I am actually physically sick!

I cannot believe what has happened.Jesus i am sick to the stomach as i am writing this.As i mentioned i jumped out of bed early today because of all the special things arriving today.I swear i had such great plans i couldnt wait to get to the airport.Then i got a phone call from my clearing agent.I could not believe my ears....i swear it was the same feeling as someone telling me one of my family members had died even as i am writing this there are tears in my eyes.....

I have spent the last ten hours and i mean ten....arguing with eveybody from the dept of marine to the dept of Agriculture even the ministers secetrary.The fish were routed through the emirates in Dubai and delivered to Dublin at 12:15pm.......can you believe that this shitty hole of a country is so backward that they took border control away from us.....did you know that Eu officals came to Dublin Airport and gagged at what we call border control operating from an old toilet...All animals coming into Europe have to be routed through Frankfurt or Heathrow London and my supplier made the mistake of sending it direct un beknownst to us.So all my ultra rare fish are still stuck in dublin airport because no one here on this 'craggy Island'can do a job....ie Tropical fish with up to date vetinary paperwork will be destroyed unless accompanied with a BIP certification.....

So this means some German guy is going to open a box of fish and he has to identify Bagarius yarelli.....are u mad....i have to still google half the stuff im dealing with.I asked the dept of Agri what contingency plans do they have......er they said....er...er..er..i offered to quarantine the shipment till it was sorted we have 200 free tanks here at the moment....200 free tanks....no they did not want to know their solution was to ship the 26 hour flight another two days to uk or germany get it stamped and then return.....and oh yea that will be 5 k more to ship boxes of putrified water.....

here is the letter i emailed the secretary omitting her name of course........
Hello X,
Thank you for taking my call. My company Aquatic Village is one of the most well known and respected companies in Ireland. We have been in business 15yrs and we comply to all the departments guide lines as a matter of rule. We are well known to all the officials in Dublin Airport and our clearing agent is Mr.x We were voted by the people in 2011 as the best in the aquatic business because we care for the animals we handle and as to date we are the only company who has the policy where we we take back and re home any animal we sell.
We have a problem. Our supplier has shipped inadvertently through Dubai instead of routing through Frankfurt or Heathrow. Our shipment of 16 boxes is now being held by your dept in Dublin Airport. On that shipment are some of the rarest freshwater fish in the world and are intended mainly for display. The shipment is tropical only. It has health certs and the only issue is the way it came via the emirates rather than the afore mentioned.
Aquatic village has 150 quarantine tanks set aside for this arrival. We cannot afford to loose this shipment as we are already fighting to survive in the middle of now where in the Dublin Mountains. The shipment will not make it to Heathrow i have already explored the possibility it will take several days to complete. The shipment has been in transit for 34 hours already and time is running out to save 3000 various fish from several species lists.
I am asking the dept to make an exception in this case. We will quarantine the animals and keep them from resale till we are give notice. We operate a bio secure facility we are not connected to any water way or river. I have spent 90 hours a week for 15yrs doing this i run the biggest and most famous facility in Ireland.
Please can you make a decision as soon as possible even the department of marines fishery officers have tried to fight our cause because they know we know what we are doing.
Thank you for your time.
Ian Patrick Compton
01 4582522
I made a representation to your office for a waiver of bip regulations for a special case for the welfare of certified healthy animals. I offered to quarantine nearly 3000 tropical fish some of which are amongst the rarest in the known world. We have been working on this project for two months. Because our shipper sent the animals via Dubai instead of Frankfurt the animals will be left to die in Dublin Airport. This will be a slow suffocating death with which your department has the power to veto. I have a full quarantine facility in a bio secure area and i was willing to quarantine the animals pending your departments evaluation. These fish are tropical and do not pose a threat to our environment’s in this case the action taken is incorrect but due to our departments inadequacies the problem is dumped rather than addressed. I have made this argument before with the Vet x about providing facilities. Where is the departments contingency plan? There is none so 3000 live fish will perish and be dumped.
I will be contacting the dspca and ask them for their advice on this subject because i genuinely feel this is wrong. We have obeyed department rules for 15yrs and when we need them most in these difficult times they have washed their hands rather than consider the real issue. People smuggle animals into Ireland every day. We try to do it by the book and this is the result.
Thank you for your time I doubt you will under stand. We were voted the best because we care not because we make our living from it. I am trying to build a public aquaria in Brittas i have several displays that i fund myself, Half of the collection of animals your department will let die are for that purpose.
I will take this matter further. Every case is an individual case and the rules should be considered not enforced.
Thank you for whoever time that reads this.
Ian Patrick Compton


And here is her reply.....banana republic....i will report the dept of Agriculture to the dspca for this it is totally unacceptable...human error...it happens...er no ....no it doesnt...


the reply

Ian,

Please see note below outlining the current position.





The Border Inspection Post (BIP) at Dublin Airport is not authorised to border check and clear ornamental fish from outside the EU, there is no BIP in Ireland that is authorised to border check and clear ornamental fish from outside the EU.

