishes the peom thus " when you notice a cat in profound meditation,the reason I tell you is always the same, his mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation, of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name, his effable ineffable,
effanineffable,
deep and inscrutable,
singular name.

The Cottontail's wire-meshed Shawshank.

2010-05-02T21:59:00.000Z

Long Ears is a blue and white cotton-tail inhabitant of a large well-made hutch of wire mesh and steel behind the back door of the Groome family abode. He moved in with us over a year ago after a client who had taken in a labrador puppy brought a young traumatised rabbit to me and shared a tale of prey and predator incompatibility. He had lost some weight,was refusing to eat and in a state of chronic stress(the rabbit that is- not the client).

Predator and prey species frequently do not mix. It goes against the natural order to attempt to make a rabbit and dog coexist as domestic pets. Remember the old looney tunes cartoons of the tomcat thwarted by tweetie pie or terrorising the goldfish? There are exceptions such as when socialised together from a few weeks of age, but in general natural urges supercede conditioning. When we have rabbits, hamsters, parrots, other prey species or exotics to stay at KIlDARE VET SURGERY we isolate them from our inpatient dogs and cats for this reason. Its not fair on either to mix them.

Thus Long Ears was adopted by the Groomes. Daniel,(7), James (5) and Tom (3) are too young yet to care for a dog or cat. A rabbit is an excellent first pet. That is until Dad, yardman Lar and grandad Tom get left to do everything. This winter in fact was so harsh that Long Ears shamefully was left in his outdoor hutch and coop largely to interact only with the adults.

A few days of snowman building and snowballing being memorable exceptions, the three boys spent the winter in the playrooom as engineers on the Island of Sodor or roadbuilders in Radiator Springs. Long Ears was sorely in need of some attention as rabbits need constant handling and interaction with people to ensure they remain socialised, do not revert to semi-feral and can be managed or cared for by a young owner. More importantly constant interaction is necessary so that the relationship between child and pet is wholesome and stress-free for BOTH.

Recently when the bikes were polished off and the boys started using the garden again they resolved to get Long Ears out to play. The first few episodes of manhandling led,not unexpectedly, to the rabbit wriggling and leg-thumping his way to freedom. Tom discovered that bunnies can have a nasty nip when startled. But after a week or so of handling, boys and rabbit became friends and played a sort of tag or hide-and-seek game in our enclosed side yard. Each day Long Ears would agree to be enticed by lettuce back to his hutch until the next time.

One day however our bunny found a new spring to his step. The time came for supper and to return Long Ears to lockup. But I looked out to find three boys of varying size and athleticism galloping around the yard trying to turn and corner a now fitter and confident Long Ears. It was definitely a Looney Tunes version of a Clonmel Hare coursing contest. At one stage as Long Ears paused for a breather and turned sharply to unbalance his twolegged pursuers,he looked across at me and I almost heard him say " Whats up Doc?".

That pursuit ended on Long Ears terms, when he decided he was tired of the chase and returned himself to barracks. But the next morning I looked out from upstairs to see his run empty. I spotted something beyond the back garden some 100 metres away and opened the window to get a better look. There he was in the long meadow keeping the pony company. Ears forward, aloft on hind legs with a blade of grass between his paws. No doubt smelling the sweet breeze of freedom.I laughed at the joie de vivre of our cotton tail, this time definitely less Looney Tunes and more Shawshank Redemption!

The boys' Mum warned darkly of the grim fate that could befall this fluffy innocent abroad in the long grass. A capture party was thus swiftly dispatched and soon Long Ears was reincarcerated to stare at the four small wire sides of his prison. As the old sage "Red" in that great movie said from his cell "Same old shit, different day!". We repaired the never before eaten-through wire meshing.

But something had changed. Long Ears escaped again. And again. And Lar the yardman nodded one day and said "he's got the taste of freedom now. Only the crows will scare him. He will breed with the wild ones and there'll be blue and white little lads everywhere!". Lar was our "Red"; the Morgan Freeman character who watched Andy in Shawshank always trying to escape in the 1994 movie and provided the slow voiceover "I have to remind myself that some birds aint meant to be caged, that's all".

Here's the thing. Long Ears hutch hadnt changed.But his attitude had. Now he could escape because he wanted to. For the previous year the blue and white cottontail had languished behind a wire mesh wall he himself held the power to breach. Held captive only by a barrier in his bunny brain.A taste of freedom had empowered him. The smell of free air had shown Long Ears the possibilities of life. Now escape was as easy as his dreams of a new reality!

There's some work to do tomorrow in mending that hutch.It will be no laughing matter for three little boys if a certain cotton tail meets a sad ending in the long grass. For now though remember "Shawshank" brought to you by eternal optimist and escapologist Andy Dufresne, AKA Long Ears. What imaginary prisons hold any and each of us back? A negative equity mortgage holding you back from a fresh start or a re-education? Fear of failure holding back that germ of a business idea? Unemployed, bankrupt or squeezed by the weight of institutional credit? Feel the failure if you need to- and let it liberate you.

I will leave the last word to Andy Dufresne who finally did escape."Dear Red. If you're reading this it means you've gotten out. And if you've come this far, maybe you're willing to come a little further.Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things and no good thing ever dies".

High Rise Syndrome- The science of the nine-lived feline.

2010-04-23T20:06:00.000Z

A young Jack Russel of my acquaintance is now newly christened Kamikaze Jack.When Jack presented at Kildare Vet yesterday he had some bruises and a shoulder injury. While I xrayed Jack to reveal nothing more sinister than a bad sprain his owner told a tale of derring-do and a death-defying leap.

Home alone while his owner shopped, Jack was locked in the kitchen as a regular routine. This recent fine day his owner returned home to find his dog in the garden at play. Doors remained locked. No other family member had been home. How did Jack get out?

A neighbour solved the mystery by reporting that he had watched while Jack poked his nose out an upstairs window,tentatively placed first one paw on the windowsill, then squarely positioned the other paw for take-off, until with ears cocked confidently forward, Jack had launched himself groundward off the upstairs windowsill.

Jack landed with nose, teeth and shoulders all a muddle. Like a tangled canine Wilbur Wright. True also to my son Daniel's favourite Buzz lightyear catchphrase " flying is falling with style"!

The solution for this owner now is to obtain a travel crate which is a type of collapsible cage large enough for a dog bed. Kamikaze Jack will now be cage bound in his owner's absence to curb further flights of fancy.

This behaviour is indeed strange in a dog. And of course in this case our patient was lucky not to sustain serious injury. Cases of falling cats are altogether more common however and a myriad of injuries are seen in association with cats falling from buildings.

Veterinary hospitals in New York first reported high-rise fall injuries in felines in Manhattan in the sixties. Appropriately they termed these cases " High Rise Syndrome". What made these cases news worthy was the surprisingly high survival rate in those cats who made it as far as the veterinary hospital after an often shocked and traumatised owner had peeled their pussy off the pavement.

This catalogue ( if you'll pardon the pun)of feline falls reveals the following; Two or three storey falls are more likely to be fatal than a five to ten storey fall. Survival rates were optimal for six storey falls as cats have time to right themselves to extend all four limbs ground-first but not time to reach terminal velocity. Having reached terminal velocity all is not lost as the cat will sprawl all four to extend body area in order to dissipate its force of impact. Their lower ratio of body mass to surface area is also an advantage cats have over many other species including of course the hapless human jumper.

The "record" is reportedly held by Sabrina ( not a teenage witch) who lived to meow the tale of her 32 storey fall off a frosty Manhattan window ledge. Incidentally the sorts of injuries these falling cats sustained were often no more serious than a few broken ribs, cracked jaw or chipped teeth.Of course critically serious injuries can also occur. But the good doctors of Happy Vet 5th Avenue can and will save one of your proverbial squashed cats nine lives IF your credit card can bear the pain. Strong Coffee and plush waiting rooms come as standard.

Irish Wolfhounds- echoes of a proud past.

2010-04-02T13:08:00.000Z

Journeying the other day back up onto the Curragh from Naas to the junction 12 roundabout I met the new imposing ironcast sculptures now filling the eye at the gateway to the Curragh plains. I took three spins around the roundabout to admire Fionn MacCumhaill flanked either side by his impressive hunting hounds Bran and Sceolain.

Kildare people often think themselves to be living in a bland modern and almost suburbanised landscape. We assume perhaps that words like tradition and heritage fit Connemara,Dingle, Lisdoonvarna or the Giants Causeway. A reminder of the pagan, celtic and rebellious history of our own townlands might incite a bit more civic pride in the people, place and history of Kildare perhaps.

I was saddened to hear one of Kildare's county councillors on the radio complaining that Fionn MacCumhaill's aculpture shouldnt have been paid for out of Newbridge town council's parking funds.I disagree and believe in fact that cultural pride, identity and a sense of dreaming the possible can lift people to think above the everyday and believe themselves capable of better.

Civic Leadership needs to excite again. People need to be asked to believe in themselves and their country, to strive for a noble cause again and to rise above the mundane. Leadership is effective when it incites to what Maslow, an early psychologist, called "self-actualisation".

The presence of Fionn MacCumhaill, Bran and Sceolain towering over that motorway junction is an echo of Ireland's mythology and awakens in me a sense of patriotism. And a sense of identity that allows us as an Irish people to define ourselves apart from the euro-mush and globalised Americana that dominate our lives now.

Legend has it that Fionn MacCumhaill was a Kildare man. His grandfather Tadhg the Druid had a fortress and lands on the Hill of Allen. Fionn was the lovechild of Tadhg's daughter Muireann and Cumhaill, the leader of the Fianna. Fionn was reared in the Slieve Blooms but returned to Allen to claim his grandfathers lands.The title of leader of the Fianna was bestowed on him in Tara as his father's legacy.

His two favourite hunting hounds were bewitched warriors imprisoned in animal form.The theme of humans bewitched into animal form was a common part of Irish celtic mythology. My view is that these stories educated people to have respect for nature.The closeness of the link between man's fortunes and the cycle of nature was a core belief of celtic druidism.

Bran and Sceolain were Irish wolfhounds. However the early writers often termed this breed of huge dog a wardog or deerhound/wolfhound.They were fit for purpose and could kill a wolf by snapping its neck. A pair could bring down a bear of which there were many in the Irish iron age forests. The Fianna were footsoldiers who went into battle with their hounds at heel and as the dog would fight to the death with his master and guard the homestead at night they were a revered and treasured possession.

Roman historians of the second and third century AD write of these hounds being brought in cages to be exhibited in Rome and to fight in the Collosseum. The ship that brought a young St Patrick out of Ireland carried a cargo of hounds to Britannia. There is evidence that there was a thriving trade in the export of the Irish wardog to the continent.

We believe that the Romans never came to Ireland. However it is more accurate to say that they never established an occupational presence in Ireland. They certainly traded with the iron age Irish and pre christian celts. A Roman temple and baths in Gloucester today has a life size statue of an Irish Wolfhound which dates to 365AD. I would like to think that the fearsome indigenous footsoldiers of Celtic Ireland who went into battle with their loyal and savage wardogs at heel provided a strong deterrent against Roman invaders.

The Fianna disbanded within a few hundred years of St Patrick's christianisation of Ireland. The land lay open to Viking, Norman and then British invasion as the millenia passed and the landscape, culture and genepools of Ireland were altered and diluted over time. Fionn, Bran and Sceolain on the roundabout are an echo of what Irishness might once have looked like.

When you next drive by there picture Fionn, leader of the Fianna standing on the Hill of Allen, watching his favourite hounds Bran and Sceolain as they hunt the Curragh plains below.

A Parrot is for life- not just for Christmas!

2010-03-13T22:11:00.002Z

If the Bank of America cant float their stocks and bonds these days, signs are they are preparing to float a new Noah's Ark if the activities of their debt collectors are anything to go by.

A character of our times, a woman in Somewheresmallville Florida, a woman in serious arrears of her mortgage repayments, arrived home to her subprime humble abode the other day to an empty house. But this was an empty house with a difference.

Monica Florent who was recently unemployed and had ignored correspondence from her mortgaging bank for some months, lived alone except for her 11 year old Blue Macaw Parrot named Luke. The Bank's collection sheriff believing the house to be vacant,followed the bank's salvage policy and efficiently emptied its entire contents. Including Luke, a very large, vocal, valuable but more importantly much-loved Parrot.

There followed an anxious time for Monica. Separated from her beloved Luke she repeatedly negotiated with bank representatives over the course of seven increasingly fraught days. Bank officials admit that they had to insist Monica stop calling as twenty to thirty daily enquiries after Luke's welfare eventually wore them down. Luke was released back to his owner after over a week in bank custody in a debt collector's warehouse 80 miles away.

Monica is getting her own back now. In a court case which has attracted world media attention Luke's owner has claimed severe emotional distress over the whole sorry episode and is suing Bank of America for reparations over separation anxiety.The outcome of this case no doubt will set a precedent for the work practices of debt collectors across the US.

The case of Luke's apparent kidnapping is interesting on several levels. Blue Macaws have a market value of 1500 to 3000 Dollars. Thus Luke could conceivably have bought Monica significant additional leeway on her distressed mortgage.However the distress caused, not to Monica but to Luke could bring a storm of animal welfare protest down on an already unpopular banking symbol of financial malfeasance.

Blue Macaw Parrots are the ones seen on every Treasure Island screenplay, made famous by Robert Louis Stevenson. Standing up to 20 inches tall with a tail of a further 15 inches, they have a brilliant-blue wings and back, yellow chest and splash of green on the crown and beak. Their formidable beak can give a nasty bite and when angered they will loudly startle strangers with a hissing wing-flapping charge. They form a strong emotional bond with preferably just one owner. They also can live for up to 70 years.

Bank of America could therefore have bitten off more than they could chew,so to speak, with Luke. I was reminded of a veterinary colleague owed a considerable sum of money by a racehorse trainer, who recently obtained a court order to collect his debt by the legal channels. The court sheriff arrived out to the trainer's yard to collect the debt to the vet only to find the only thing in the yard that wasnt bolted down had four legs.

Next day the county Sheriff ( yes,they actually are called that outside the pale)rang the vet to deliver his official line that " no goods were recovered". He did mention the horse in the yard as the only thing that could conceivably be seized and sold. " Why didnt you seize the horse?!That gelding won in Galway last month and would fetch a right few quid!"said the hapless vet.

The Sheriff's reply" The court service dont equip us with horseboxes!".

The taming of the Tiger Cubs.

2010-02-23T13:55:00.003Z

RTE's "The frontline" with Pat Kenny on 22/2/2010 featured a panel of two "young" Politicians facing an audience of a representative section of Ireland's Tiger Cubs; young, newly graduated, newly skilled and unemployed.It was an evening of frustrations and misunderstandings and the Tiger Cubs were angry.

Thomas Byrne of Fianna Fail and Lucinda Creighton of Fine Gael both agreed with this audience's agenda for CHANGE, though differing in their view of what actual changes could happen.Byrne had the better of the exchange with a clarity of communication, three solid points and a speech without notes. Neither Politician could offer radical enough plans to satisfy this audience. A need to mobilise the unemployed, harness the educated, nurture and retain Ireland's investment in youth skills and training was, of course, widely agreed. But there was a gulf of understanding and a youthful frustration at the slow pace and extent of change which reflects the difficulties facing these young Politicians attempting to exercise power in a multilayered system of bureaucracy, vested-interest resistance and tradition.

Both TDs argued that becoming involved in existing political channels IS the most effective way to influence change. The increasing disillusionment and disengagement of younger citizens in Politics will lead to a self-fulfilling cycle which will only serve to enforce the status quo through an increasingly older electorate electing older Politicians.

Frustrations and misunderstandings were also manifest amongst the contributors. Bill Cullen was frustrated that this group, highly educated and highly skilled in the professions and trades, lacked the self-reliance, initiative, Can Do attitude and resilience of HIS generation. Architects, engineers, business graduates, carpenters,physiotherapists etc should do more for themselves argued Bill. A creed of self-responsibility which was met with sullen misunderstanding and a rejection of his perspective as that of an establishment capitalist.

But Bill is right. Most of that group have the skills to make their own living. Most have the tools, gained by education and training in the good times, to set up their own businesses, hang their own plinth, ply their own trades in their own neighbourhoods. What many of them dont have though is the street sense, people skills,ability to improvise and the practical survival instincts that Bill Cullen's agegroup have.

