A PACK of dogs was found feeding on a “pile of dead horses and cows” in a shed on a stud farm, a court has been told.
The animal carcases were found “concealed” behind a stack of hay bales on the farm owned by Simon O’Dwyer (64), who appeared before Kilkenny District Court yesterday.
O’Dwyer pleaded guilty to four counts of cruelty to animals and to three counts of failing to dispose of carcases on lands farmed by him between January and December 2009.
Garda Shane Elliffe of Thomastown Garda station told the court that he found a black horse “lying dead in the farmyard” at O’Dwyer’s home at Garrue, Mullinavat, Co Kilkenny, on January 30th, 2009. He then found in a shed the carcases of five horses and two cattle, “piled with the use of a front loader” behind a number of round bales.
Garda Elliffe said he saw dogs owned by O’Dwyer eating from the carcases.
He told the court he first visited the O’Dwyer farm in February 2007 with equine vet Joe Collins and that O’Dwyer was “given strong advice” to remedy “poor conditions of animals on the farm”.
O’Dwyer has been in custody since his arrest last month after the discovery of the remains of two more horses at Mullinavat and at Mullenbeg, Piltown, Co Kilkenny, on December 6th and 7th.
Garda Elliffe told the court he was unable to find O’Dwyer at the farm on those dates and that more than 100 animals were “suffering daily from lack of food, shelter and water”.
The court heard that 61 horses and 46 cattle were seized by Department of Agriculture officers from lands farmed by O’Dwyer on December 6th and 7th.
Mr Collins, the president of Veterinary Ireland who had visited the farm with Garda Elliffe, gave evidence that O’Dwyer was “breeding stallions” and other horses on his home farm.
He told Judge William Harnett that the operation had “got out of control two years ago” and that O’Dwyer showed “no understanding that basic things like water were required” for the keeping of animals.
Mr Collins said he treated a horse taken from the farm in March 2009 which was “unable to walk or seek shelter” because its hooves had been so badly neglected.
Michael Lanigan, solicitor for O’Dwyer, said his client suffered from depression and was “incapable of understanding the priorities of running such and operation”.
There was a “compulsive urge” by his client to acquire animals and that he was “unable to manage the operation”.
Judge Harnett ordered that a psychiatric report be carried out on O’Dwyer and remanded him in custody on consent to appear before Kilkenny District Court on February 1st.