"Are they for sale?" several people ask.

The eight squirming puppies and four excited dogs are not for sale. In fact, that morning, most of them were due to be put down at Dunboyne Dog Pound, having overstayed their five-day welcome. Their owners never claimed them and no one was interested in rescuing them. Until, that is, dog charity Save Our Strays and Swedish volunteers stepped in.

Now the dogs are all on their way to new homes in Sweden, where their prospective owners are waiting to welcome them.

"Ireland is a disgrace when it comes to dogs, " says Janice Moran of Save Our Strays, who is charged 25 every time she rescues a dog from the pound. Last week, 12 dogs from Dunboyne Pound alone were transported to Sweden.

Already, there are five lined up for next week. "Irish dog owners just don't care. They dump them whenever it suits them, or let them be picked up by wardens and put down. It's embarrassing."

Hundreds of Irish dogs have found new homes in Sweden in the past year, while many more have gone to the UK. But Save Our Strays is always working against strict time constraints set down by the county councils, where a dog cannot be taken out of a pound until the day he is due to be put down.

"There are dogs I have lost, who I haven't got out in time and that's always upsetting, " said Moran, who has rescued up to 35 dogs in one week. "It is made very difficult for us to get them out of the pound and it's costing us a fortune, but there's no alternative."

This week, Puddles, a border-collie, Diego, a staffycross, Rebel, a pit bull, Elly, a boxer-cross and Elly's eight puppies are the lucky dogs boarding a flight to Sweden, and their doting audience finds it hard to believe that Irish negligence is the reason for their emigration. Their faces drop when Moran tells them exactly why they are going to Sweden.

"But they're gorgeous, " says one man, putting his finger through the dog-carrier to fondle Rebel's ears. "Can you really not sell one? Why would anyone let him go?"

Good question, but every day negligent dog owners are leaving their dogs to be picked up by the dog warden. Nor is it a question of losing the dog . . .

every owner of a missing dog is advised that their local dog pound is the first port of call.

"When you ask them why they didn't come looking for their dog, they say, 'oh, we weren't sure where it was.'

When they want to surrender their dog, they can't get there quick enough, " says Moran grimly. Surrendered dogs, or dogs left in the pound directly by their owner, are put down within 24 hours.

Elly was due to give birth when Moran took her out of the pound; she gave birth to her eight puppies . . . Jason, Jamie, Jake, Joey, Cassie, Carrie, Cookie and Cody . . . in Moran's home.

"It's hard to let them go, but it's for the best, " she says.

Ulf Pilarp and Suzanne Frister, two Swedish volunteers who transport the dogs and find them new homes via a website which translates into English as 'dogs without homes', arrange the dog carriers into the queue for their 12 noon flight to Stockholm.

"Swedish people don't abandon dogs like they do here, " says Pilarp.

Reluctantly, the crowd begins to disperse. "I just hope they can speak Swedish, " says Rebel's prospective buyer, as he walks away.