We have channelled the Tiger Cubs through well-oiled educational and training systems. Their fees were paid. Summer jobs were plentiful and cushy.Apprentices were well paid and valued. We instilled them with a sense of entitlement that they would never be subject to the inequalities, dead-end jobs and the emigration of our past. But the consequence of prosperity is that the well-funded, well-meaning, well-signposted scaffold of Ireland's social supports has domesticated the Tiger Cubs to see only the safe and structured channels. The expectation that the Government should provide is a clear legacy of the boom years.

The people "before profit" and the TCD student union heads and the soft-socialist young labourites like to think they are radical. But the wildest voice in the room last night was Bill Cullen's.The entire collective of Cubs failed to match Bill's passion.The most radical thought in the room was Bill's message of the mastery of one's own fate. The Cubs have been domesticated and tamed. But there is a solution.

The most innovative and visionary speaker in that room last night was a young software entrepreneur. The cross-pollination of Bill Cullen's school of hard knocks with the mosern globalised IT savvy of that young entrepreneur is needed to finish the Cubs education.My solution? Put business parks IN universities. Allocate incubation pods to IT startups IN Science faculties. Rent office space in business schools to entrepreneurs and to last years graduates. Incorporate participation in successful business projects into undergraduate work.
The Tiger is dead? Long live the Tiger!

The Jungle Book- We be of one blood you and I.

2010-02-15T11:16:00.004Z

A young fella of about 19 came into the surgery in Kildare on saturday morning carrying a large open-necked and heavy-looking sack.what did the sack contain? I was expecting the common story of the family pet which had died overnight, now brought to me for cremation. As I ushered him into the consulting room with a greeting "come in, come in, what have you got in the bag?"I got a surprise. Without reply the young fella,now grinning broadly as I warily stepped back, emptied a coiled, surly, growling,three mtr and ten kg python onto the floor.

Even diseased or dull, the supple power, luscent pattern and very mystery of a rare serpent in the banal setting of a domestic Vet Clinic elicited a sharp intake of breath.

I thumbed through Kipling's "Jungle Book" over the weekend.Our python patient promptd me to remind myself of Kaa the Rock Python, a deep character of dark jungle mystery from one of my childhood favourite writings. The story of Mowgli the Man-Cub reared by wolves and mentored by Bagheera the Panther and Baloo the Bear.The chapter on Mowgli's snatched kidnapping by the Bandar-Log or Monkey people and rescue by Kaa, an awesome 30ft Rock Python captivated me again."And they the Bandar-Log fear Kaa the Rock Snake. He can climb as well as they can. The whisper of his name makes their wicked tails turn cold.Let us go to Kaa".

"They found him stretched on a warm ledge in the afternoon sun admiring his beautiful new coat,for he had been in retirement these last ten days changing his skin and now he was very splendid- darting his big blunt-nosed head along the ground, and twisting the thirty feet of his body into fantastic knots and curves and licking his lips as he thought of the dinner to come."He has not eaten" said Baloo as soon as he saw the beautifully mottled brown and yellow jacket" Be careful Bagheera!".

Reading parts of Kipling now as a forty year old I picked out social commentary and satire that was lost on me as a ten year old. "Listen man-cub" said the bear " I have taught thee all the law of the jungle for all the peoples except the Monkey-Folk who live in the trees.They have no law. They are outcaste. They have no speech of their own but use the stolen words which they overhear when they listen, and peep, and wait up in the branches.Their way is not our way. They boast and chatter and pretend that they are a great people about to do great affairs in the jungle, but the falling of a nut turns their minds to laughter and all is forgotten".This could be a commentary on our modern papparazzi or the tabloid media and those who inhabit its world.

There are also echoes of Victorian morality in Kipling which a ten year old boy might assimilate. Kaa the great aged Python assisted Mowgli's escape from the monkeys and afterwards surveyed the small boy."Have a care manling that I do not mistake thee for a monkey some twilight when I have newly changed my coat"." We be of one blood, thou and I"Mowgli answered."My kill shall be thy kill if ever thou art hungry, O Kaa".The Python dropped his head lightly for a minute "A brave heart and a courteous tongue. They shall carry thee far through the jungle, manling".True today as ever;even jungles have a code of ethics.

The attraction of owning an exotic pet such as Kaa the powerful python is hard for the faint-hearted to understand. But the challenge of caring for and gaining the trust of a complex serpent or reptile has its own rewards for some. My Python visitor had severe fungal pneumonia which I was able to treat with oral liquid antibiotic medication. He had lost weight, lost his lustre and a caseous scum across nose and eyes indicated severe debilitation.I was able to sherlock holmes my way to tracing the source of this disease to inhalation of mold grown on straw, an inappropriate bedding for a snake in a humid tank.

The snake hadnt eaten in a month. "What does he normally eat?" I asked his young owner. "Rats, the biggest whole ones you can buy frozen and defrost!" replied the young fella in gleeful Dublinese.I suspect a more gothic fascination with serpentine habits may motivate some exotic pet owners. To give him his dues though, he was under no illusions about his snake's potency and expertly restrained the python with extreme care as I gave the first antibiotic dose.

Anthropomorphism is a phenomenon we see in pet owners all the time.It means the attribution of human motivation and behaviour to animals.In fairness to this Python owner he was in no way anthropomorphic about his snake.But apparently thousands of owners are killed every year by their own exotic pets. Trust is their fatal weakness. Mowgli too was guilty of anthropomorphism as he initially was attracted by the monkey-people who play all day. Later however he cried bitterly as he realized their treachery "All that Baloo has said about the Bandar-Log is true. They have no law, no hunting call, no leaders- nothing but foolish words and little pickish thieving hands. If I am starved or killed here, it will be all my own fault".Kipling, the Victorian moralist now sounding like a 21st century ecologist.

One of those urban myths of a veterinary nature which I heard once at a Vet's conference goes like this- a python owner in the states had a snake for years and it grew to twentysomething feet long, grew to trust its owner and she it.The snake spent long periods of time out of its tank until the owner eventually let the snake pretty much have the run of the house and go in or out of its tank when it wished. Anyway by the by,she would wake up in the morning and find the snake on her bed which was not the least disconcerting for her. Instead, as a person living alone she found it strangely comforting. One morning she found the snake lying alongside her, cheek to jowl in the bed and happened to tell her Vet this tale of snakely companionship.

The Vet was luckily experienced in the ways of the footless hunter. He spoke with sharp and sudden urgency" Get that Python out of your house and into care immediately. Do not enter your home to get that snake on your own!".Kaa the Python had coldly reasoned that the time had come.He had been measuring up his owner and biding his time, sizing her up to swallow her whole.We be of one blood you and I.But trust is a weakness!

Can you teach an old Dog New tricks?

2010-02-09T10:51:00.002Z

The new show on MIDLANDS 103 FM on MONDAYS at 11.20 exposes me to more unvetted commentary than the radio coverage of George Lee's long goodbye. Yesterday's on air phone-in heard the case of the lady with four house cats, two male and two female, which were all neutered and of varying ages. Her problem was the particularly smelly and unhygienic case of the eldest male cat who insisted on coming indoors to relieve himself each day.

This behaviour is known as spraying and is normally a territory-marking habit of entire male cats. In this instance I surmise that this Tom was neutered too late for his characteristic male sexual behaviour to change.

My answer was simply not to tolerate this, to keep the cat outdoors, to prioritise the comfort and hygiene of your own home over the disrespectful moggy's egotistical territoriality. My motherin law who is a farmer with a commonsense innate knowledge of animal behaviour texted me after the show. Her solution to that lady's cat issues would involve the combination of an open back door, a large boot and a feline projectile. There is a time for diplomacy and a time for action to paraphrase Ian Paisley and King Solomon.

Speaking of old dogs and old cats and new tricks, an owner of two springer bitches lives across the road from the clinic in Portarlington. Yesterday morning before heading to Tullamore for the radio show I stitched a few nasty bite wounds on the older bitch of the two who is now being bullied by the other bitch, her former friend. These new hostilities began after bitch one had a litter of pups which are now all weaned and are some four months old. One could speculate on the reasons for the new fights.Perhaps it is jealousy or perhaps the younger bitch now wants to assume the alpha or dominant role. Undoubtedly the recent presence of the pups changed the dynamic between the pair.

Our client collected his bitch this morning and against our advice put the first one straight back into the yard with the aggressor. Ten minutes later he appeared back in the clinic with his bitch newly lacerated and standing in a pool of her own blood. More triage followed. Now the course of action will have to be separate yards, a new fence and a period of acclimitisation across the fence before these two can MAYBE become pals again. OR maybe not.

Speaking of acclimitisation and indeed decontamination, the Boy George was very naive to think his self-proclaimed talents would automatically gain him a controlling role at the centre of Oireachtas power. George was hardly fulsome in his compliments of any of his Dail colleagues in his work with RTE. More loose cannon than messiah, in my view George's high decibel indignation as a reporter did more harm to Ireland's foreign credibility than good over the last couple of years.Both his own political colleagues and other parties'were therefore bound to keep him at arms length for a while until he gained some allies or victories. In any organisation the new boy has to use his elbows, his diplomacy and due diligence to gain management's trust. Why would Fine Gael be any different to any working environment?

In the climate of hype and hyperbole that the national media perpetuate the other argument we hear is that " George's talents" should have been "used". To do what exactly and how? The fact is that George is one of many well-qualified economists in the country. Economics is an inexact science. In economics the right answer is often only evident after the fact. Many more qualified economists than George have proffered as many different opinions as there are PhDs out there on the world economic stage. To pull one lever of economic policy is often only as wrong or as right as the political philosophy underpinning the policy. Trade unions, banks, brokerages, as well as political parties all have economists as well qualified as George. The best place for George is behind a microphone- dont mistake that talent for political talent.

Richard Bruton is still there and holding his counsel. The one shining light of the current government has been the finance minister Mr Lenehan. It is however likely that Mr Bruton will be minister for finance in the next government.
The old dog for the hard road.

ASK THE VET- ALL OVER THE MIDLANDS!

2010-02-06T20:43:00.003Z

Its a few weeks since my last post on this site. But more regular commentary will resume now on a little and often basis as I begin an exciting new PETS CORNER feature on MIDLANDS RADIO 103 FM every second Monday at 11.20 am.
This mondays first show will feature a chat about coursing and stag hunting, the new animal legislation as well as on air phone-in.
KFM's VETSLOT continues to grow in popularity every friday at 11.05.
I plan now to use this site to raise issues and answer queries that arise on air each week.

FW: suggestion to help small business sector. Letter to Editor.

2010-01-05T13:25:00.003Z

This letter was printed by the Irish Examiner on Sat 2nd Jan 2010. It attracted pages and pages of reaction, comment and vitriol on website the propertypin I was pleased to note!
Subject: FW: suggestion to help small business sector. Letter to Editor.
Sir,
What the country now needs is an OBAMA. I am not referring to a prescription for soundbite political leadership, but to an asset management agency for Ireland's small business sector aimed at encouraging job creation.

The Ordinary Business Asset Management Agency would manage non-performing property investments of SME owner-managers, with conditions attached to ensure job creation and economic stimulus.

The interest-only repayments on that 500,000 euro lonely shannonside holiday home or shuttered flaking provincial commercial unit being approximately 2500 euro per month, I would surrender that property, but not the liability, to OBAMA. In return I would be bound to spend that 2500 euro per month on wages and PRSI to REEMPLOY someone, to creat a job, to grow my business.

Morgan Kelly of UCD's recent paper on the Irish Credit Bubble states" The property related borrowings of the owners of smaller Irish companies are now an impediment to their companies' survival and may lead to large job losses as owners are forced into bankruptcy over losses in property speculation. The destruction of the Irish entrepreneurial class may prove one of the most enduring and costly consequences of the property bubble."

Entrepreneurs define themselves by the successes of their business ventures and would prioritise their business' survival IF given a choice. Entrepreneurs will take knocks and pick themselves up again time after time. That is the nature of the beast.

If business owners were freed from the constraints of paying back large mortgages for secondary properties, cash would transfuse the small to medium enterprise sector, fuel growth of Ireland's GNP and get the private sector back to work.

Des Groome,
Chairman of Kildare Chamber of Commerce.
Kilcumney House,
Kildare town.

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FW: letter to editor, Banking Crisis.

2010-01-05T13:24:00.003Z

This letter was printed in the Irish Independent on Monday 4th Jan. The bank crisis and corporate governance issue is one I will not let go of!
Sir,
An inquiry into the causes, culprits and consequences of the Irish Banking Crisis is necessary.
If indeed there were illegalities of corporate governance committed, the public must see the rule of law upheld if only to preserve the credibility of law and order itself.

If misdemeanours of imprudence or bad judgement were committed, the public would be reassured if the right people were shown to be "accountable" if only to preserve some credibility for a future banking system.

Any bank now asking ordinary creditors to put themselves under duress to honour loan liabilities must apply new standards and ethics to its own practices.

Mr Cowen is incorrect that a banking inquiry would weaken confidence on the international markets. A new style of corporate governance and financial regulation would reassure and stabilise markets.

A tribunal style banking inquiry would not be appropriate on cost grounds alone. However a cross party Oireachtas inquiry, chaired by an international and neutral figure should be considered. An EU inquiry into the entire eurozone's banking practices, past and future, might also be useful.

Public discourse on this issue needs to continue as the aims and format of such an inquiry would be crucial from the outset. A facebook page has been set up" Call to investigate the banking crisis". Our banks customers, depositors, shareholders and the nation's tax payers need a say in the banking system we want to have.

Des Groome,
Chairman Kildare Chamber of Commerce,
Kilcumney House,
Kildare.

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Bucking the Trend- how SMEs can beat the recession.

2009-12-29T13:12:00.006Z

An often ignored fact is that small businesses are the largest group of employers in Ireland.These small businesses or SMEs, defined as companies with 50 or less employees,comprise the largest numerical group of tax payers in the state. The real question for our economy,given the current preoccupation with tax revenue, is how does a small to medium sized business grow during a downturn?

The advice from Harvard Business school on this subject is to "plan strategically to be primed for growth" when the upturn comes. Large corporations strategise for growth by investment in R and D. Translating to small business, this means figuring out what you are best at and then continuing to do it- but figure out how to do it better and cheaper.

Competition is still the name of the game.Recession is an opportune time to look at what your weakest and strongest competitors are doing. Learn from both.
If you have a strong market size, then scour the market place and learn about the customers of your weakest competitors.What are these customers seeking that you do NOT provide? Look also at your largest competitors. Are they managing to hold market share in recession? Can you emulate any aspect of their service to become a real alternative for THEIR customers?Your competitors may be working all out to save their big accounts but that means there are smaller accounts you can go after.

In this climate customers' criteria have altered.Many now only shop for low price.But many also want quality AND value. In a sense your business challenge will be to help customers have their cake AND eat it. To do that you will need to manage the trick of cutting your costs without compromising service to customers.
You might call this challenge the "not throwing the baby out with the bath water" challenge. But DO throw out your prior assumptions and embrace new business practices, products, habits as well as those new customers.

If you are a small player you CAN gain ground.Bigger firms tend to have higher costs.They may also have clients disillusioned with a customised service. Perhaps you can work closely with that client and provide the personalised service they need. If you are a smaller player you should have less overheads and for that reason competing on price may be an option.

One vital point is this: don't forget to focus on your own existing clients, if you want to buck the trend you have to increase your client base, but if you do this at the expense of your existing clients then you will have only filled a void rather than gained ground. If you find that you want to gain more clients ensure that you don't do so to the detriment of what you have already worked so hard for.

Cut costs and look at your suppliers. Do you have any critical suppliers? If so get binding contracts in place so that they don't pass on any woes to their client base.
Many Irish subsidiaries of global players have passed the burden of shouldering stock equity losses down the line to you and I. I had two large global suppliers try to pass on four percent increases in early 09.By the end of 09 both were offering two for one on the same stock.

Oil prices are going to affect logistics and if you are in that business having set contracts in place would make a huge difference.Having a contract doesn't mean much if people refuse to honour it, but at least you are starting from a position of strength. If any of your suppliers are in danger of collapse, then you need to look for alternative suppliers should they be required or find ways to work with the present ones given different scenarios.Do not become over-dependent on any one source or product line.

