Amid Report of Surge in Abandoned Horses Oireachtas Ag Committee to Meet with Department on Horse Welfare
29th June 2010
At its meeting tomorrow, (30th) the Oireachtas Agriculture Committee will be seeking answers from the Department of Agriculture regarding the pressing matter of horse welfare.
The Committee will meet at 11 am in Committee Room 4 of Leinster House.
The meeting comes in the midst of reports of a rise in the number of horses being deserted and left to die by owners who can no longer afford to keep them. In the Dublin City Council area alone the number of abandoned and stray horses rose by 40% last year from 250 in 2008 to 349 in 2009.
This increase has been attributed to a proliferation of buying during the Celtic Tiger years with some owners now being unable to afford to keep their animals owing to economic factors.
Committee Chairman, Johnny Brady TD said;
“The problem of stray and abandoned horses is growing rapidly and is costing local authorities large sums of money. There have been far too many reports recently of horses being left to starve at the side of a road.
We are keen to ask the Department what can be done to combat such cases of animal cruelty and if more can be to help the plight of abused horses.”
The Committee also intends to discuss the EU regulation which means that horses are not registered for a passport within six months of birth cannot be sold to an abattoir.
The Committee can be viewed on line at: http://www.oireachtas.ie/ViewDoc.asp?fn=/documents/livewebcast/Web-Live.htm&CatID=83&m=o
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