A HORSE breeder who hid the carcasses of five horses and two cows in a shed has been remanded in custody.
Simon O’Dwyer (64), Garrue, Mullinavat, Co Kilkenny, 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 carcasses on lands farmed by him on dates between January and December 2009.
Garda Shane Elliffe of Thomastown Garda station said O’Dwyer had 11 previous convictions for a number of offences including criminal damage, animal cruelty and road traffic matters.
The court heard O’Dwyer is currently in breach of a three-year bond to keep the peace he received along with a four-month suspended jail term for cruelty to animals in October 2007 at Carrick-on-Suir District Court.
Judge William Harnett ordered O’Dwyer to be remanded in custody to appear at Carrick-on-Suir court this Thursday in relation to the breach and to be returned to Kilkenny District Court for sentencing on February 16th.
Michael Lanigan, for O’Dwyer, said his client was deemed “medically fit” and “understood the issues before the court”. He said his client did not come from the “most knowledgeable” of farming backgrounds.
Garda Elliffe told an earlier sitting of the court he discovered a black horse “lying dead in the farmyard” at O’Dwyer’s home at Mullinavat on January 30th, 2009.
He then found the carcasses of five horses and two cattle, “piled with the use of a front loader” behind bales of hay in a shed on the farm.
Garda Elliffe said he witnessed dogs owned by O’Dwyer eating from the carcasses.
Joe Collins, president of Veterinary Ireland, who visited the farm with Garda Elliffe, gave evidence that O’Dwyer showed “no understanding that basic things like water were required” for the keeping of animals.
O’Dwyer has been in custody since December 15th following the discovery of the remains of two more horses on his lands at Mullinavat and on lands at Mullenbeg, Piltown, Co Kilkenny, on December 6th and 7th.
Garda Elliffe told the court he was unable to locate O’Dwyer at the farm and that 61 horses and 46 cattle were seized by Department of Agriculture officers from lands farmed by O’Dwyer on those dates.