Look out for talent!This may be an opportunity to get great talent at a great price. If you can access the labour market right now you may be pleasantly surprised by just how much 'bang for your buck' you get. If cashflow is an issue think about ways of keeping your own talent on board. A downturn will often make people re-think their tenure; last years demotivated employee may have a changed attitude today. Remember also that your hungriest and best performer is open to poaching by a market rival in survival mode. The last thing you want to see is your best employee leave because they are disenchanted or insecure.

You may have let some staff go. You need those who are left to work harder and assume new skills or responsibilities. Perhaps you need to promote by stealth, with salespeople or general operatives sharing management duties. You cant expect them to see the light at the end of the tunnel which only you have the belief in your business to see.Therefore even your best people will become jittery unless you communicate your vision, your destination; the where and the when it will all end. Leadership is about that vision, but mostly about communication.NOW more than ever, strong leadership is the asset you must bring to your business.

Get into the public eye. Nothing gives greater return on investment than some publicity. If you can talk about your business topic, then pass some information or public interest stories on to radio or paper correspondents. The media have a difficult job to do. They have to take any amount of information and turn that into digestible stories that are of public interest.'Newsworthy' is probably more important than 'news'.

Smart spending is key. Finding ways to really control your outgoings is vital. In terms of some online presence, a blog is a great tool for attracting web traffic that is interested in your area of specialty. Other sites may link to you on that basis and when they do that will help drive more traffic towards your site.

Look at sites you like then learn from their good features. Ensure that your phone number is clearly visible on every page and that contacting you is very simple. Clear easily found contact details are a must. As well, if your product or service can be bought over the web ensure that the process is easy. Paypal are great for the SME adding a web sale dimension.

Perhaps the single most important message in all of this is to keep marketing. Try new things.It's never too late to change your business model or to find a new angle. This doesn't mean being the cheapest. In fact that race to the bottom is expensive and creates more losers than winners.Locally focussed advertising yields strong dividends over time. You may not be able to gauge the results. What is important is for your business to become part of the local fabric of your town or community by your constant low grade public presence. Name recognition is your aim which is, after all,the essence of branding

Examine your business closely and try to find out what it is about you that makes clients come to you. Then do that again and again. Who isn't in the service industry to some degree? Imagine you got a carpenter to do a small job in your house. He shows up on time, does the job, accepts credit card, cleans up after himself and even uses a hoover to make sure all the dust is gone. Would he/she go on your phone for future reference? You bet they would!

Downturns mean people are looking for bargains. If you have stock that hasn't moved, then sell it as low as cash flow allows and use this to generate traffic to your business.Cash flow is the name of the game. Choose a " pay on demand" client over a credit client every time. Unless you feel you must do a job on credit ias a loyal favour to a good old customer. But dont be too loyal.

ISME's quarterly surveys pinpoint delays in payment as a critical problem for SMEs. Banks have stripped away overdrafts from those who werent using them. If you were using your overdraft, even depending on it, you have probably had your core debt put on term loan. We all give each other too much credit.Consider inviting your client to use a credit card to pay you; MBNA are in the credit card business, you are not.
Its a peculiarly Irish problem as credit is not expected, taken for granted or abused in many other countries to the extent that it is here.

The global recession has thrown up a new paradigm of marketing for customer expectation.Marketing gurus have commented for a decade or so on the phenomenon of the customer jaded by mass production.The demand for personalisation of service should have given the smaller businesses a larger niche but instead the large multinationals expanded choice and personalised their marketing strategies to keep ahead.The internet also empowered some customers by giving both knowledge and control over price and choice. What the internet lacks is the thrill and immediacy of a personal purchase. Big business has kept ahead because the honeypot of convenience and perceived value has allowed them to influence consumers to purchase high value goods or services with the bait of marketed loss leaders.

The good news for SMEs is that a new paradigm of consumer power is now emerging to add to the other five forces of business.Research shows that consumers will now pick and choose what and where to buy by new discerning ctiteria:whatever your niche is, IF you shout from the rooftops about it you have a better chance than ever of YOUR customer bypassing that aisle in the supermarket to selectively purchase from YOU. Shoppers will choose Tesco for some things, LIDL for others and now more than ever the farmers market for others. The principle of consumer power works for every sector. If I dont answer that nuisance ten pm call, a competitor will; my customer is now less likely to wait for me to suit myself. The SME which chooses to embrace the pros and cons of consumer power, to grasp the new paradigm, can use its own strengths of service and attention to detail to thrive through and grow out of recession.

FW: letter to editor- Brian Cowen,

2009-12-28T16:40:00.005Z

This letter was printed in the Sunday independent on 3rd Jan.
Not so much a defence of Cowen but a comment on the interviewer.

The indo carried a full page interview with An Taoiseach in which Brian Cowen to be fair was very straight talking and came across as a very human, modest, team-building type of manager. The sort who would probably be a safe pair of hands in any organisation. I happen to believe that his pace of decision making has been too slow for the gravity of situation the country has faced. I believe his responses to the horror and hypocrisy revealed by the Murphy report were far too lukewarm. I believe his ambivalence to the Corporate malgovernance at Anglo-Irish leaves a lot open to suspicion.BUT political journalists in this country have gotten far too opinionated in the last few years and scarcely disguise their partisan leanings at this stage. A fact that they collectively need to be challenged on.
This letter to the Sunday INdo hopefully does that...
Sir,
I refer to Sunday Independent 27/12/09, analysis p29.
Jody Corcoran's feature analysis on Brian Cowen's toughest year was indeed revealing, not for its insight into Cowen's philosophy of power broking but for its explanation of how a political journalist, such as Jody Corcoran, feels a politician should or shouldnt use the media.

Corcoran cites Cowen's leadership style as " the antithesis of grandstanding" and puts it to Cowen that maybe he should grandstand now and again " for effect".
Cowen replies that he leads as straight as he can and deals with "the substance of the issues and gets on with the job".

Corcoran's exasperation, evident through his line of questioning, seemed to be at Cowen's obliviousness to political spindoctoring, media impression and populist showman politics. I dont believe I have ever read a journalist ask (a politician) would behaving in a particular way not be better POLITICALLY for you?

Has the wheel of political journalism in this country come full circle? Since the advent of the printing press, media have criticised politicians in general for a lack of sincerity and conviction. Is Cowen now being criticised for NOT playing the game, not grandstanding, not spindoctoring?

Readers, voters, the public at large have a choice. Listen to or read what the man Cowen says and does. Or rely on the interpretation of an exasperated professional media needing a media friendly, impression-managed Taoiseach to suit their presentation of events.

Cowen may be his own worst enemy in the game of words and images, but he is nothing if not consistent. Remember the triumphant return to Clara after the Taoiseach's appointment? What was the song he sang on the back of the flatbed truck? "I did it my way"!

Des Groome,
Kilcumney House,
Kildare town.

FW:Call to Investigate the banking Crisis by oireachtas Committee

2009-12-24T12:06:00.001Z

A young journalist named Gavin Sheridan keeps a weblog I follow, simply titled gavinsblog.com. Gavin has the tenacity, curiosity and hunger of a true investigative journalist. I dont agree with a lot of his political views. I suspect his vision of Ireland's future is of a society a lot more left-leaning and interventionist than my vision.I believe in a future ideal of an efficient, productive, food and technology driven, pro-enterprise and small-government, island. We are at the mercy of global economic tides. We are strategically positioned but on a global scale we are no more relevant than a filling station on the Mullingar bypass; It is our passing traffic and footfall that matters. Should we cease to give global travellers what they need they will keep moving to the next turnpike. Our economy is "open". What does this mean? It means we rely on imports and exports to give all of us the wherewithal to maintain a first world society. It is in that context that the analogy of Ireland as a global petrol station must be viewed. We have to adopt the flexibility and all the other characteristics of a small well-positioned business setting out our stall for passing trade.
Most of my posts are informed by this vision of Ireland's best future and by the view that we need to get more productive, get our people working usefully, use the assets we have of good land, good food and great entrepreneurs. THAT future of Ireland, the lean global trader depends on better corporate governance, accountability in public life, social pluralism and a state with moral as well as civil authority.
gavinsbolg 21/12/09 is worth a look. He catalogues a trail of investigative journalism into bad banking practice and irresponsible regulatory inaction tracing back to 2005.
I have set up a facebook page Call to investigate the Banking Crisis by Oireachtas Committee. I am sick of the party that I once felt an ideological affinity with, responding inadequately or equivocally to the moral ambiguities that have typified much of Ireland's social structures. Colloquially I have recently commented that the country needs to be now taken apart and rebuilt. In a manner of speaking I do believe that reforms of government, civil service, church, banking, corporate governance are now needed on a scale that will change the shape of an already rapidly changing society. These are reforms that need to be led by the moral, tolerant, Right-centred, decent and enterprising people of Irish society. have a look at my facebook page and join this debate.

Date: Tue, 22 Dec 2009 07:13:09 +0000
Subject:
From: gavinsblog@gmail.com
To: groomevet@hotmail.com

The Regulator

Posted: 21 Dec 2009 02:41 PM PST

I don't want this post to seem like an "I told you so" post. But it might appear that way. I started irishcorruption.com/publicinquiry.eu back in 2005. One of the biggest issues myself and my uncle Anthony covered, and still cover on that blog, is the lack of regulation of the banks. And when the country was in a credit boom, and nobody, or at least very few, were asking questions about regulation of the banks, myself, and to a much deeper degree Anthony where highlighting this issue ad nauseum. Almost all of these posts were also copied to the office of the Financial Regulator.
August 22, 2005 Toothless IFSRA
August 25, 2005 Allied Irish Banks investigates itself
September 28, 2005 Banana Republic
October 10, 2005 Irish/Italian accountability
November 15, 2005 The sheriff is not for the good guys
December 13, 2005 Irish (Banks) Mafia
December 23, 2005 Legal actions, dodgy dealings and resignations
January 9, 2006 The (Irish financial) Wild West Show
March 24, 2006 Still waiting for law enforcement
March 26, 2006 Former AIB executives settle with Revenue for €323,313
June 7, 2006 Ireland – The Wild West of European finance

August 1, 2006 Irish Financial Regulator – Bizarre and toothless
August 2, 2006 Rampant corruption – rampant profits
September 28, 2006 A corrupt state
October 13, 2006 Bank robbers and bank robbers
December 12, 2006 Failing to make connections
December 14, 2006 Maintaining the illusion
January 23, 2007 State contempt for consumers
March 20, 2007 Irish Financial Regulator – Betraying the consumer
April 4, 2007 The Financial Regulator, banks and credit unions
April 25, 2007 Insider watchdog
May 3, 2007 It's all in the mind
June 17, 2007 AIB: Still ripping off customers with impunity
June 13, 2007 Man of steel turns to straw
August 23, 2007 A corrupt and secretive financial market
August 21, 2007 Dublin – A conduit for dodgy deals?
August 27, 2007 Dublin operation – A sloppily-run pig sty
And that's just the first two years of blog posts. Never let anyone tell you that no one could have seen what was coming.

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The giant pool

2009-12-11T08:23:00.003Z

This post is a speech I gave at Kildare Communicators last week. It is the true tale of the growth of the American credit system which led to the subprime crisis in the US. Reading this may put Ireland's economic fall from grace into global context. Acknowledgement to the US today show.

My story begins with the global pool of money. But where does it end? Bear with me. This, a giant global pool of all the money in the world contains all the pension funds, insurance funds, private savings. When my story begins, 1998, the global pool sums 36 trillion Dollars. Thats a million euro on the day of Christ's birth, a million the next day for you and every day since- with a couple of trillion left.
That giant pool is watched over nervously by an army of investors whose job it is to make it grow, to keep it safe.
Between 1998 and 2000, two things happened. First around 1998 the global pool of money began to grow very suddenly. All sorts of unexpected countries like Abu Dhabi, Korea, China began to globalise their money. second, Alan Greenspan, the head of the US fed reserve made a speech announcing that US government bonds would stay at 1%- very low interest- for a very long time.
Suddenly, that army of investors began to have more money than they knew what to do with and needed more SAFE places to put that money.
So- Wall Street created a new financial product called a mortgage backed security. What's safer than houses?
At this point I want to introduce you to the three Mikes.
The first Mike, Mike Soden, works for Bear Stern. He is an investment banker.He looks after the global pool of money. He buys mortgage securities with other people's money and nets his clients a few modest % return. It's safe as houses.
Next meet Mike Garder, head of silverstone Mortgage bank Nevada. They sell loans to people like you and I. They borrow millions from bigger wall street banks to sell us mortgages to buy houses. Then they take back the mortgages ,gather them together in bundles of 2 to 300 and sell them back to wall street in mortgage backed securities.
Before long Mike in Wall Street owns little pieces of thousands of mortgages sold by Mike in Nevada.
By 2003 everybody who qualified for a home loan OR already had one was in the pool. BUT Wall Street couldnt get enough of these mortgage backed securities.
So month by month guidelines got looser until Mike in Nevada says they were literally pulling people in off the street and offering them home loans.
Lets look at he different loan types-
First you had a verifed income, verified asset loan- a VIVA. Then you had a Stated income Verified asset loan- a SIVA.
These are triple AAAs.
But soon you just needed an accountants letter to get yourself a No income verified asset loan. Finally they started giving out the loan you know you are going to default on- the NINA ! NO income NO asset home loan!
You see it was a new era- banks didnt hold the loan for 30 years anymore. They just bundled them up into triple AAA securities and sold them back to Wall
Street.
Now you would be right to ask- Where was the regulator? and yes there were ratings agencies. But they had no DATA for these new loan types. They relied on historical DATA about how safe home loans WERE. They gave virtually all these securities triple AAA ratings. They were rated as safe as government bonds.
Year by year if Mike Garder doesnt give a guy a loan , the next broker will. If Mike Soden doesnt buy the latest scurities the next banker will.
Year by year market forces took over. But how do you turn a NINA- a No income loan which is set to default from day one- into a security?
Because they are not all triple AAA. You have double B and triple B in there as well. How do they fly?
Meet the third Mike. Mike Francis. Mike Francis runs Dynamic Finance, Ohio.
He buys some triple AAAs from Mike Garder. He buys a LOT of double BBs and a LOT of triple BBBs.
He grades them, values them, sorts them. Then he shuffles them.
He splits them into bundles of 2to300 called tranches to create a new financial product, a new type of "security".
They are called collateralised debt obligations. CDOs. And Wall Street cant get enough of them.
Because by this stage the global pool of money had reached 70 trillion.
Some of these loans are ToXic Waste. But Mike Francis is an alchemist. He turns bad loans into good securities. Bad money into Good.
Mike Francis is an alchemist. But by the end of 2005 you could almost smell the sulphur.
Meanwhile Mike Soden in Wall Street watches his screen every day and all these securities and all these CDOs perform. Nobody misses a payment. Mike sends his investors a little dividend every month and everyones happy. These are Performing Loans.
But Mike now admits it was the triumph of Data over common sense.
Because by mid 2006 the average American home loan was over 4.5 times the average American annual salary. That ratio historically used to be 2.5. A leverage of 2.5 is the ratio you and I are safely able to pay back. Mike says what Wall Street didnt know was that the toxic loans hidden in the CDOs were propped up in the malls and on the high street by another loan product- the home equity credit line. People were taking out another loan to pay their mortgage. Now that didnt matter as long as house prices kept rising because we are all property speculators by this stage. You are going to sell the house next year anyway!
But by mid 2006 house prices reached a critical level and stopped rising. House sales faltered. The loans stopped moving.
Mike says he remembers the day it happened, just before Halloween 2006. Some of the numbers on his screen started to blip. Some repayments were missed.
Mike's boss said" would you look at that.... What are the fed offering on bonds today?"
Wall Street stopped buying CDOs and securities. Mike Francis in Ohio was stuck with a load of CDOs. He packed up his chemistry set and stopped buying loans from Mike Garder.
There followed a winter of discontent as the cycle of lend-speculate slowly ground to a halt.
Mike Garder in Nevada was stuck with a load of mortgages and soon keys started coming in the door. No one was buying homes even if you did repossess as home owners here and there began to default.
Around february 07 when the bank itself defaulted on a couple of big repayments to Citibank, Silverstone Bank Nevada declared itself bankrupt.
Staff were told and then people began to literally wheel photocopiers out the door.
Mike says his boss called it the valentines day massacre.
To everyone else it was the subprime crisis.
Mike Francis in Dynamic Finance, Ohio, who had split up and sold on shares in some 16 million home loans simply filled in all the paperwork, sent it to Wall Street and pulled the door closed behind him.
By mid 07 the language changed. They stopped referring to it as a subprime crisis. The problem became known as a CREDIT crisis.
This is because Mike and the rest of Wall Street had lost half the global pool of money.
They have been badly stung and their investors are mad as hell.
So now they want NO RISK. Suddenly government bonds at 1% look very attractive again. Suddenly no one wants to lend.
This is why Hungary, Turkey and lots of other places are paying 15% and Ireland's interest rate is rising rapidly also.
We are mixed right up in it because the trail of CDOs reaches all the way to OUR banks who borrowed and hedged and sold on securities, who used securities AS security on risky Dublin site sales. A trail that culminated in a late night phone call to the minister for Finance in September 08.
My three Mikes, NOT the three wise Mikes, are my seasonal tale of the decade.
To put this into perspective, this IS where we are. Its NOT the great depression. Wall Street says its more like back to the 70s.
We are stuck in neutral for a while. You can take Uriah Heep's view- he was Charles Dickens fictional stingy accountant- " Happiness is a surplus, misery is a deficit" OR you can hold onto my final word from the Dalai Lama
" This world is not perfect. But things like happiness and unhappiness are relative. Realizing this gives you hope. "
END

FW: Kildare Chamber of Commerce , letter to editor.

