Horse 'amnesty' offered to owners

THE DUBLIN Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (DSPCA) is appealing to horse and pony owners unwilling or unable to care for the animals to contact them with a view to having them rehomed if necessary.

Announcing a “national horse amnesty” scheme, society chief executive Jimmy Cahill yesterday said there was an “equine crisis” across the State.

“If we take just Dublin, I would say there are about 2,000 unwanted and uncared-for animals there. Then if we look at Kilkenny, Waterford, Wexford, Cork, this runs into the thousands and thousands of horses. We actually have no idea exactly how big this problem is.”

Last year the society accepted 120 horses from across the State. Half of these were beyond veterinary care and had to be put down.

Mr Cahill said anyone who could not care for a horse, or who was concerned about its welfare could contact the society. It would then work with the owner to advise on how to better look after the animal or to advise on whether it should be rehomed.

“This represents a major shift in the Dublin SPCA service from fire-fighting to proactively working with horse-owners and concerned citizens to assist the animal before it is too late. We have had to do it.”

The aim of the programme was to save horses from suffering and prevent equine values being reduced to the point where they were being sold at unregulated horse fairs for as little as €10.

“We will get calls from owners . . . who care about the horses but genuinely can’t care for them,” Mr Cahill said.

“These are the people we want to get to before they sell them on at horse fairs to youngsters who will ride them to death . . . we hear a lot about how these kids love their horses, but that’s not what we see. . . the truth is they don’t care a curse. They have no relationship with the horses.”

The confidential horse amnesty phone line will operate from April 4th, on 01-4994747.

Lord Mayor of Dublin Gerry Breen has written to Attorney General Máire Whelan requesting that legislation be drafted that would allow Dublin City Council to close the Smithfield horse fair.