Job loss helps John to make a business of his pet project

Date Published: {J}

John O’Connell has nothing against cats and dogs – in fact the two happy, healthy looking dogs running around his back garden in Knocknacarra in the suburbs of Galway city are proof that here is a man who loves his pets.

But, a quick look into the tank in the corner of his kitchen shows that he also enjoys more exotic creatures. Stretched out inside the tank looking as happy as a reptile can be is a seven-year-old bearded dragon affectionately known by John and his family as Izzard the Lizard.

So it’s no surprise that John is the brains behind a new website, www.breedersireland.ie, which he set up late last year and which he is now totally focusing on since being made redundant from his job as a sales manager with Oranmore-based Event Bars when the company implemented cutbacks in January. It’s an online directory which aims to list every type of species of animal and bird that is legally available in Ireland.

“I’d been preparing for it before that, but it was one of those sink or swim opportunities,” says John of the website. “The down time gave me the chance.

“The idea of this website is to open up people’s imaginations when they decide to get a pet; to let them look at what else is out there,” he explains. And more unusual potential pets can be anything from a pygmy goat to an Alpaca to a couple of hens.

“Or a ferret,” he suggests. “All the people I’ve spoken to who have them love them. One person was telling me that when you come home from work tired, they can really cheer you up because they will dance in front of you. They really interact with their owners.”

Part of the reason for establishing this website arose from John’s own experiences of looking for unusual animals.

At one point he was trying to buy a Marmoset monkey for himself, and he wasn’t happy with what he found on websites. So he felt that establishing a proper database would allow animal lovers to ensure they were getting their pet from a proper source.

And he feels that a site such as his has a real future in light of legal changes which are in the pipeline.

“We have one of the loosest regimes [of any country],” when it comes to breeding animals. At present, the trend is that when breeders in Ireland want to sell animals, they put an ad here and there, he says. Most breeders are registered and totally legitimate, but the law as it stands allows for chancers.

However, the new regulations which are currently being drawn up will mean more control. John is not sure when the legislation will be introduced, but he’s ready for when it is.

His idea is that his website will be a one-stop-shop for everything bred in this country: dogs, cats, cattle, horses, bees, goats, hens, ducks, geese . . . basically to have every type of animal that is legally available on one site.

Hens and geese are becoming really popular, he says and with hens costing between three and six euro each, they make great and productive housewarming gifts, once you ensure that they have a proper run, secure from foxes.

He illustrates what he can offer by going to the pages featuring Mary Murphy from Offaly, who breeds Alpacas [a sheep-like member of the camel family from the Andes] and who has provided fantastic information about what’s involved in keeping them.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.