2009-11-27T18:15:00.002Z

This weeks entry is another passionate plea for the rural economy!

From: groomevet@hotmail.com
To: editor@kildare-nationalist.ie
Subject: Kildare Chamber of Commerce , letter to editor.
Date: Fri, 27 Nov 2009 18:10:13 +0000

Dear Editor,

How do you persuade people that saving a few Euro on the Christmas Nintendo and Booze is the wrong thing to do? You cant- its only possible to fight fire with fire and fight a price war on price.

Throughout 2009 the small and medium business sector has cut prices, cut costs and adopted lean and innovative survival skills to keep the door to commerce open. Almost every business in Kildare, including mine, has made workers redundant, merged job descriptions, and added to the queues of the unemployed.

Those who remain in work are working longer and are filling broader roles. 40 hour jobs are cut to 32 and evenings or Saturdays are now worked without complaint. The private sector are now very close to the vision of the improved competitive economy which the ESRI and McCarthy report recommended.

Yet the queues northward get longer as we near Christmas. The local economy which is currently holding out for an upturn in trade will shed more jobs in the New Year if trade remains flat throughout Christmas.

Kildare Chamber of Commerce organised and funded an extended shop local campaign this year featuring a soldier fighting to keep Private Euro in our local economy and featuring the iconic uncle Sam's patriotic recruiting message "I want You" (to spend euros locally).

Any effective shop local campaign needs to achieve three aims. The first aim is to convince consumers that support for local business is essential to community life. The second is to inform shoppers of the value on offer locally and fight the myth that small local shops are dearer. The third aim of persuading businesses to provide better value can be achieved by rallying businesses into a group loyalty scheme, discount scheme or innovative PR campaign.

Kildare has everything to offer. A well stocked man's shop on the square with hidden discounts and Italian suits that could come from Louis Copeland. The everything shop on Station Road which challenges you to find cheaper. Christmas shops and pet shops and gift shops fly the flag for enterprise and service. Kildare farm foods have bigger and better turkeys than a Eurovision Semi-final. Retailers now compete transparently on price. Pubs and Restaurants now give group deals and two/three course specials so that no one should have reason to party out of town.

I am blowing the trumpet for Kildare. But there isn't a town in the county now that hasn't got it's act together and blown off the complacency and excesses of the so-called tiger decade. In my line of work I see plenty of Garfields. The Celtic Garfield is using up her nine lives and rapidly turning lean and fit for business.

We can win the economic battle, if we spend our hard earned euro at home. But if another half billion leaves the southern Irish economy in 2010, as it has so far in 2009, we can all play the blame game together on the dole queue.

Des Groome,

Chairman, Kildare Chamber of Commerce.

Kildare Vet Surgery,

Kildare Town.

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Take a walk on the wild side

2009-11-19T18:07:00.002Z

Exotic pets are a growing niche market in the Irish pet owning sector. We now see a greater range of species than ever before in our clinics. Rabbits are an easy starter pet for a family of young children. Parrots can be entertaining companions, in particular the African Grey which is a social, talkative and easily handled bird. These are great mimics and pick up swear words because their ear picks up the words we emphasise when speaking.
Fish are perceived as low maintenance pets and will be low maintenance when the set-up is right.
Hamsters, Gerbils, Guinea pigs can all be bought in pet shops along with the hutch, cage, beding, toys, food, drinker and often a care guide. They also rarely need to see a Vet.
Snakes and reptiles require a special interest and background learning. From Terrarium to feeding habits you will need to know what to do before you leave the shop.
Aquatic turtles and terrapins can come small but rapidly will out grow a small tank.
Outdoor tortoises are as of yet rarely seen in Ireland.

Tomorrows VETSLOT on midlands 103 at 10.45 followed by KFM's PETSLOT at 11.05 will deal exclusively with the exotics phenomenon tomorrow. TUNE IN

Tigers, Leopards and political animals...

2009-11-14T17:42:00.006Z

The circus has left town but animals of the mythological variety, the bearded barking, as well as the purring nine-lived variety still occcupy centre stage in the 2009 pantomime of Irish life.

The Celtic tiger is to blame for the whole thing of course. A once sleek and fit for purpose feline which started life as a lean sophistocat with an engine that purred like an Asian car plant. Softly- padded and sure of foot, the tiger negotiated Brussels bureaux and summit tables and always got the cream. The tiger had circus high wire skills. The tiger deftly walked the tight rope of fiscal generosity for a decade and relied only on the safety net of property taxes. A safety net which the circus ring masters of global banking dismantled. An extended cast of bull markets and bear traders grace the stage alongside pantomime characters with unlikely names like fannie mae, freddie mac and the biggest villian of all; seanie fitz.

The celtic tiger had many litters. But the tiger cubs were too well fed. This now presents all sorts of problems for the tiger herself. Firstly the cubs are now too costly to feed. Secondly, like many kittens who have never needed to learn to hunt, their teeth and claws are not fit for the pecking order of the global jungle. Which now means they are too difficult to rehome. The ailing tiger herself has lost a few lives, though strong survival instincts have activated chameleon qualities; proud euro-spots grown to show monsieur trichet et les autres bureauchats. Stars and stripes on the soft furry underbelly of the celtic tiger, turned purring Garfield, to show Top Cat Uncle Obama.

The tiger is now unrecognizable. Not merely a domestic long hair in need of a financial haircut, nor is she simply a leopard losing spots, nor a fat cat shedding toxic fluffy equity. Now, battered and one-eyed, the still game tiger is growling defiantly as she awaits 77bn euro surgery.
SPVs ( special purpose vets) and spindoctors are working to amputate her gangrenous and clubbed construction limb. Eurochats in the waiting room lap up watery stimulus packages as they watch the tricky surgery. Sagely, these mandarins all agree with the consensus that the tiger must grow a few diversified extra limbs if she rises phoenix-like from the bonfire of the celtic vanities. Former memories of the once proud tiger may soon belong to mythology. Consigned to cautionary nursery tales, like the one-eyed yellow idol on the pass at Kathmandu and Macavity the mystery cat.

The tiger cubs continue to cause trouble. These toothless kittens were reared on a diet of tuna, sardines and cream. The fluffy malcontents are growling in the alleys as they face cheaper kit e kat and lidl kibbles. Even Alberts famous high end pet food factory burned to the ground as the circus left town. Defiantly the cubs soiled their own litter trays and turned their tails on Lisbon one. Returning a no vote to the urbane eurochats was understandably seen as biting the hands that fed them. Mercifully, the cubs put tail between their legs and accepted what was on offer the next time.

Now that the circus has left town the story tellers of media have unleashed a whole host of other circus animals.Lisbon one began as serious cliff hanger. There was a brief cameo by neo-con Libertas Eagle. But no twist in the tale this time as radical tail failed to wag the dogged consensus!The NAMA factor featured a battle scene with thorny birds Joan of ArkBurton and Prince Richard the brut-on against assorted shylocks, fatcats and soldiers of destiny. By now tired and bloated, the Fianna sought the salmon of knowledge through the NAMA debate as the Druids read the tea leaves.

Tangential subplots amused the worn audience. The Bull ODonoghue and his crock of gold; the old bull was just full of bull as limousines and party hats and cheltenham horses trotted across stage. The bull mistook his invisibility cloak for an invincibility cloak as the media pursued him into the owner's and trainer's bar at Listowel. The Ceann Comhairle, no longer sacred cow, was gleefully butchered.

Through all the caricature slow starter and dark horse Lenihan has refused typecasting.

The budget is now looming and defies panto scriptwriters.The outcome depends on Dark horse Lenihan, heavily handicapped, hobbled yet determined as the remaining circus animals jockey for position. Cue left, the last creature of the tiger era emerges to do battle. The slowest and largest animal will trumpet the final act towards curtain fall and hopeful sequel. Costs must fall, productivity must rise, overtime must be cut, services must deliver value. Pigs might fly. Take a bow Lenihan and face the elephant in the corner!

Mysteries of the animal kingdom!

2009-11-06T15:26:00.002Z

As the bearded brethren and their misguided trade union membership march the streets of Dublin this afternoon I write to distract, entertain and perhaps even inform. I could fill the blogosphere with an angry tirade against the self-serving greed of the Trade Union Leaders who negotiated improbable pay rises for their members every year under the social partnership. I could echo the analysis of every economist that pay cuts are needed now to rebalance an overheated economy. I could opine that our inflated scale of wages, cost of energy and cost of consumer goods will all fall by deflation if prices and business costs could only start to fall now in balanced equitable fashion. But better political minds than mine have analysed the empty treasure chest of Irelands credit plunder to reach the same conclusions.
I have begun this October an MA in Communications in DCU which I am finding deeply rewarding and diverse after a decade in the trenches of animal health care. A colourful, bohemian and bearded Professor of journalism whose lectures I attend said that angry little epistles belong on the blogosphere but facts speak for themselves. I will let the economic facts speak then and may the rain spill on the marchers! Forearmed in future with formal communications skills I hope to maintain the upper hand in jousts with Clem Ryan on my Friday morning KFM VetSlot. This afternoon I would like to cover questions we didnt get to answer this morning and, with apologies to dear frankie, answers I would love to give- but cant- on air;
Mary from Coill Dubh has a sheepdog with an itchy ear and is wondering what Des would suggest-
Well Mary I would suggest you bring the poor dog to a Vet. Contrary to popular belief these things dont get better being watched. Otodectes Cyanotis or ear mites left untreated can render your dog deafer than a snoozing monsignor, more lobsided than a PPP negotiation and with bigger cauliflower ears than Paul OConnell.

Pauline in Nurney has a goldfish that seems to be turning white and she is wondering what is wrong with him?
Pauline, your goldfish is faced with an identity crisis more serious than a Towers man who togs out for Ellistown and a questioning of his raison d'etre on a par with that of the Moorefield man who crosses town to Sarsfields.Clearly a Goldfish needs to be golden. Jacksonesque colour-change is as good a reason as any to visit your local struggling Vet.

Ann in Kildare's son wants pet mice and she is wondering are they difficult to look after?
Ann! Yes they are difficult to look after, never more so than when they make a break for freedom and discover the cosy sanctuary of your back kitchen. Send your son up to me for a few saturdays to figure out what type of pet he really wants.

Margaret just had a baby and her terrier that she has for about five years seems to be very jealous and is always trying to jump up on her when she's holding the baby and keeps barking at the baby. What can she do?
Margaret, Your terrier is deeply psychotic and determined to check out just how closely baby flesh resembles the taste of chicken. Your terrier invisages a baby free resumption of the status quo where he will have you to himself again under the assumption that eaten baby is soon forgotten. Your dog is five plus. Professional dog trainers can teach old dogs new tricks- but you havent a chance of doing so. Its gonna be either the terrier or the baby- not exactly a dilemma of Solomon-like proportions.

Remember folks- your pet is a member of the family- but not a human member!

Commercial Announcement- Pet Food!

2009-11-02T20:44:00.005Z

Last October Interchem, who are based locally near Naas came to me with a new range of Dogfood called PROPAK. Their timing was perfect as I had resolved to seek an alternative specialist range of food to recommend to clients. We had stocked royal canin for four years previously but I just found their 4% price increase last Oct to be the last straw and knew I could no longer promote over-priced product to clients in the year ahead. I gave the PROPAK range a trial and have had no regrets since.
PROPAK have a diet to meet any dogs need, whether it is a medical need, a breed requirement, or a special need of growth or pregnancy. The colour coded range comes in a range of sizes to suit any size of dog and owner's pocket. The puppy trial size is especially popular.
We retail PROPAK at 40 to 50 % cheaper than any other specialist food range.
I can Guarantee also that you will not find PROPAK cheaper in the county.
As Vets we stand over PROPAK and are using this diet range successfully to manage diabetes, obesity, pancreatitis, irritable bowel disease and dermatitis.

Moreover we will always support local providers when we have an opportunity to do so.

You can buy your food at rock bottom discount on our website using paypal

FW: Letter to editor - re Donal Og

2009-10-28T10:50:00.002Z

A conversation at Toastmasters in Kildare last night about bullying in primary schools gave me this idea for a letter to the local papers. It is frightening, in fact, to hear of kids using terms like " gay" and " queer" as verbal abuse.
Parental attitudes still have a long way to go?..

Dear Madam,
The recent " coming out" of Donal Og Cusack has created barely a murmur in conversation, in press or on the media around county Kildare. This could be because our views around the issue of homosexuality have changed in recent years. Perhaps this issue is greeted with a shrug of the shoulders and regarded as barely news worthy. If that is the case then it is a good thing, signalling a broadening of tolerance in attitude.
It could also be because he is a hurler. Hurling is a minority sport in Kildare. In fact it has been said that in Kildare, hurleys are mainly used as instruments to keep down the thistles. A story about a Cork hurler attracts less local interest than say a story about a footballer, or a jockey.
The weigh rooms of Punchestown, Naas, The Curragh and other racecourses remain citadels of swashbuckling machismo.
A " coming out " from within the daredevil profession whom an ambulance follow around as they ply their trade would be the ultimate test of public attitude. A " coming out" of a National Hunt icon would surely strain the fragile liberalism of the midlands. As racing pages and pencils are dropped in a shocked silence around Kildare's betting shops the richter scale would perhaps just register a little tremor.
yours etc,
Des Groome,
Kilcumney house,
Kildare.
Come out, come out, wherever you are....

FW: letter to editor- Drink Driving Debate

2009-10-22T22:15:00.002Z

Letter to Irish Times, Friday 23rd October
Comment-

Rural backbenchers under pressure- Legislation shouldnt have to be a popularity contest!
In fact, The Nationalist of Oct 28th printed this- thank you to the editor, Barbara.

Dear editor,
As opponents of Minister Dempsey's proposed new drink driving legislation once again pressurise their elected representatives there is a need to examine this emotive issue with new thinking. Prime Time's feature of Thursday 22nd October presented incontrovertible evidence that reduction of the drink driving limit to 50 mg from 80mg will reduce annual national road deaths by 10%. Indeed experts cited 18 road accident victims in 2008 in Ireland where the dead were found to have blood alcohol levels between 50 and 80mg. This refutes the argument that in many cases a couple of drinks will not impair driving.

Vested interest groups can not see beyond the defence of their right to allow drinkers to drive quietly home, to acknowledge the need to legislate for the common good. I recommend pinning responsibility for solving this issue squarely back onto those with the largest vested interest- the publicans and drinks industry. A simple solution of providing transport as part of the bar trade's basic customer service could be cheaply introduced and could quickly become the norm.

A publican could absorb a small minibus or people carrier into the business' cost base for less than 500 euro per month assuming a 24,000 euro lease over 5 years. This becomes a business asset both for its mobile branded advertising and for it's vital function of ferrying customers to the pub. A publican would then devise collection and drop-off routes and routines.
An 8pm to 9pm collection loop for OAPs on a wednesday with a homeward loop from 12 to 1, perhaps. Fridays and Saturdays would, it is hoped, become busy enough to require the enterprising publican to send the van out on several pick-up and drop-off runs.