The only species that Dublin Airport BIP is now authorised to border check is horses - Dublin Airport BIP’s EU authorisation for species such as ornamental fish was withdrawn in August 2009.



This morning James Hannon SVI instructed DAFM officials at Dublin Airport that these fish must be sent back out from Dublin to another EU BIP that is authorised to check ornamental fish such as London Heathrow BIP and DAFM officials informed Ken Burgess Clearances of this shortly afterwards.



The other option open to the importer is to return the fish to their place of origin.



I am sorry the news is not more favourable on this occasion.





Regards

I am so physically sick that im goin home early usually id stay on till 9 o clock feeding and playing with stuff but im ready to barrrrf.....this country is wrong on so many levels.....we vrt cars against eu directive and pocket the cash....the eu will break us.......this is not about money it is about animal welfare....if it was about money i would get my self a proper decent job...
anyway good night....3000 fish including my Bagarius yarelli i could kill....

Feel your pain Ian I really do,don't think you could have done anymore than you already have,chin up son chin up!

sounds awful...could the inspector from london not be flown over to do it in dublin?? surely flying a man/vet/whoever over would be more realistic than flying all those poor fish who probably wont make it??

Christ man thats crap. but as BodnFiona say could they not have the cop on to fly someone in. Be quicker and more humane.

i offered to foot the bill to fly someone in but they said no it was not possible uk offical could not do this on irish soil.....it had to be on their own turf.........red tape and bullshit......

oh My God
that's terrible
the Poor Fish
what kind of Country are We living in ?
You'd think that something could be done to keep them alive...


Des

Feel for you Ian

Here's hoping some sense may prevail, however unlikely

Regards
Dec

They obviously don't care for the welfare of the animals. I see they can do horses here,but of course horses mean big money to those in power,sure,look,our leaders can win huge amounts 'on the horses'.

[The only species that Dublin Airport BIP is now authorised to border check is horses - Dublin Airport BIP’s EU authorisation for species such as ornamental fish was withdrawn in August 2009.]qoute
why was this authorisation taken away from our border control surely to god all eu airports should have equal rights with regard to this or has it got more to do with money .
i do feel for you with this ian as i know how much you put into this.
john

Ring joe duffy in the morning or e-mail the show tonight

AGGRRHH..f..k this ashooles...

Hope the precious cargo is ok when you do get through the red tape BS in this wonderful little country of ours. Hope the mess is resolved soon for you Ian!

The British embassy would be considered British soil and also northern Ireland.
Remember its who you know not what you know in Ireland.....
Its absolutely sickening.

Anyone who knows someone "in power" or "in the system" please inform them of this situation asap.
As was said in the posts before it's "who you know" that will change the outcome of this.

Truly sorry for your troubles.
Pat.

ah damn Ian that's a rough situation i hope your wholesaler will reimburse you your losses seeing as they caused the mishap but besides that come on Ireland why can we not do this crap here? Is there a logical reason to why we cannot do this ourselves i doubt it, hell we have some of the best vetenary colleges in Europe here. Maybe yourself along with other sponsors and maybe with help from ye're suppliers could launch a campaign on this basis, i'm sure it would cut down on transportation costs having flights come straight to Ireland without them having to divert to the uk or germany for paperwork plus it would benefit the welfare of the livestock too. I'm sure you'd have support from others in a campaign on this basis as it would provide business for airports, luggage handlers, vets and also income for the economy, am i the only one who sees the economic benefits or are the government so busy in f***ing us over they cant see the woods for the trees. Ian if i where you i'd be calling Joe Duffy AND other stations like Newstalk etc to get this publicized, at worst it will bring public awareness to the plight and cost of running a smb in Ireland at best they might actually do something about it

Hope all goes well and the fish survive although i doubt it,

Seamus

myself and family popped into ians yesterday evening to see all these wunderfull specimens and although the stress was evident you were trying to compose yourself and hope for the best... we felt your pain man!!
i thing people a right by saying get the media involved because as you say you are 15yrs in the business and contributing enormously towards the economy, as are all busnises, but yet they give to new busineses and nothing if anything is done for igsisting ones, they should have realised this and been able to pull strings but the irish government are afraid of their shaddow. its as if they prefer to be the underdogs and to hell with the consiquences... they are a shamefull bunch of b*****ds!!

keep us updated mate because we are all hoping for some positive outcome for ye and it would be so disheartening to see the government let someones passion be distroyed over a technicality!!

Well said!

You guys want an up date no problem....

