National Animal Centre
About the Centre
The National Animal Centre was established in order to support the ISPCA Inspectorate with the rescue, rehabilitation and re-homing of animals that have been cruelly treated, neglected and abused.
The Centre, which opened in 2002, is situated on 88 acres in an area of rural Longford.
The centre is designed to provide veterinary care and rehabilitation to animals that have been subjected to cruelty or neglect and return them to a state that enables them to be responsibly re-homed in a suitable environment.
The National Animal Centre is truly a centre for all animals and is currently capable of holding up to fifty canines, fifty felines and in excess of fifteen equines.
As with all animal welfare groups there is a constant demand for spaces but as the ISPCA, in conjunction with the Gardai, deals with a larger amount of cruelty prosecution cases than other organisations, many animals have to be kept for long periods as a result of court proceedings.
This obviously places an increased financial burden on the Society, which can be further exacerbated by the fact that on conviction many offenders are not required by the courts to pay the costs sustained by the ISPCA.
It must be borne in mind that the centre is home to many of the most abused and neglected animals in the country and as such their rehabilitation prior to rehoming can be protracted.
This is especially prevalent in our equine section where many months of care and expensive veterinary and farrier treatments are required prior to rehoming.
Visit the National Animal Centre
The ISPCA National Animal Centre has lots of dogs and cats looking for new homes. We would welcome people from anywhere in Ireland to come and look at our shelter. Its a nice day out and you might find the pet of your dreams! Click Here to view some of the animals available for rehoming and if you would like to visit, Tel: 043 3325035.
Opening Hours
11.30am to 4.00pm, 7 days a week
We are open Bank Holidays with the exception of Christmas Day and New Years Day, although we do not re-home any animals between December 4th and January 2nd. This is in order to stop pets being given as unwanted presents.
School Tours
Find out about School Tours to the National Animal Centre or School Visits by our team, email nac@ispca.ie
The ISPCA Victor Dowling Equine Rescue Centre
The ISPCA Victor Dowling Equine Rescue Centre based in Dromsligo, Mallow, Co Cork opened in June 2007 as a direct result of the urgent requirement for such a facility to accommodate cruelly treated and neglected equines in the south of the country.
A significant number of the seized equines are held on behalf of statutory bodies such as the Gardai and the Society is required to hold these pending Court Proceedings.
This often means that many of these unfortunate animals have to be retained by the ISPCA for protracted periods.
The ISPCA, our Member Societies and other animal welfare organisations throughout the country are dealing with an increased number of horses, old barren mares, broken down racehorses, laminitic ponies and, sadly, badly abused trotting /sulky horses. Unfortunately in the majority of these cases there is nowhere available to rehabilitate these unfortunate animals.