The increase in visiting drinkers would more than compensate for the cost of this drinkers' shuttle service and driver's salary from the publican's viewpoint. The vital social benefits of publican provided drinkers' transport would be safer roads and the re-establishment of social contacts in both rural communities and among the less well off who currently deterred by taxi costs are drinking , perhaps to excess, at home.
yours etc,
Des Groome,
Chairman , Kildare Chamber of Commerce,
Kilcumney House,
Kildare,
groomepetvets.blogspot.com

FW: Letter to Editor.

2009-10-19T16:27:00.003Z

From: groomevet@hotmail.com
To: independent.letters@independent.ie
Subject: Letter to Editor.
Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:26:59 +0100
In fact, this was not printed by the paper. Badly written, poor commentary- or Myers doesnt air criticism ?

Dear editor,
K.Myers wrote in the Irish Independent of Friday 16/10/09 "I am grateful to a reader for the following from the Great Green Plan...which says all we need to know about this bossy bunch of scary lunatics"We will develop a template for the establishment of farm-gate shops and ensure that the necessary legislative arrangements are made to facilitate this".K. Myers is apparently critical of this Green party plan to foster farm-gate shops as he then writes a stream of consciousness in which Myers positions a farm-gate shop at the centre of an Enid Blyton children's story. I have a number of questions after reading his piece-Is Myers crediting Enid Blyton with the prescience to predict and endorse a growing self-help movement of the rural economy in the 21st century?Or is he simply writing to appeal to the one third of Ireland's population - those over the age of forty, of which I am one-who MAY have actually read Enid Blyton?

Myer's criticism of the farm-gate shop movement is wide of the mark and unhelpful to our economy's current weaknesses for the following reason; Ireland's is a small open economy in which the majority of what we consume is imported and the majority of what we produce is exported. This model of Foreign Direct Investment dependency was successful in contributing to the phenomenal growth of Ireland's GDP from 1993 to 2007. However the weakness of our dependency on global trading has been exposed during recession. In short, now we in Ireland lack sufficient indigenous means of production, across the entire commercial spectrum, to stimulate sufficient internal cash flow to power our own economy towards recovery. The farm-gate shop movement is one means of stimulating the local economy by generating cash flow for commercial farmers, small food-producing business, small shop-keepers and creates a virtuous circle of cash retention in the local economy. The current reality of farming for the factory and consuming the imported produce of foreign multi-national retailers is contributing to rural and small town unemployment and the shrinkage of our SME sector.

The farm shop movement is of growing economic importance in the UK where there is now a growing market for fresh food from known local sources. Here in county Kildare we have a number of thriving farm food outlets which the local consumer is responding to. The message is travelling across Ireland's SME sector. Countrywide, we now see shop local campaigns successfully spreading the message of spending local euros locally. There is a growing understanding that spending our euro in local producers and local small businesses benefits all of us. The SME sector is the engine of our economy. The self-help principle of the farm shop could be the starting point for recovery and for a new vision of the future shape and balance of Ireland's economy,

yours etc,
Des Groome,
Kildare Vet Surgery,
Chairman, Kildare Chamber of Commerce,
groomepetvets.blogspot.com

In defence of rural enterprise

2009-10-19T16:02:00.002Z

Kevin Myers wrote a bizarre and ill-informed article in the Indo last Friday which was critical of the Green Party's fostering of farm shops. Local food shops are, in my view, a great commercial development empowering farmers and small local food producers to grab their own financial fates by the scruff of the neck and snatch their business fortunes back from the grasp of middle-men, factories and conglomerate foreign retailers. I reproduce my letter to the editor of the Indo in response to Myers;

Hip Replacements and the HSE

2009-10-11T10:05:00.005Z

Irish Racing Ambassador and Kildareman Ted Walsh once famously summed up the hazards of National Hunt racing for horse and rider with the cryptic comment " Its not the years that do the damage, Its the mileage". Recently as a forty year old ex-amateur rider and ex-marathon runner I stared at an x-ray and heard the consultant describe " the obliterated joint space" on one hip and swallowed hard as he discussed prosthetic hip implant and major surgery as if casually prescribing a muscle rub and a few days stretching. But I wanted an end to over a year's nagging hip and back pain. I needed to resume an active lifestyle and restore mobility to fulfill the demands of my active profession. I researched hip replacement and hip prosthetics and sought the earliest possible date in the Blackrock Clinic with the Surgeon known to perform more hip surgeries than anyone else.

Our private family health insurance with Hibernian Aviva has been the most important two thousand euro we have spent every year for the past decade. We have two sons who were born with congenital heart defects. Our health insurance and ability to pay ensured we obtained immediate expert care. We have never been at the mercy of the HSEs waiting list and both boys have survived and thrived. My own experience of surgery, albeit as a Veterinary Surgeon, is that the margin for error is still high for orthopaedics, high caseload is the key to success, risks of infection are one in two hundred ( too high). Prognosis is also influenced by both attention to detail in hospital processes and post-operative nursing care and expertise. My health insurance gave me the option of an excellent private orthopaedic surgical facility with only a few weeks of a wait.

I mention this to make two points. Firstly I am an advocate for universal health care for Ireland. Every citizen has the right to the same care that I had to shop around for. But the internal costs of that excellence will be high and attempts to seek efficiencies in cost will always create inequality unless excellence becomes the only standard measured. The HSE have moved Cancer Services now to eight designated centres of excellence, with plans to discontinue cancer services in thirteen smaller hospitals. This is a recognition that multi-disciplinary management in centres of excellence acheives excellent prognosis. It is also a recognition that in the high mortality context of cancer excellence is the only standard we should measure. Secondly, I am self-employed and would rather work than not, my insurance card moved me up a queue into a private bed and will help me regain productivity and run my business again in the shortest time possible. A medical card holder in my position would wait six to nine months for a hip replacement and would be medically signed off work for all that time. Unemployable because of pain, this medical card holder costs the state in welfare payments and loss of productivity. Not to mention the administration costs of a two tier system whereby that person may have the same surgeon as myself, but is queued in a different list and assigned to a different hospital.

So it was that I went under epidural and had a Bermingham right hip prosthesis implanted. This is a metal on metal resurfacing technique of screwing in a new tightly fitting metal ball and socket. More of us will have this type of surgery as life expectancy for males rises by 8% to the year 2036. The post-op information describes the surgical aftermath" You will then be able to start walking first with a frame and soon with crutches". This breezy optimistic prediction proved to be spin of Alastair Campbell proportions as I lay stuck to the bed with pain for the first few days. I dragged my misshapen, swollen and lead-weighted right leg to the edge of the bed only by the use of the two-handed hospital trapeze swing made famous by "Jerry Maguire".But there were five hips done in Blackrock that day and the nursing staff knew exactly what pain scores were normal and when precisely to rescue the average Irishman from his own low pain threshold. Furthermore their helpful post-op brochure went on to say" Normal sexual activity can be started again at 6-8 weeks. Although the warning about avoiding extreme positions of the hip applies." But of course you can never believe everything these doctors tell you. Just how well do they make artificial hips anyway ? Even cars dont need a running-in phase these days.

From my own bitter experience I can agree with the findings of a 2008 UCC School of Nursing Survey. Published in the Journal of Orthopaedic Nursing, findings reported pain to be the predominant physical experience after hip replacement, pain was more intense than expected and importantly the absense of a pain nurse specialist contributed to inadequacies in post-op pain management. The survey found that in some centres patients pain was still poorly assessed and concluded that pain management remains a major challenge for orthopaedic nurses in Irish hospitals.

Our expectations of care are very high as we know the excellence that can be acheived in Irish hospitals. We shouldnt suffer in silence. My professional insight into the challenges of infection control, pain control, margin of error control ensured I went to a centre of excellence to have a hip replacement which even so was difficult, very painful and not without setback. I believe everyone to be entitled to that level of care. A margin of error is not acceptable; someone elses brother or grandmother shouldnt suffer as a percentage with infection, bed ulcer or pain just because they have a medical card or because whats not accepted in Blackrock is tolerated somewhere else. But we shouldnt expect that excellence to be available around every corner. We must recognise that excellent people are rare, that standards remain a challenge, remain dependent on people. If medical experts CAN guarantee standards in some locations then we must accept that other locations may have lower case load and consequent resources and expertise scarcity. Those who have fought the removal of some services from regional hospitals have carried placards " Death By Geography"and seek to preserve the availability of specialist service at their own regional hospitals. But they miss the vital point that on the whole list of factors that influence positive prognosis- the medical list- geography is absent. If we allow local concerns to determine where we provide specialist care to patients then we have to expect a margin of error.And then death by geography will become a reality.

Hybrid Vigour to improve the gene pool !

2009-09-27T11:30:00.002Z

A big confident German Shepherd pulled its owner in the door of Kildare Vet Surgery yesterday. Tugging on his long lead this bushy muscular apparition ( the dog- not the owner) filled the reception area forcing two children and a terrapin onto a corner bench. While diplomatically making friends with this prospective patient I made more than the usual complementary remarks, namely that we dont see enough of the strong workmanlike, old-fashioned type of GSD any more. This character was big and broad, long-coated, a bold alpha dog, and the type you used to see on farms. Healthy enough to probably never need a Vet and strong enough to take a good kick from a bullock as all part of a days work. I grew up with a lovable GSD whose annual dip in the sheep tank was the closest to a preventative pet health plan we ever worried about in those days.

We are all too accustomed to seeing a smaller, thinner specimen of German Shepherd at Kildare Vet Surgery. A list of our frequent flyers at Kildare Vet would feature GSDs right at the top of the table. We dont give out air miles- but we do give good sympathetic discounts (!) and advise every new pedigree pup owner to take out insurance. The newer strain of GSD we see , certainly around this part of Ireland, suffer high incidence of a degenerative arthritis from a young age known as DOD which affects elbows, shoulders and hip joints. They develop irritable bowel syndrome, IBS, at the slightest divergence from recommended feeding habits. Then in older age if they have escaped these problems , will frequently present with Hip Dysplasia. I have a bit of that myself now- but my excuse is a youth spent falling off slow racehorses and a midlife crisis marathon running career. The sort of incidence of these problems I am recording greatly exceeds any expected average for any other dog sample group.

I am absolutely convinced that in-breeding of closely related dogs and bitches due to a relatively small breed population on a small island is the cause of this increasing incidence of congenital defects. The specimen of obvious rude health I began this piece with turned out to be out of an English GSD bitch and by a German dog. This owner had bought the pup, in fact, in Wales. The channel tunnel improved the movements of dog breeds. The Pet Passport scheme will also improve gene pools over time through mixing.

It is of course not just GSDs whose gene pool is now shown to be too small. I recently examined a shih tzu pup with a face only a mother could love. Its severely brachycephalic flattened nose rendered ths pup almost unable to breathe, while a markedly overshot jaw would over time affect eating habits and oral hygiene. This client was casually told that her new expensive pup was very " finely" bred, was related to show winners, and that mother and father were half-siblings. The mind boggles. I hope she took my advise, returned the pup and demanded her money back as that is obviously the only way to halt these breeding practices.

The principle of producing healthy hardy stock by out-crossing to new bloodlines is known as hybrid vigour. Nature invariably combines new gene pools to complement each other for survival by natural selection. This is why in every species opposites attract and stand out individuals score the chicks, fillies, birds as the case may be. Racehorse breeders who apply a science of sorts breed the best to the best- but know that better progeny result when the best stock out-cross.

If we go on safari a la Desmond Morris and reflect on the out-crossing of the Irish gene pool during the Celtic Garfield years of the last decade we will see that perhaps Ireland will soon benefit from a bit of hybrid vigour. In years to come I am sure many Polish, Latvian or Ukranian bred Offaly and Kildare Youngsters will take up the Caman. The Kerry defence may be shored up not by Paidi or Ciarans but by Radovan and Pietr. Ta an-athas orm an corann seo a glacadh as Prague agus Riga. We know many sons of the Laois and Leitrim soil who have brought home the lovely svelte and charming Katerina or the tanned and sultry Svetlana to meet mammy- grinning like the proverbial celtic cat that got the cream before sunday morning mass.

I have read notes from an eminent lecturer in the IMI again on the issues of Corporate Governance pertinent to the Irish Problem over the last decade. Internationally Ireland's corporate boards have been known as cronyistic, untrustworthy, typical of a very small village style financial sector. Investors and the markets have always been wary of Irish boards and relied on a heavy level of local knowledge in decision -making around investment. Difficulties historically are cited as an over-reliance on senior management judgements, lack of independent non-vested board members, lack of challenge at board level and a cavalier approach to regulations. These are symptomatic of parochial thinking, group-think consensual decision making, old-boy network appointees, all in a small country where events have precluded the need for tough ethical stances or lateral thinking until recent economic tsunamis have exposed the limitations of Irish public and corporate board governance.
Somewhere within the morass of FAS, our Banks , our public sector indecision, lies a salutary moral about the dangers of in-breeding and the urgent need for Hybrid Vigour!.

14 reasons to vote YES

2009-09-16T14:56:00.004Z

1. Ireland now will keep our Commissioner thanks to our NO vote last time. A new position of EU Foreign Affairs representative will be created within the Commission. Irelands influential role within the Commission can continue.
2.The Council of Ministers will now meet in Public and not in Private as is now the case. This will lead to greater accountability and transparency in the Council. All states including Ireland will retain a veto in matters of Tax and Defence. All other issues will be decided by Majority vote allowing more progress and less stalemate.
3.The EU Council will now have an elected full time President for a two and a half year term. Henry Kissinger once publicly asked " When I want to speak to Europe who do I call?" A full time President will give the EU one face, one voice and increase the EU's global credibility and authority.
4. The European Parliament after Lisbon will have new powers to overrule some of the EU Council's decisions and will now also have joint control over the division of the EU budget.
5. Each states National Parliament will have 8 weeks to examine new EU legislation. If one third of countries object to a bill it can be sent back to the EU parliament.
6. A citizens initiative clause in Lisbon will allow one million signatures to bring a bill before the EU Parliament. This will be a new form of grass roots engagement in the EU process.
7. The Lisbon Treaty sets down permanently the rules and process for a country to enter the EU.These conditions include, stable government, good human rights record, and respect for minorities.
8. Lisbon treaty lays out the full powers the ECB has in Europe over monetary policy. This will strengthen the future of the euro and the authority of the ECB. In the Ireland of 2009 , if we still had the punt and no ECB you and I would need the proverbial wheelbarrow of worthless punts to buy a loaf of bread. In effect we would be the Zimbabwe of Western Europe.
9. Lisbon outlines opt-out clauses for Taxation directives and Defence directives. These opt out clauses will benefit other small countries as well as safeguarding Irelands neutrality and our investor-friendly (low-corporation tax) fiscal policy.
10. A European Culture and Heritage Clause in Lisbon recognizes the influence of Judaeo-Christian tradition on EU laws and procedures. With Western Europes growing Islamic migrant populations, this clause will give legal security against the push for Sharia Law in some mixed-culture states.
11. The fundamental Charter of human rights will become the EU charter under Lisbon. This Charter will underpin future EU laws. The Charter places protections on the vulnerable and elderly and will become a moral yardstick within EU justice.
12. The Solidarity Clause outlines the possible setting up of a European Defence Agency. This will it is hoped be a European peace -keeping force with teeth. An army of sorts with the power to intervene in a future Srebrenica and provide mutual member state military assistance. In this clause, our Neutrality allows us an opt-out.
13. The Enhanced Cooperation Clause of the Lisbon Treay discusses cooperation between states on the issues of Climate change and energy needs, amongst other areas of common interest. Environmental concerns are placed at the heart of the EU for the first time.
14. The Guarantees obtained by the Irish since Lisbon 1 are an example of nuanced and clever Irish foreign relations. The reaction abroad to another NO vote will be a shrug of the shoulders by both Eurocrats and our US multi-national tenants. The watching waiting world will not again take the time to revisit our concerns.

Lisbon treaty Summary

2009-09-13T10:24:00.003Z

Discussions surrounding the pros and cons of the Lisbon treaty have failed thus far to view the Treaty as a whole or even as a sum of parts. Instead what we have read and heard has tended to be debate by interest groups concerned with aspects of the Treaty. Worse still Lobby groups have argued points that arent even in the Treaty ; from the minimum wage red-herring on the No side to the scaremongering of dire consequences on both sides. Here follows a synopsis of the Treaty's key clauses both to demystify the jargon and to debunk the fear-mongers.

