City horses suffering `abuse and neglect'

More than five horses a week were taken into shelter last year suffering from abuse, starvation and disease, according to the Dublin Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The DSPCA's director, Ms Therese Cunningham, said 1996 had been a "year of unprecedented misery for horses in Dublin".

In its annual report, published yesterday, the DSPCA said that 120 of the 268 horses it took in died or were put down by vets. "Certainly there are many caring horse-owners in Dublin. But many others take no responsibility whatever and expect Dublin SPCA to step in and bear the expense when their horses are involved in accidents or are the victims of their owners' abuse or neglect."

Ms Cunningham said she was "justifiably proud" of the measures brought in under last year's Control of Horses Act.

The DSPCA chief inspector, Mr Maurice Byrne, outlined some of the worst cases of last year. In one case he was called by gardai "to say that they needed help with some cats. I went along with the equipment we use to catch cats and was directed to a garage beside a suburban house. There were cats in there all right. One was a jaguar, which was docile enough. The other was an angry little serval."

Another inspector was called to a house in Crumlin and found 20 Yorkshire terriers in appalling conditions. A vet recommended that all but one be put down. "And there was the house in Finglas where we found one dead dog and three others that were still alive, but were so hungry that they were eating the dead one."

Ms Cunningham said that when dogs and cats were allowed to breed indiscriminately it resulted in the "needless destruction of thousands of healthy animals every year". Owners should take their pets to be neutered in the DSPCA's subsidised dispensaries.

The DSPCA cared for almost 5,000 animals last year.