Well the short version is that the Department of Agriculture directed the airport vet who is a lovely young girl to open about 500 bags and pour anasthetic into each one to kill them. I had to email my consent i will post a transcript in a min.The poor girl rang me about a dozen times and she was obviously very distressed and it was a very emotional thing to have to endure.
I ve had people ask me all day where are the fish i got so depressed telling them i printed off the post i put up on the forum for people to read.Tomoro i will make a sign and i will place it around my neck explaining all.
The vet thanked me for being so co operative i said she was not the enemy.She thanked me for being so passionate about what i do i said thank you and choked back the anger....what i really wanted to say would not be printable.I still cannot believe they would destroy healthy animals because they were not checked by a bip inspector.I offered to have them check at brittish embassy and fly in a bip inspector .....not an option.Ireland has officially lost control of its borders and make no mistake about that.We are under attack.The brittish tried it on for 800 years and we fought them off....but the Germans have done it in less than a handful.
As i write this i feel sick....honest....now i'm skint....half of the fish house is empty set aside for the quarantine of the delivery.....200 discus...200 4 inch africans.....Mekong cats....6 types of tiger fish...the list was long.The minister for Agriculture never even returned my correspondence....nice....i will respect you!

Now i face indirect santion.....if i report the ministry for cruelty to animals they will shut me down...so i am in a hard place right now....but below is the email i sent to the department givng my consent to destroy any fish that remained alive....

This is the actual email:

I sent u an email earlier but just to confirm.If the department of agiculture can justify the killing of 3000 healthy fish certified fit to leave their country of origin then who am i to stand up to them and tell them they are wrong.I am only one man against the might of the german empire of which we are obviously just an outpost.Under the circumstances even as a devoted fish lover and educator i have to give my consent to the meaningless destruction of these creatures because right now and at this moment in time it is the correct thing to do.And i wish to thank all the people who have fought our corner to prevent this from happening and thank you Moira for your help and kind words.

We were voted number one by the people because we care....i think we care too much....maybe it's time more people cared about the world than their jobs.
Thankyou
Ian Patrick Compton
Aquatic Village

Have to say I seen you made a couple of references to the country as backwards and craggy island,,I really couldn't aggree with you more on this and further more,I think this sort of thing really shows us how things are being run at the minute,,I'm not sure if it would help but have you thought of starting a petition,and leave it at the till because if you do il be the first to sign it.like I said before chin up,you couldn't have done any more! It was a calamity of errors.

Post the ministers email here and let the campaign of petitions begin. This should not be ever let happen again.

I'm sorry for what happened, but the fault lies with the supplier not complying with the requlations.

If ever watch the australian border control's they won't let anything in if it doesn't meet certain criteria. We've worked fine for how long in this set-up with it going through britain or germany and one mistake from a supplier and it's everything is messed up in europe.

Send the supplier European Animal import protocols. I wonder how quickly things might be done if it was done
and if there were loads going wrong would say give it back to Germany.

Once again i'm sorry that fish had to needlessly killed but it was the suppliers fault.

Very sorry to hear about this Ian.

Yet another example of EU stupidity and Ireland's lazy stance on attempting to be an active part of EU governance leadership but was, instead, once happy to sap all the EU hand-outs going (and for mis-use in building the infrastraucture).

On the other hand, Ian, if you'd have f**ked up the country by raping it, then the government would have bent over backwards to help you.

ian

wow ian, what can i say? can't even begin to describe how gutted i am for you mate and i cant even pretend to know how your feeling, absolutely gut wrenching. what a disgraceful display of incompetence by the "powers that be" and just pure animal cruelty and neglect. if it had been the other way around and the neglect was on your part then the whole weight of the law would have been brought down on you, but alas once again as is so common in this twisted, backward and shameful country we all so proudly call home, there is one rule for the normal joe soap and the "suits" get away with what is in essence MURDER!!! once again they have allowed us to be pushed around and be bullied by europe, why should they have the power to control what crosses OUR borders? the irish people are too slow in acting, we should abandon the whole "idea" which is europe and the strangle hold it has on this once free country. what they have done to you is disgraceful when all it would have taken was some common sense and for someone to stand up and grow a pair. just know ian, that you have the full backing of everyone here. we all know how dedicated you are to both your job and your passion in life. again its extremely sad to hear of what has happened and should you decide to petition this inadiquate and shear lazy border protection/quarantine law then my name will be one of the first on the list. keep your head up pal and don't let these w*****s get you down or destroy your dreams. keep doing what you're doing and we'll keep supporting you buddy.

wayne

I'm Irish but sometimes you have to say "f'ing Irish"! The majority are useless and everything is done half arsed. The roads are in sh!t (I don't call throwing loose chipping on a road as fixing it) and now we can't even police our own borders!!

Would have loved to seen these fish Ian and feel your pain!

Alan

Wild love to know if there's another country out there that leaves its border control up to other counties. Doubt another country would be as stupid and lazy!

Alan

Ski wrote:

Wild love to know if there's another country out there that leaves its border control up to other counties. Doubt another country would be as stupid and lazy!

Alan

I'm guessing that if Frankfurt and Heathrow are the only clearing points,then every other EU country is in the same boat as us? Not really a great positionto be in!

the sad thing is that the same health certs and paperwork would have got the fish through franfurt or heathrow....but because a rule was broken inadvertently 3000 animals were slaughtered after sitting for 24 hours in a freezing shed....on the other hand if my supplier sent 3000 horses then they would be processed here.......so that goes to show...if your in the click.....we break and end eu rules every day when it suits us i think the department pf ag should be reported for cruelty to animals by the people on this site if you believe in what u write!!