Staggering number of horses just left to die, says TD

ALMOST 25,000 mistreated horses were seized and most of them had to be put down over a nine-year period – costing the State millions, according to Independent TD Mattie McGrath.

The Tipperary TD has now called on Agriculture Minister Michael Creed to consider introducing tougher penalties for culprits who abandon or neglect their horses.

The TD was speaking after the Minister confirmed to him in a parliamentary reply that his Department had given local authorities a total of €4.5million to deal with the seizure and control of horses in the threeyear period from 2014 to 2017. Mr McGrath said: ‘It is absolutely staggering to see the industrial-scale removal, seizure and killing of horses that local authorities have been engaged in from 2008 to 2016.’

During that nine-year period from 2008, he said that 24,433 horses were seized with 16,971 subsequently euthanised.

Mr McGrath said: ‘What is deeply worrying, apart from the clear disregard for animal welfare that is occurring on such a massive scale, are the costs that are being generated and which must surely be detracting from the allocation of departmental funds for other vital projects.’

Mr McGrath said the problem of cruelty and maltreatment remains a grave issue ‘among some groups’ and added that the problem needs to be tackled ‘in a far more robust manner than it has been to date’.

Hilary Robinson of Hungry Horse Outside, a rescue charity in Longford that cares for neglected horses, agreed that legislation needs to be enforced on a more consistent basis. Current legislation for horse owners states that every horse must have an official identification, known as a ‘horse passport’ and must contain a microchip implant, which links the animal to the passport.

Ms Robinson told the Mail: ‘It is not about putting new legislation in place, it is about enforcing what we already have.’

She said judges should hand down ‘bigger fines and penalties’ for reckless owners.

ALMOST 25,000 maltreated or abandoned horses have been seized over the past nine years by local authorities, 17,000 of which had to be euthanised – that is five horses a day. It is hard to comprehend the scale of the problem and, for a nation that claims to love horses, also scandalous.

There are laws relating to horse ownership that clearly are being enforced, but it might be better to stave off the problem by running advisory workshops for owners about the cost of keeping a horse, what is a suitable environment in which to keep horses and the effort that goes into feeding and grooming them.

When horses prove too much for those who buy them, surely there should be an onus on them to alert authorities before the animal is such poor condition that the only solution is to kill the animals?

Then rather than spending large amounts of public money rounding up and killing maltreated horses, local authorities could help fund sanctuaries and charities committed to rehabilitating these animals, allowing them see out their days in proper surroundings with the care they deserve.

Clearly stricter penalties are needed to deter owners from neglecting or abandoning their animals in the first place.