The Treaty can be divided into two halves with the first half dealing with proposed changes to EU Governance, the way they do things, and the second half dealing with EU policy and activity changes. There are some six or seven fundamental changes in each half. The first half;

1. The Commission. A new position of EU Representative of foreign affairs will be created. The proposed drop from 27 Commissioners to 18 is now replaced by an assurance that each state keeps a Commissioner. Thanks due to the Irish for that welcome concession. The Commission's main role is to propose policy and law.

2. The Council of Ministers will meet in Public and not in private as they currently do. They will vote by Qualified Voting Majority and no longer by the system of unanimity / veto. The majority required will be a total weighted 55% majority. The Veto rule will continue for Defence and Taxation issues. The Council of Ministers make final decisions on Legislation, but now underLisbon will engage in greater consultation with the European Parliament.

3. The EU Council. This is the Council of the Heads of each Government. There will now be an elected President ( elected by the EU Council itself) for two and a half years which will be a full time position. The EU Council's role is to give " political direction" to the EU.

4. The European Parliament is given more powers under Lisbon. The Parliament will now have equal voting status on some legislation as the Council of Ministers.The Parliament will have new power to elect the Commission President. The Parliament has new increased powers to make legislative decisions in the areas of Asylum, Agriculture, Emigration and the EU Budget.

5. National Parliaments. Each country's own National Parliament has eight weeks to examine new legislation from the EU and if one third of countries object an EU bill can be sent back for review.

6. A Citizens initiative clause in Lisbon allows one million citizen signatories to bring forward a bill to the European Parliament for discussion in the Parliament .

7. The procedure and rules for countries gaining membership to the EU is outlined in a joining clause. Interestingly there is now also a process outlined for a country to leave the EU.

The second half of the Treaty outlining proposed changes to policy and activity deals with areas of competence ( the EUs powers in part or in full) and lists exclusive competences, joint member state and EU competences, and member state exclusive competences.

1. The Eu has exclusive competence ( full legislative power) in the internal market (free trade) and monetary policy in the eurozone ( the ECB).The Eu has exclusive competence in Customs law, Competition law and conservation in the seas.
The Eu has joint competence with each member state in social policy, environment, energy, transport and public health.
Member states have exclusive competence over human healthcare, culture, tourism, policing, sport,education,industry.

2. The Opt-out clause. Member states can opt out of EU taxation directives and do their own thing on tax or fiscal policy. EU Defence directives can be opted out of if they conflict with country policy-such as Irelands neutrality. Directives affecting common foreign and security interests must be unanimously accepted- in effect every country retains a right to veto on these issues.

3. The European culture and heritage clause. A paragraph outlines the influence that religion and history has on European law. In effect Judaeo-Christian traditions inform EU policy. Perhaps a safegaurd against Sharia law's claims for legitimacy in future Eastern accession states.

4. The fundamental charter of human rights is given equal legal status in the Treaty as the Treaty itself. It will be now known as the EU charter, will underpin future EU law and be a yardstick to test existing law. The charter gives specific protections to the young and the elderly.

5.The Solidarity clause. Member states are required to assist each other against terrorism, aggression, man-made disaster, natural disaster. This mutual assistance must not conflict with a country's NATO membership or a country's Neutrality. Each member state can decide to participate in a European Defence Agency- or not in our case as Neutrality is expressly protected. Conflict prevention and peace-keeping are mentioned. A formalised military grouping within the EU to lead defence policy and with the power to prevent a future Srebrenica.

6. Enhanced Cooperation clause. Nine or more EU states can now follow procedures of common policy if they agree to on any issue. This provides a means to work together on climate change and energy needs and is the first time the climate crisis is part of an EU treaty. This clause is said also to encourage improved policing with cross-border follow-up on human trafficking and drugs trade.
Dr Garret Fitzgerald stated in his Irish Times article recently that Irelands negotiation of Lisbon Two's Irish Guarantees is the latest example to be added to our record of considerable Irish successes in Foreign Policy.
Simply , the guarantees are; A. We will retain a Commissioner.
B. A Guarantee that we will continue to look after our own Tax.
C.The protections in our constitution on life, education, and the family have precedence over EU treaty or law.
D. Irelands position on Neutrality is safegaurded by a triple -lock system of Veto.
E. Workers rights and social issues are solemnly declared to be protected within Lisbon by the provisions of the EU charter.
On the day the Lisbon Treaty is ratified by all states a new treaty will enforce the provisions of these guarantees. My view is that we should trust the Guarantees as plainly no other small country will ever trust the institutions of the EU if Irelands assurances are not delivered as promised.
There is much to fear in the Treaty in the use of phrases like Solidarity and European Defence Agency but also much to welcome in the EU charter and the conditions for future accession. Conditions such as stable rule of law, protection of human rights and minorities.
The European union is the most successful example of multi-lateralism in the history of the world. Such success requires compromise of the type larger states made to begin with when accepting the membership application of a wet and backward former colony on the outer edge of the Atlantic sea all those years ago.

YES... To keep our commissioner.

2009-09-04T14:48:00.002Z

Ireland's electorate will vote to ratify or reject once more an unchanged Lisbon Treaty on October 2nd. The easiest choice will be taken by those who abstain. Voters against this treaty make a choice to risk alienating the monetary mandarins of the ECB and unnerving the international direct investment that our vulnerable and leaky economy depends on. Those who vote Yes choose to trust that a place at the european table secures an audience for Irish concerns and to trust in further immersion in a European experiment which emerged from the wreckage of two world wars. Last year when the Irish Voters faced this choice about the nature of our future relationship with Europe the majority asserted a right to say No, a right to better assurances, a right to understand what this Treaty will mean and will change.
So it is then that we vote on an unchanged Treaty, but one now with assurances attached. Perhaps the most important of which for a small nation with a lowly weighted voting right, will be the right to retain a Commissioner. In this issue alone the NO lobby , like Othello, have done this state some service. David Cochrane, journalist, on Politics.ie has pointed out that this alone suggests a single salient sound bite that the Yes side can win on; YES- to keep our commissioner.
It is overwhelmingly important for anyone in business, anyone with a stake in the free market, whether an employee or a shareholder to understand that ratifying Lisbon is integral to economic recovery by its strengthening of the status of the ECB and the unity of the eurozone's import-export channels. To those fearful of the free market's big business agenda I can give reassurance that the counter-balance of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, now to be the EU Charter will now have full Legal status in EU Law without affecting any articles in the Irish Constitution. This charter for the first time makes legal the civil, political, economic and social rights recognised by the EU. In fact this EU Charter, if Lisbon be ratified, should make managers, HR departments and judiciary alike more wary of due process- and probably will provide the Trade Union movement with a renewed relevance.

Ultra-Marathon Man leaves his mark

2009-08-29T16:47:00.000Z

When I drifted away from race-riding eight or nine years ago after having too many falls, riding too many slow horses and eating too few good dinners over the previous ten years ( !)there was a void in my life for a while. I needed a competitive outlet and a routine of self-challenge and outdoor exercise. I began to run. First a few miles at a time, then seven or eight miles a few times a week. Given the mind and body of the man in question it wasnt long before I turned to Marathon running. Thus began the first of many journeys. Most of those journeys ended with a medal, a sense of self reaffirmed, an extra lesson learned, and ended at the finish line of another 26 mile run in a city or on a mountain somewhere. There is a spirituality in the mindset of the self-improvement, the self-discipline that becomes part of the runners' world. Like the separateness that becomes part of the life of the committed cyclist or jockey. It was an odd type of separateness for a gregarious open communicator like myself, but it was part of a routine of challenge and endeavour that had been part of my life since I first sat on a horse. And I suppose I am no more or less of a contradiction of a man than anyone.
I read a book several years ago that inspired me and led me to deliver several motivational speeches about the power of goal setting. The story of Dean Karnazes, possibly the greatest endurance runner since Pheidippides. A man more than ordinary who inspires in ways that the untouchable great athletes fail to inspire a mere mortal athlete of flat feet as I indeed was; Dean inspires because as an ordinary advertising executive at the age of 30, he turned his face to finding what he looked for in life, and did so as a family man and fundraiser, with the focus, but without the selfishness that typifies many great acheivers.
Dean's creed;
Run when you can
Walk if you have to
Crawl if you must
Just never give up
I will post my speech about the power of goalsetting some time. I will also post the tale of the journey to the finish line in the Dublin Marathon 2003, my first full marathon finish.
For today though the story is of a bionic hip. The runs and falls have taken their toll; I have to have surgery to remodel my right hip joint in a few weeks. The next marathon I finish will be at a walk! Somebody famous said" Its not the years, its the mileage..." A phrase definitely applicable to me in my current broken down lame state.
But ask me was it worth it?
Every step of the way!

Rip off Ireland.... not RIP just yet.

2009-08-16T10:41:00.000Z

At Groome PetVets I have reduced the price of many of our key services in the last ten months.
I began with a pre-Christmas offer of a free microchip with every booster.
In February I looked at our price list critically and reduced the price of six key services by one third. In July I addressed the fall off in week-day customer numbers by introducing a deal of one third off everything -for OAPs- on tuesday and wednesday. In August I have begun a campaign to reverse the decline in preventative pet health care ( for example Vaccination numbers are well down) by introducing a Loyalty card for booster vaccination and puppy primary vaccination and a clubcard for Propak pet food.
The unfortunate fact though is that the only reason I can afford to make these price changes is because my pay roll costs have halved by my reduction in staff numbers from 15 , just a year ago, to only 8 working in the practice now. Those now working at Groome PetVets provide a better sevice to our clients in many ways and do so more efficiently and cost effectively. That I can now identify those improvements is symptomatic of the difficulties the entire economy created for itself by the high cost-spiral which we all contributed to and accepted- then passed on to customers. That I was able to radically shift business strategy and realign staff to new behaviours and a new business culture is a reflection of the flexibility that small private sector business can take advantage of when there is a will and need for change.
However I am only in control of parts of my own cost base and most of my costs of doing business have not reduced and some have even increased. Animal remedies and medicines comprise about thirty percent of my costs. The major medical wholesalers and manufacturers increased prices by between 4 and 8 percent in September/October '08 and have not reduced prices since. The markets two main specialist pet foods increased prices in October 08 and april 09 respectively and needless to say did not reduce prices as the economy further shrank into deflation this summer. Energy and communications costs are often cited as having fallen this year. In practice however I have found that the newer entrants to these markets tout for business with lower base charges but running charges will amount to about the same month by month- and I have tested this by moving my service around. Despite the ongoing lowerECB base interest rates, Bank overdraft rates and business charges remain punitive within the big two in the Irish bank market. Commercial rates have not reduced as budget-stressed local authorities seek revenue from the limited sources available. Many small businesses are simply unwilling to pay rates this year and will remain in arrears of rates, I predict into next year and the year after, as the rates bill joins a pile under a paper weight on the owner-manager's desk. My PRSI contributions have not reduced, neither has the rate of VAT I am required to pay and then pass on to my customers. Rents have reduced as the smaller commercial property owners have become increasingly anxious to keep their tenants- though unfortunately many retailers and other small business tenants are now falling behind in their rents, while in many sectors the concept of upward only rate review remains the norm. Rising waste disposal costs, implimentation of parking charges even in small towns, consistently high motor fuel costs, road toll costs and so on- these all form parts of the cost base of the Irish small business and can broadly be blamed on either the pressures of the macro-economy OR the pressures of government costs- boh of which are being brought to bear on the SME sector as externalities beyond our/my control.
In the macro- economy world business forces are governed by multinationals with revenues often in excess of a small country's GDP- these forces now must extract the penalty for share-holder driven growth strategy from wherever they can. In the case of our budget obsessed Irish government; government and public sector costs- driven up by years of appeasing unions amidst complacency about ongoing revenue- will be brought down by Bord Snip implimentations , but will be brought down slowly In the mean time small business have been targeted to foot the bill.
Recent media reports about the demise of "rip-off Ireland" may be greatly exaggerated. I believe balance within our economy cant be acheived until Banks, Government, Government employees, Trade Unions and Share-holder driven Big Business bring their own cost base and ransom-like tariffs into line with the new economic reality that small businesses envisage.
There is an appetite for change of the political landscape in Ireland and some debate on the need for a new radicalism in political thinking. I believe that radicalism needs to come from the centrist mindset of middle society. Those who believe in neo-liberalism but wont stand for free market control by the big business economics of the Thatcher, Reagan, Karl Rove/Bush tradition any longer. This is very much radicalism with a small r. I believe we must be very careful not to allow the debate for change to be ambushed by Left , or right, ideological forces who if allowed grow to become relevant could polarise the electoral process, create dysfunctional and paralysed coalition government and alienate much needed foreign investors. In the face of the body politic's poor handling of public relations, seeming imperviousness to the plight of indigenous small business, tardy decision making and those continued embarrassing revelations about expenses and God knows what else opportunists on the socialist fringe in particular now have the climate to thrive. But I believe as a small business owner and employer that their agenda for self-interest would prove as damaging as those big business forces now hoist by their own petard, though still looking for the rest of us to pay!

Des Groome.

Co-operative marketing; Helping those who help themselves.

2009-08-07T18:41:00.000Z

Kildare Chamber of Commerce voucher book is a resounding local success. Participating Local businesses report increased footfall. Local consumers are enthusiastic about the novel offers available and the value they can now find for everything from Pizzas to PC Doctor to Pet Health.
Households can use up their voucher book over the coming months and develop the all important habit of visiting our vibrant service provider and small enterprise based town centre.
Kildare Chamber of Commerce will launch a new book in the autumn to create a pre-Christmas shopping lead-up in Kildare town and to help our members help customers by giving real LOCAL value for money.
The Co-op movement sustained a generation in rural Ireland in the past. Co-ops helped farmers sell their produce, helped creameries acheive the volume needed to compete with imported produce, gave a retail outlet to rural households.
Kildare Chamber of Commerces voucher scheme is not original , but it does represent a new form of Co-op movement. Co-operative marketing.
The next level of Co-operative marketing has also now arrived to Kildare. A group trading as www.iBuyVouchers.com has the potential to help further business growth and promote customer loyalty.
Signing your business up will place your discount offer on a database for anyone to print or download and avail of -as an incentive to become a customer or a visitor to your town. Credit card style loyalty cards will be sold for three euro in each ibuy participating business. The same card sold in each member business can be used in any other business listed with the ibuy network to avail of their special iBuy member only offer.
An iBuy card holder going on holiday to Galway could look up restaurants linked to the scheme and perhaps eat every night at a special offer price while on holidays.
An iBuy card holder visiting Kildare village or the National Stud could buy a new suit on Kildare 's market square, availing of an iBuy member card offer- and enjoy iBuy card holder benefits in one of Kildares feted hostelries before heading home after a successful day trip.
As Kildare Chamber Chairman I am encouraging all our business members to join this co-operative marketing network AND I encourage consumers and householders to pick up their iBuy 3euro Loyalty card today.
Schemes like this can harness the potential of the small local business sector to help each other.
This is the type of Grass-Roots empowerment that helped Ireland conquer economic, social and political deprivation many times before in our past and can equally see us through the trials of today.

Des Groome

Those who will rebuild.

