“Proper” response times, harsher penalties and a specialised animal crime unit are required to tackle welfare issues in Ireland, the head of advocacy at a horse rescue organisation has said.
Kerry-Anne Pollock of My Lovely Horse Rescue says it receives a lot of calls in relation to abandoned animals, often left in fields without food or water and sometimes tethered.
The rescue centre deals with cases of severe malnutrition, untreated injuries, horses in behavioural distress and ponies being ridden and whipped. In some instances, horses must be euthanised due to their injuries.
“It’s kind of bittersweet. You’re putting an animal out of his misery, but you can’t undo the misery that the animal has been through.”
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Particularly during afterhours or on weekends, when other services or charities are not in operation, the organisation receives calls from “distressed” people.
Pollock recalls a horse tethered and strangled to death in the Dublin suburb of Finglas last summer. The discovery was made on a Saturday morning and My Lovely Horse Rescue was contacted.
In March 2014, the Animal Health and Welfare Act 2013 came into force. Under it, the Department of Agriculture and authorised officers including gardaí, customs agents, local authorities and the National Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) can undertake appropriate enforcement where breaches or shortcomings in welfare are identified.
According to the NSPCA – which formed in October 2025, when the Irish and Dublin branches of the organisation amalgamated – from 2013 to 2024 it handled 35,350 cruelty reports leading to just 189 prosecutions.
An NSPCA spokesman said: “Only the most serious cases of animal cruelty would result in case files being submitted with a view to a prosecution being taken.”
“When NSPCA inspectors do submit case files, almost 100 per cent result in successful prosecutions.”
Pollock says cases of horses being mistreated in urban areas and have increased over the last couple of years.
“Animal cruelty is a red flag to wider criminality and there’s lots of research that supports that case,” she says.
She also says there is a “large” number of animals being used for dog breeding, dog fighting and intimidation purposes, and she has seen instances where they are abused as a form of domestic abuse and coercive control.
Pollock says the laws are “not actually bad” but are often not enforced, and believes there is the need for a dedicated animal crime unit.
“I don’t think there’s a zero tolerance for animal cruelty.”
She believes prevention and education are important and thinks the penalty for abuse prosecutions needs to be higher.
“If we had proper response times . . . and then we prosecute it and we had harsher penalties, they’d be more inclined to think twice about doing something.”
Earlier in February, the rescue tended to a horse that was abandoned after she collapsed on the side of the N4 road in Chapelizod, Dublin and had, earlier in the day, been used for sulky racing.
The horse, named Anne, was rushed by My Lovely Horse Rescue to University College Dublin Veterinary Hospital, where she died while pregnant with a fully formed foal. Gardaí say inquiries are ongoing into the incident.
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“Sulky racing in urban areas, it’s inherently dangerous. It shouldn’t be happening. It places horses, riders and public at serious risk,” says Pollock.
She adds that the horses are unregulated, unfit, uninsured, and are raced on public roads that “aren’t designed for animals or carts”.
“There’s no grey area; horses shouldn’t be on public roads . . . sulky racing is allowed to continue and sends a message that animal welfare is optional.”
The Department of Transport said the licensing of on-road sulky races is covered under section 74 of the Roads Act and controlled by local authorities.
In Pollock’s view, a “State-led” approach is necessary to encompass the law, animal welfare and the social aspect as animal abuse is a “long-term issue that actually needs to be addressed”.
“Ultimately, animals are suffering, and animals have no voice so, we have to do what we can to try to help them.”
Gardaí said they are “committed to combating animal cruelty throughout Ireland”.
Under various pieces of legislation as well as local bylaws, gardaí have powers to search with and without warrants, seize animals and arrest those in contravention of the Acts, it said.
The Department of Agriculture said: “Animal welfare is a key priority for the Irish Government.”
It said it is “committed to the continued robust enforcement of the Animal Health and Welfare Act 2013, which provides a modern framework for regulating and applying standards in the area of animal health and welfare.”
The department is analysing submissions received from a public consultation on its second Animal Welfare Strategy, for the period of 2026 to 2030. The new strategy will build on the progress achieved under the current five-year strategy, while continuing to adopt a “one health, one welfare” approach.
It is “satisfied that these measures provide a comprehensive framework and sufficient safeguards to ensure animal welfare”.
