LIMERICK Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (LSPCA) are seeing more cases of horses being mistreated in the city than at any other time in their 130 year history.
According to the Hyde Road based voluntary group, cruelty to horses in Limerick is the worst it has ever been. The LSPCA have dealt with 50 cases in the city over the last six months where horses had to be put down due to mistreatment and neglect.
Manger of Limerick SPCA, Finola Kelly, said the charity has just had the worst winter in its long history, with animal cruelty cases more than doubling on previous years. They are currently dealing with around 80 call-outs per month while call-outs to cases of horses being mistreated have also risen by 70 per cent in the last six months.
“I’m here 10 years and the phone hasn’t stopped ringing at the minute. We are constantly dealing with cases of animal cruelty. Our inspector has had one day off since last October, there has just been no let up at all,” said Ms Kelly.
At an incident on the Groody Roundabout on the Dublin Road recently a horse, which collapsed with double pneumonia, was left dying for three hours. Two different vets who tried to help the animal were threatened by a gang that they would be “put down if they touched the horse”.
According to Limerick SPCA, cases of cruelty to horses are more prominent in Limerick now than ever. Most of the suffering horses they are called to assist have been beaten and starved.
“They can buy a horse for as little as €5, so they don’t care. These poor animals are dropping like flies. Most of the them are being starved. Horses are being left out in rain and all kinds of conditions where they get rainscald and pneumonia. We have seen horses with broken pelvises, broken fetlocks and wires stuck into their bones. Vicious cruelty,” said Ms Kelly.
Limerick SPCA’s chairperson Geraldine Nardone has been with the charity 40 years. She said that 2014 has been the worst for animal cruelty that she has witnessed in Limerick during her long years of service.
She believes that current local authority bye-laws for the control of horses need to be enforced in Limerick and she called on Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney to see that the full weight of the law is used to punish those responsible for the mistreatment of animals. She also maintains that Gardai should be made aware of their increased powers to investigate complaints of animal cruelty under the 2013 Animal Health and Welfare Act.
“Animal cruelty is nothing new, it’s just more frequent now. We concentrate on taking animals out of cruelty. We’re about prevention. I would urge people to let us know if they see animals being mistreated. We’ll find the money from somewhere,” said Ms Nardone.
It costs Limerick Society for Prevention to Cruelty to Animals €70,000 a year to carry out their work in dealing with the prevention of cruelty to all animals in Limerick City and County and the surrounding counties of Clare and Tipperary.
With cruelty to animals now more prominent than ever, so too is the charity’s need for donations to continue its work.
“If things don’t improve our costs will continue to go up, and we’ll be gone,” said LSPCA’s Finola Kelly.
To make a donation to LSPCA contact 061-415618 or log onto www.limerickspca.com for more details.