2009-07-26T11:18:00.000Z

I gravitated towards an interesting looking character at a business function in Portlaoise recently. He was about my own age and wearing a good suit and tie in the manner of a man who does a days work for a living. I joked that we had the same tailor. He replied that it looked like we also shared a barber. Common ground quickly established, economics and politics- locally- we then explored at length. Fianna Fail were hammered in Portlaoise in the Locals; the state of the local small business sector is dire; Cowen was at an opening in the town recently and spoke well, impressed many and left a feeling of optimism in his wake- what the hell is going on up in hq Fianna Fail?- Why isnt he visible, involved, spreading that feeling nationally?. I have debated these and similiar questions, over a pint or at work or at cumann meeting, many times recently.
Guards and prison officers, civil servants and teachers, these are the voters who punished the local Fianna Fail councillors in Portlaoise, Newbridge, Naas, Athy, Tullamore and of course Dublin itself. The backbone of the country and the frontline workers of our social and public sector who must now take a cut to help correct the foolish inflationary spiral driven forward by a Public Private Partnership of one dimensional trade unionists and Politicians who learnt their economics on the election canvas in Clara and Clonliffe Road. The PPP with its annual increments served Begg, OConnor et al and which now can be shown to have done its beneficiaries a disservice.
My Portlaoise small businessman had a workforce of twenty in a small engineering works which served the building trade and grew to a fleet of 5 jeeps, with often several on-site projects, and two units in a business park noisy and busy for the last eight years. The owner himself, then managing and supervising relished an expanding universe and the opportunity afforded by the climate of the time. He told me with a smile that he is now back on the machines and enjoying it again. The forty year old midriff spread will soon be shed as all bar one jeep are handed back and the office chair wont be warmed as much in future. He was stung badly by a few builders and had to let most of the lads go, as the bank took his overdraft and put it on term loan. He wont let out as much credit in future and wont take on big staff numbers again unless the serious contracts reappear.
Morale is a vague concept. Some people need it to be given to them by some equally vague concept of leadership. Morale can be high or it can be poor. The National morale is now said to be Low. Myles Na gopaleen could have some fun now with his encyclopedia of cliches- The man whose morale was Low; The Man who said we needed Leadership.
What you dont hear now though is the real truth which is that ordinary people, not Leaders, not Obamas, just workers, make their own morale. The story you need to hear now is the story of the man who took off the suit and went back on the machines, or who left the office and got back on a digger or who went from the big auctioneering firm to the dole queue to learning to write software to designing websites.
Media can say what they like about leadership until it becomes a cliche in itself. In the upper corporate world, high performing companies are often said to have a culture of self- leadership.
The generations of Irish who escaped the dreary wet deprivations of their youth and emigrated to build better lives and contribute to other societies knew self- leadership. But they would have just called it survival.
A hero of my youth, an icon of eighties Ireland, Barry McGuigan is now bizarrely choreographing a reality boxing show. Ten middle class symbols of the Ahern era including actors, Tg 4 stars, a builder, A former GAA star, a comedian, are putting aside their comfortable success after an easy expansionist Ahern decade to be trained to leanness and to fight in a ring under McGuigans mentoring. McGuigan had an innocence. The innocence of the kid who took no credit for his own greatness was typical of the Ireland before Riverdance, of the Irish who had to take their own chances with a boat or a plane, and bears no resemblance to the urbane cosmopolitan, confident irish sportsman of today who Expects.
I think this incongruous mix of nostagia and grit is no accidental metaphor. I believe the generation now reeling a little and now holding the private sector together with their fingernails were reared lean and learnt to work hard. They took all the advantages of tax breaks and a perfect expansionist economic climate to create the Celtic Tiger, a cliche to burn now on a ceremonial bonfire of the celtic Vanities. I believe that now this generation, now barely forty perhaps have the best working years of their careers still ahead of them. This generation of men like me- and the ten gobshites on TV who McGuigan is going to train- to whom Barry McGuigan was a representative icon of Irish fighting spirit in the face of social, political and economic adversity in the late eighties. A generation who will make their own morale and provide their own leadership are once again fit and ready to start at their beginnings. Ready to rebuild.

Eye of the Tiger!

Des Groome

Stand and be counted- YOUR EURO COUNTS

2009-07-20T13:40:00.000Z

The flow of money into and around- and out of- the Irish economy for the last decade can be likened to the flow of liquid life aid from an out of control hydrant on a hot day. An abundance of cash overflowing, much of it wastefully, on streets awash with foreign credit. Abruptly the tap has been turned off now for about 12 months. The private sector exists on a slow drip.
The public sector, government included, have been slow to feel the drought.Perhaps they have been able to keep their own sprinklers switched on and exist in a pampered mindset, oblivious to the lack of cash flow in the new economic reality the rest of us have to do business in.
I have launched a voucher campaign to promote local shopping in Kildare town as part of my chairmanship of the chamber of commerce. It is a two sided argument; The retailer and small business is encouraged to give REAL value to consumers_ rip off Ireland is dead and gone!-
and the consumer/household shopper is asked to remember that SMEs CAN compete with big outlets in many ways , and remember that small towns need small business at their vibrant centres, small businesses that we all have a duty to support.

Groome PETVETS answer to this movement has been to reduce prices of many key services to 2005 prices- a bitch spay now reduced to 120 euro. Consult fee now down to 38 euro.
Old Age Pensioners are the back bone of our nation.
Tuesdays and Wednesdays we give ONE THIRD off all Vet services to OAPs.

Community values, local solidarity, value for money, self-help.
These are the principles on which we can rebuild our country.
The so-called boom should have been switched off and some costs controlled for the cash drought we now have . There is a feeling of loss and of waste.
The loss of prosperity will be only temporary.
Lets see what values we can refind on the journey forward again.

Des Groome.

"Beginning to Engage"- The complacency of the mediocre.

2009-07-12T16:22:00.000Z

My family have had a long dark fortnight. We knew it was coming and the outcome thank God has been a good one but an emotional numbness remains. Now that James is home from Crumlin we can sleep in our own beds, pay attention to our other children, nurse him in the comfort of our own home and gain relief from knowing that his surgery has been a succcess, a hurdle has been crossed, the spectre of fear of tragedy has passed. But it is hard to write about, and speak about, and the experience is still chest-tightening to think about, and doesnt yet feel much like relief. When JK Rowling conceived the spectre of the Dementors in her Harry Potter Saga she could have drawn on the living grief and the empty fear of parents of desperately -ill children. Parents who have no power but to hope, who are often too angry to pray. To parent a child through pain you cant control or through awful invasive heart surgery in which you must have faith is to be touched by a Dementor, to inhale the stress, to be drained flat and cold. You inhale all that into your chest and then take another deep breath to find the strength to be a parent, to make your child trust, believe and heal.
Just after James surgery when he was still in intensive care I answered an invitation from Kildare Souths conscientious TD Sean OFearghail to attend his committees grilling of Professor Drumm of the HSE. The timing was bad but I went to try to get a flavour of this man presiding over the vast and inert human pyramid we call a health service. The committee itself had called this man to make sense of why, without any political compunction, Crumlin hospital had cut back essential services, closed operating theatres, and launched a war of words with Drumm at the first hint of coercion to reduce costs. The background story we have all heard is of a 9m euro deficit which the HSE has forced Crumlin to live with in 2009. The real story however, according to Drumm, is that Crumlin over-spent by 9m in 2008 and have simply been told by the HSE not to do so in 2009 as this year "we wont have the 9million to give you". Now even to me as a parent that sounded reasonable if indeed the money wasnt all wisely spent or if good efficiencies could be found without care being compromised. OFearghail himself put it succinctly and fairly " We are asking the hospital managers to manage this hospital and find efficiencies without sacrificing front line services". OFearghail is one of the good guys. I am in agreement with him in putting it up to managers to fulfill their job descriptions and manage costs- including their own cost.
Drumm made three good points that the entire panel of cross party TDs found agreement with; He wanted Crumlin to pool their blood costs and needs with St James'; He wanted them to raise an extra 12million a year by billing their private patients more accurately; He wanted them to cut their payroll by 3% as they pay the highest rate and proportion of over-time of any hospital.
These three requests the board of Crumlin have failed to do but have cynically reacted in a war of PR with the HSE by closing a theatre and wards. On these three simple cost efficiencies Drumm is right and the board of Crumlin plainly are remiss in a city full of hospitals and full of wateful duplication of service in some areas ( for example we have 3 childrens A and E in one city ) and only 80% use of beds in some parts of Crumlin while children from Temple street hospital wait often in over-crowded adult wards.
But there are disturbing mediocrities emerging about Drumms role also; Questioned at length by OFearghail and his committee about who calls the shots-or are the HSE just observers ?.. Drumm procrastinated, prevaricated, " Crumlin havent agreed how to cut the costs" ..." I have asked Crumlin for full support for a Cross-clinic approach"..." Paediatrics needs a leader as oncology has made great strides with its new clinical leader"... On more than one occasion in the debate Drumm acknowledged difficulties in getting the hospital board to his view point but used the phrase" we are beginning to engage". How many years into Drumms job has it taken him to get the hospital boards to begin to engage...
TDs challenged Drumm about a credibility gap between what Crumlin had told O Fearghail,s committee and what Drumm was saying. He did acknowledge this credibility gap and explained the difficulties in terms that would be clear to students of organisational behaviour in any business school; Drumms hands are tied by human resource management issues, by resistance to change, by his failure to acheive involvement in his vision for the future of health care.
The answers to me are not crystal clear or neatly aligned into a strategic change management ladder towards a wonderful dynamic future for our HSE. But there are some things clear to me- Drumm is a poor communicator and lacks the courage to execute real change.
His vision - and it is also Harneys vision- is the wrong one, as why otherwise would opposition to it be so intense and widespread. His exasperation with the unions, the work practices of hospitals, his veiled criticism of boards he is only now beginning to engage with; these are the flaws of a man who is not a leader or a lateral thinker, who should be still treating patients- not trying to focus a big picture which to him plainly still remains a jigsaw in pieces.
To put one final fact to the philosophy, to put this in context. Crumlins wage bill is 74 % of its entire budget. I dont know of one business sector that could be viable with that cost ratio for labour. Childrens health care doesnt need to be compromised. Does this issue like so many others arrive back at the need for unions, for people, to be realistic about how money should be spent and what the rest of us are able to pay for.

All Gods Creatures got a place in the Choir..

2009-07-05T20:37:00.000Z

Irelands media reverberate now in july 2009 with a cacophony of political dissent. Some criticisms against our political decision-makers are justified and are constructive. The rising cries to reduce salaries of high ranking civil servants, to tax the judiciary in line with the citizenry, to reform the public sector- these voices must be heard and change must sooner happen. Dissonant notes of self-interest from unions, from banking groups, from the construction sector-those voices must be faced down in the long term interest of an equitable society. Fianna Fails leadership must face these groups and face the decisions which have to be made if necessary against groups who have even donated heavily to these same politicians. Perhaps therein lies the difficulty, but if Cowens government can deconstruct the legacy of Bertie Aherns misguided, if well meaning, social partnership annual giveaways and the contradictory Reagonomic tax regime, then this government could move Fianna Fail back to its ideological base as a centrist party of the " Plain people of Ireland". I say this as a committed member of Fianna Fail and acknowledge that the plain people of Ireland are now a sophisticated and discerning society who should be addressed as such. I also however ask this same society to acknowledge that these past Fianna Fail governments main sins were of creating a wastage culture and of giving too much. A wastage culture therefore that we all must partake in amending.

Most of our media commentators flaunt an agenda of blame. While the three horsemen of the apocolypse- MacWilliams, Hobbs and Lee- persist with an easy to be wise after the event refrain of "I told you so".
Yesterdays Irish Times ran a heart warming story of political inclusiveness. Against the dissonant choir of the day this was a simple tale of enhanced engagement in the political process. A recently elected Fine Gael Councillor from Bagenalstown had a series of clashes in public with a political rival. Councillor Bambrick has reason to agree that politics may indeed be a dog eat dog business. His political jousts with one Larry Byrne were however a horse of a different colour involving a dog of decidedly Blue Shirt allegiance. Byrne was cited in court for disturbance of Cllr Bambrick by loudly ordering his dog not to approach, but " to come away from that or you will be contaminated" . In his defence Byrne stated that he had merely warned his dog to avoid the greasy poo on the grass. I am reminded of Disraelis famous entreaty to avoid the greasy pole of politics- sage advice to man or beast.
Judge Harnett of Bagenalstown district court entered into the spirit of multi-species political inclusiveness towards the cause of mammalian suffrage by declaring that he was sure this canine was " undoubtedly a Fine Gael dog". Equally magnanimously both judge and Gardai agreed "it wouldnt be necessary to call the hound as a witness".
By way of setting legal precedent Judge Harnett ruled that second hand ( or second paw) commentary through the intermediary of a canine could not legally be construed as insult to any third party.
Presumably Byrne and Bambrick were given paws for thought as they left the court with Bambrick bound - or was it boned- to the peace for a year.

OAP Tuesday - and WEDNESDAY!

2009-06-24T12:14:00.000Z

My father lived life to the full, lived it at a pace few would keep up with and lived a life less ordinary. But he was a man of his time and those who grew up in fifties Ireland and worked through seventies and eighties Ireland did see it all. He would have valuable advise for young families and business people in an Ireland that has changed a lot but is now affected by economic and international forces that we have been through before.
Dad emigrated to England as a young dentist and came back with my mother and a young family to Carbury in north Kildare to farm and set up his practice. His passion for horses led him to race ride until he was 45 years old. He rode at the Cheltenham festival on a mare he broke, owned and trained at the age of 43. My sisters and I had a rural childhood of freedom, fresh air, hard work, surrounded by cattle, dogs and ponies. My father began his day on the farm, then donned a suit and put in 8 hours in his dental surgery in Edenderry, then fed cattle and horses and walked his fields until dark, usually with me, the boy, by his side.
The advices that resonate every day, of hard work, of fair play, honesty, independence, have stood me in good stead. We took risks and chances, both he and I, in business and in life - with crazy horses on the racetrack and optimistic enterprises to remind ourselves that every failed plan or tumble at the last is just another lesson learnt. The voice that goes on in my head in every day dealings, to walk away, to hold counsel, to keep the cheque book closed or to speak out and support what feels right- that voice is his.
I remember two pieces of advice about business. The first was never to trust a Bank or let them control your affairs. The second was never to owe what you cant easily pay back.
I would say its a bit late to be giving some people those pieces of advice. The next thing he'd say would be - dont let the banks bully you when you are in trouble!- paay them back a bit and dont panic them by telling them too much!
I mention these sayings of his in tongue in cheek fashion as the reality of todays business climate for the SME sector is grim- as grim as the late seventies perhaps. My chairmanship of Kildare Chamber of Commerce has put me in touch with businesses staying open only by will power.
But will power is a much under estimated asset.
If Dad was around he would be just 66. He passed away on a sunny morning up on the Curragh on horse back on the gallops. I cant picture him as an OAP. But I do know that people like him lived with 50 % income tax and 17 % interest rates and worked through that to educate the generation here now and build the nation we have, such as it is, warts and all.

Groome Pet Vets now give OAPs one third off all Vet services on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
If you are an OAP- you know thats the least you deserve!

Des Groome.

Canine casualties of the property bubble...

2009-06-18T13:55:00.000Z

We have a client in one of our clinics who shall remain unnamed in todays monologue. A big brash builders foreman who earned his first weeks wage under the benevolent conciliatory largesse of Ahern and who has now joined his first dole queue during the chilly and pragmatic stewardship of Cowen. In keeping with the time He collected four or five beautiful big pedigree dogs, rottweillars mostly. For good measure when the new house was built and fenced off he added three or four ponies until the healthy growing menagerie began to create healthy growing Vets bills. Wisely, an insurance policy was taken out for each dog so that the monthly premium to Allianz replaced the unexpected.
Pet Plan are a subsidiary of allianz Insurance Company who have the Pet Insurance market more or less to themselves. It is a problematic business. Insuring horses is a minefield as Irelands army of canny horse dealers would out smart and bankrupt any insurance company. Insuring pets is also not without risks as pur bred blue blood canines have their breed specific congenital defects which can be troublesome and expensive to treat. In fact some of these defects can be so wide spread ,such as hip dysplasia in the German Shepherd and Entropion in the Sharpei, that insurers request extensive examinations before accepting a dog or will simply insist on an exclusion clause in the policy for certain defects or conditions.
Our hero's first few years as a pet owner were uneventful as his pride of rottweillars grew as healthily as his bank balance. The new house was sold for one of those improbable sums of the halcyon peak era and a newer and bigger one with more room for dogs and ponies built next door. We didnt see our hero very often in the clinic but I made the occasional house call to the ponies and would often note that the wad I was paid from was matched only by the size of the newest tattoo on the arm.
Until last week, when he reappeared with a rottweilar I hadnt seen in a few years which now had a severe hind limb lameness. We admitted Jake, a 4 year old 52 kg male rotti, for sedation, examination and x-rays. A diagnosis of rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament of the stifle was made after the " draw test"- a type of manipulation of the stifle joint and a tell tale sign for cruciate injury.
Repair of this condition is by a surgical repair using a prolene ( a form of nylon) replacement for the torn ligament. The tricky procedure is then followed by lengthy rest, physio and then controlled exercise to test the new ligament. Surgery in a dog like Jake would be a three hour affair involving two Vets, two Nurses, numerous X-rays. Jake would stay with us for perhaps three days and need the best antibiotics available to us for up to ten days afterwards.
We gave a quote for Jakes total Veterinary work as an estimate of 750-950 euro; The final figure would depend on soreness/swelling post-surgery etc.
The owners bellow of anguish seemed out of character and a far cry from his ebullient old self.
I reassured him that Jakes insurance would probably cover this and went to make a call to Allianz only to be told that our hero had let the insurance lapse as the bills had only ever been in the region of 60 to 100 euro before and it had seemed a waste to be paying out for insurance...

