AFTER a proliferation of horse buying during the Celtic Tiger years many horses are now “starving at the side of a ditch” because their owners refuse to pay €150 to have them put down, horse trainer Ted Walsh told an Oireachtas committee yesterday.
Referring to plans to ban stag hunting, Mr Walsh also told the Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if the Green Party has its way there will be no hounds left to eat the slaughtered horses.
Charities working in the area, including the Irish Horse Welfare Trust, have reported sharp increases in the numbers of calls about abandoned horses.
The committee discussed an EU regulation that means horses not registered for a passport within six months of birth cannot be used for human consumption and so cannot be sold to an abattoir. The regulation also stipulates horses that were treated with medicine cannot be put into the food chain.
Ted Farrell of BF Meats, an abattoir in Co Kilkenny, said they slaughter 100 horses a week and pay owners up to €350 for each horse. They export the meat to Sweden, Finland, Hungary and other countries. But they turn away 20 horses a week because their passports show they have not been registered on time or they had medication. By contrast, horse meat imported into Europe from third world countries, under the “Sanco guidelines”, only require horses to be clear from drug residue for six months, Mr Farrell said. He called on Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith to seek a derogation from the EU regulations so that slaughtered horses would be acceptable if they had been issued with passports up to 12 months of age and he said Ireland should be subject to the Sanco guidelines.