Des Groome.

Web of inclusion - or circus of confusion.

2009-06-13T15:31:00.000Z

Sally Helgesen ,a US writer, in her book "The web of inclusion" described how a revolutionary way to organise work in the famous Beth Israel New York Hospital created a new philosophy of patient care and became a world wide movement. Breathtakingly simple, the new system assigned a single senior nurse, known as the primary carer, to each patient. This nurse would manage that patients hospital stay by forming a care team made up of everyone from housekeeping to Laundry, junior Doctor and Senior Consultant. The care team consult as one on the patients therapy or surgery with each part of the hospital chain connected together. Helgesen likened the system to a spiders web where the beauty of the whole structure depends on the links between each part. The benefits of Primary Care Nursing as this is now known are many; Trainees learn by involvement, Domestic staff develop pride in their work, The Primary Care Nurse bonds with the patient- and Consultants practice humility because, uniquely, they have to consult. The patient is treated as customer, guest, client and centre of attention. The model has been adopted by commercially focussed hospitals and those with a patient-centred ethos the world over.
Earlier this week I attended Blanchardstown Hospital to have an arthritic joint (a recent running injury to my right foot) injected. My appointment was for 7.30 am. I presented myself on time, filled in a number of forms and handed over my health insurance card to the consultants secretary. Some eight to ten others assembled simultaneously, likewise answering a 7.30 appointment, without any particular order to proceedings. I was called into a day ward after only a few minutes, given a cubicle and the usual flimsy backless gown, and told to undress and put this on. I mentioned that my big toe would be the consultants only focus today, hence there was hardly any need to undress, but was told by the senior nurse " It doesnt matter, its procedure". I was then asked to put my shoes back on and go to X-ray. I pointed out that my boots were painful to put on and take off and in any case the foot itself was the point of X-ray. The answer to this was " sorry, health and safety".
After the X-ray was taken I returned to this day ward clutching the film of my painful big toe. I had not by this stage seen my consultant or been given any indicator of when I would get my injection -a ten minute simple procedure in itself- so I mentioned to the nurse who appeared to be " in charge" that I had an equally important 12 o clock appointment with another consultant in St James hospital. A rare abundance of medical attention for me I can assure you, but an appointment I had waited for and would have to wait two months for again. I was reassured that I would be out by 11 and settled down to wait for the big toe man to call me.
Some two and a half hours later, at half past ten, this nurse reappeared apologetically to say I would have about another half hour wait and might need to cancel my other appointment. I considered my options for a few minutes and then reluctantly rang James' to explain my predicament. A very understanding receptionist promised to reschedule me, albeit to some time next month. Again I settled down to wait.
At five past twelve I rang my own receptionist to make other plans. My own efficient lady rang me back to say an orthopedic man in Clane would see me at half twelve next day. So I got dressed. At the ward desk I asked for my X-ray back and stated I couldnt wait any longer.
To the senior nurse who appeared gob-smacked I said " I am afraid this is probably one of the reasons why the public have lost faith in the HSE". A Student Nurse from meath whose dad was a farmer had chatted to me earlier about Aberdeen Angus cattle and Meath GAA while she brought me down to x-ray.I thanked her and said " Niamh, this is called voting with your feet- Some day I may be so sick that I have no choice but to put up with this ; but today I have a choice so I am not going to be treated like this and then pay out my own good money to the man".
As I limped out onto the corridor I got a surprise as the embarrassed consultant himself came out of a theatre door after me. He apologised for the delay with a defence that he had got bogged down in a surgery and hadnt been drinking tea in there.. I said, look, there is no argument, you are busy but so am I - I was here at 7.30 for a small procedure, it is not acceptable to have to wait five hours without warning, you cant treat people like that any more.
He was also told how disorganised the place was and how disrespectful it is to herd in your whole day list at 7.30 am with no order or communication- and in an off-hand manner to force me to miss another important medical appointment for no good reason.
He did apologise again profusely but in reality the loss of a private patient was likely the only thing to exercise him to rush into the corridor after me.
When Kildare Vet Surgery was built in 2004 it was built at cost to one person-me- to provide a service to animal owners, to work to a high standard, to become a local asset and social benefit, to raise the level of animal care in Kildare to a new level- and to be a commercial success.
We work to a mission statement - Aiming to provide excellence in Veterinary when you need it near you.
This mission statement is client-centred. Our success and survival depends on attention to customers. Excellence in Veterinary is something we strive for as we deliver the services the market demands.
If a client or their pet are unhappy with us in any way we can and must be told - and if we are not responsive to customers needs or wants then we dont have the right to that customers business.
Questions arise from that trip to Blanchardstown- Did the Nurses even bother to tell the consultant I needed to be out by 11? Did they place any value on my time and the wasting of my time? Did that consultant ever have to bother before about disrespecting a private patient or any patient?
Plainly they have a culture/ethos/policy of not treating patients like customers.
In fact they barely treat their patients as adult human beings as far as I could see.
If the HSE in Ireland or even just Blanchardstown Hospital were to adopt a client-centred policy, as Vets like myself who have to make a living adopt client-centred aims, it would have to be called patient-centred and would use many of the strategies of the Primary Care Nursing movement.
For this to happen, many more paying customers like myself will have to vote with their feet, will have to get up and walk out and will have to calmly face to face with these senior Nurses and Consultants say- I will not be treated like this and disrespected by you and your flawed system and your archaic hierarchy.

Des Groome

It shouldnt happen to a Vet!

2009-05-31T23:03:00.000Z

The iconic Yorkshire Veterinary Surgeon James Herriott has a lot to answer for- certainly amongst my generation of Vets. The BBC tv show "all creatures great and small " of the early eighties ran for years and was a dramatisation of Herriotts series of books about his adventures with the characters, the farmers and their diverse animal woes over his many years as a country Vet. Herriott wrote like a combination of Wodehouse and Flann OBrien with each tale a vignette of rural farce where cunning rustic folk invariably had alaugh at the expense of the sincere earnest but often hapless young vet.
The books themselves are hilarious but are also a snapshot of rural British life in the thirties and forties- with this way of life starting to change in the fifties with better drugs, bigger factory farms, better roads and competition from imported produce threatening old assumptions.
It resonates with me again as I write this in a way that makes Herriott seem relevant to Ireland.
The people and countryside Herriott describes were familiar to me , oddly enough, growing up in 1970s rural Ireland- thats right ,not a million years and miles from 1950s Yorkshire.
We have come a long way. Agriculture has declined in relevance, but has streamlined and thankfully lost much of its hardship and poverty, largely because of the EECs initial help to Ireland and our continuing vocal central role at the heart of Europe.
This progress must not be taken for granted and the heritage of where we came from in a short three generations must not be forgotten.
I am canvassing for the local elections at the moment with a Kildare candidate Suzanne Doyle.
There is anger and bewilderment at the moment about our recession, our irresponsible bank,s lending policies and the staggering way world cash flow has just stopped like a tap being switched off.
Much of this response in born out of fear as we are all indebted to a level that our new 2009 incomes cant cope with. My advice to you as a businessman sharing my own difficulties of cash flow to liability shortfall is this. Dont ignore the banks. Send them all the information they want about your finances. Then pay them what you can pay them on your own terms. Dont try to meet all your repayments if it is going to lead to hardship for your family or closure of your business. But pay all your institutional debtors some sum of money every month.
Ireland will never go back to the bad old days of state sanctioned evictions of families. We have a very strong constitution which upholds the rights of individuals. Dont believe the media hysteria about repossessions of homes and worse- these are just the people who have been ignoring every bank letter and not paying a penny for perhaps two years.
If you make a little effort to meet your debts the system we have, such as it is , will be in your favour.
Herriotts second book " it shouldnt happen to a Vet " told tales of the young Vets mistakes, setbacks and frequent kicks from truculent livestock. As the celtic garfield has now well and truly lost its nine lives I can look back and say I made mistakes by over-investing, over-paying staff, expanding too quickly and over-estimating how much potential growth there was in the market. But my family are alive andhappy. My wife and three little boys are my universe. Thats all that matters and thats not a cliche.
My associate Vet Simon rang last night to say he had just broken his arm. He took a hard fall while schooling a young horse. He can now expect to be out of work for up to six weeks. It will be a torrid time at Groome Pet Vets without his valued help.
A young newly married man who is starting to build a house he can ill afford as a self-employed Vetto be unable to work for six weeks.
Now THAT shouldnt happen to a Vet!

A taste of the exotic

2009-05-27T20:56:00.000Z

My KFM Vets Corner now runs every Friday at 11.15 on Clem Ryans morning show. The public reaction to my show,both on and off the air is testament to the growing dedication and enthusiasm of Irish people for all creatures great and small. Animal loving Clem helps it along with his own curiosity and love for the animal kingdom.
A missing African Grey Parrot in the Curragh area prompted my tale of the Koran reciting Saudi Arabian Parrot I once encountered in Jeddah- where the custom of keeping polly on a perch above the stove in the kitchen led to a high incidence of a fungal emphysema called Aspergillosis.
This tale was soon bettered by a callers anecdote about Bruce Lee, the Chinese owned Parrot in a Sheriff Street take away who could curse in Dublinese, Cantonese and bark at the owners mother in laws Pekinese.
Clems interest in the exotic thus piqued I recounted a sad case history about a tiger cub with the wobbles who entered Jeddah Vet Hospital one boiling hot day ( every day was a boiling hot day) with a growling half stagger- like a character from a T.S.Eliot cat poem-followed by a nervous besandled Arab youth on the end of his chain.
Dubbed Macavity the mystery cat by the hospitals puzzled staff, this tiger was eventually diagnosed with calcium- deficit ricket disorder and eventually responded well to mineral correctng therapy.
A tail for our times perhaps as like many a celtic tiger cub Macavity's domestic diet of fresh steak daily lacked balance and proved too much of a good thing for a cat born to be wild!

Birth Control Bonanza

2009-05-22T13:15:00.000Z

Canine conjugal relations are often swift and surreptious. Indeed as the owner of many a canine beauty queen on heat discovers to their chagrin, the canine male suitor is usually elusive resourceful and athletic in his ardour.
We are inundated in the Spring and Summer with calls from bitch owners in search of the canine equivalent of the morning after pill- There is such a thing, but it is available for Veterinary use in injectable form only. The scenario begins with a careful owner's best efforts to keep an on-heat bitch locked up- but frequently ends with a frantic call to the Vet as their prize pedigree bitch is found in delicto flagrante and tied back to front with the neighbourhood mongrel lothario.
This type of problem mating is quaintly and archaically known as misalliance in veterinary terminology and can be remedied with an injection of Oestradiol Benzoate within 72 hours of the deed in question.
Last summer we had an owner of a beautiful young border collie bitch who was insistent that Sheba would be bred at two and a half years old- yet Sheba turned up three times in nine months for this misalliance injection as their neighbours male bull terrier defied their best efforts at fencing the garden off.
As I believe Irelands dog population has now outgrown demand for pets I am a strong advocate of the final solution to this issue- Neutering!
For May and June we have reduced the price of Spay and Neuter to 2004 prices.
Veterinary Irelands Spay week in early June will further publicise this issue.
Now at Groome PetVets we will neuter male dogs for 90 euro with Female Spay procedures now priced at 120 euro.

Now that what we call real added value!

Aiming to provide excellence in Veterinary when YOU need it near YOU!

PET NAPPING -a sinister recessionary revenue-spinner

2009-05-19T09:22:00.000Z

Callers to KFM have reported a distressing new type of criminal activity. In an era when innovation and the knowledge economy are being promoted as the keys to Irelands future, our native criminals are using a different type of knowledge to find innovative ways to gather their revenue in recessionary times. A spate of thefts of pedigree dogs from gardens and yards in the Kildare and Newbridge environs leaves me in no doubt but that this is well-organised theft of very saleable and valuable pets.
One caller into my radio slot last friday reported his five dogs- three gundogs and two greyhounds, all pets- stolen from behind a high fence in his stable yard outside Monasterevin the night before.
My information, from animal welfare people " in the know", is that these thefts are destined for the UK pet market where there is still demand for certain breeds. I would like to know what checks and query systems are in place at the ferry ports if this is the case.
I have three simple pieces of advice for worried pet owners. Firstly, get your pet microchipped and have a tag fitted to the collar stating "I am Micro chipped". Secondly, lock up your dogs at night and ensure day time access to your premises only through a visible front entrance.
Thirdly, Dont buy a pedigree dog in these straitened times as the dog pounds and welfare charities are full of worthy heinz 57 dogs in need of loving homes!

JAWS - a 21st century cautionary tale.

2009-05-09T20:54:00.000Z

This morning the phone rang at 8 am from an anxious local owner of an epileptic middle aged male German Shepherd named Jaws. Jaws is an impressive beast, the owner and all too often user of a set of good canine incisors and carnassials. He is therefore aptly named and his visits to the clinic are often an occupational hazard for the Vets and Nurses at Groome PetVets. Jaws' epileptic condition is compounded by the occasional bout of owner amnesia when it comes to giving the vital daily phenobarbital tablet to control Jaws' seizures.
His lady owner had been in hospital herself for two days, communications had missed a link at home in her absense, tablets had run out and the all important run to the vets for phenobarb was forgotten. So it was that I arrived out to find jaws prowling the garden in a state of semi-seizure, drooling and rolling his eyes -werewolf like- around his head as he staggered in the twilight zone between fits. Meanwhile the terrified family watched from the safety of the kitchen window too scared to venture out,knowing that Jaws normal truculence had a history of being exacerbated by epilepsy-induced disorientation in the post-seizure phase.
Armed with a plate of tranquilliser- laced dog food I ventured into the garden. The slight knot in my stomach reinforced my imagining of Richard Dreyfuss in a small boat on still water in the quiet moment before the shark struck, as I paused and met Jaws gaze. I could even hear the threatening two note musical pattern made famous by Spielbergs eponymous 1975 movie.
Luckily in this instance blood stain was avoided. Jaws did not prove to be a shark in wolf's clothing but simply a hungry dog who remembered he had missed breakfast.
Ten minutes after devouring his bowl of medicated food, Jaws was calmly snoozing as I administered his appropriate epilepsy medication.
A relieved family promised vigilance in therapeutic compliance in future!

A Case of misplaced affection

2009-05-04T10:33:00.000Z

In the last two years or more of running my pets corner feature on Midlands radio I have been struck by the amount of queries relating to animal behaviour and training-not Veterinary medicine issues. These are the areas that vets arent formally educated to deal with but will learn by their own interest and experience at the cutting edge of animal science.
Some of the issues that crop up require a degree in Psychology, not Veterinary,and a liberal helping of innovation.
We had a young male labrador recently who demolished and swallowed a stiletto. This was diagnosed by x ray- showing the four inch heel clearly lodged in the stomach. The cost of the enterotomy procedure to remove this half shoe was - I was reliably informed by the irate lady owner - matched only by the cost of buying a new pair of shoes to match the new outfit for ladys day at punchestown. Brucie's next trick was to swallow an equally expensive silk stocking complete with suspender clip- fortunately this did emerge out the other end with the help of liquid paraffin .
This adventurous if somewhat deviant Labrador was christened Brucie the Canine Cross Dresser by the staff of Groome PetVets. Undoubtedly this behaviour would be a nightmare for any owner and illustrates the difficulties antisocial animal behaviour can cause. The simple common sense solution we proposed was neutering to calm young Bruces ardour and to ban him from the house. His owner invested in decent outdoor fenced and secure paddock area and both are now happy with the new arrangement.

Easter Bunny

2009-03-27T16:09:00.000Z

Rabbits are becoming more popular as pets in Ireland these days. Once upon a time a bunny was a rare patient at Groome Pet Vets. Now most days we see these cotton tails for dental, neuter and nail clip procedures. We see the occassional mixo bunny. We see the occassional case of snuffles, a cute name for a serious condition of the sinuses. Questions about rabbits are becoming very regular on my KFM and Midlands 103 pet corner slots.

Now I must endeavour to learn even more about domestic rabbits as my son Daniel has brought home a little blue male long ear to live with himself and brothers James and Tom.