FIANNA Fáil councillor Catherine Slattery hit out at Limerick City and County Council after a horse was left to rot in a field for two weeks in a Limerick City estate.
Speaking to the Limerick Post, Cllr Slattery said she was contacted by residents who were distressed that the innocent animal was impaled on a gate in a field adjacent to Carew Park over the Christmas period.
“I contacted the Council and made them aware of this, and fair play to the residents, they rallied round and organised a vet who had to put the animal to sleep. Unfortunately, the animal was left dead in the field to rot,” Cllr Slattery said.
She said that she sought assurances from the Council that the animal would be disposed of humanely and in a timely manner, because “people in the area were not able to dispose of the horse and should not be expected to”, noting however that “they were left distressed knowing the poor animal was left dead in the field”.
The City East representative revealed she also reported a number of horses she observed that had been left out in the extreme cold weather.
“The response I got from the Council was that ‘the pound service is not functioning due to the bad weather conditions’, so basically the horses I reported out in the snow where left there to freeze and obviously the owner could not give a hoot either,” she said.
Cllr Slattery is now calling on the Council to make contact with the Department of Agriculture, Food, and Marine’s Animal Welfare Department to get plans in place for an animal inspector for Limerick, and to ensure residents are never again left traumatised by dead animals left for weeks in public places.
“We have experienced some awful weather over the last number of weeks, cold, snow, frost, and ice, yet, unfortunately, animals, such as horses, had to injure this weather outside,” she told the Limerick Post.
“While the Council can only do so much, it is up to the Department of Agriculture’s Animal Welfare Department. Their response on the day when it was reported was that they were ‘aware of the issue at this location and will be investigating, but not today’,” Cllr Slattery further stated.
“The Council stated to me that the Department were experiencing a high level of calls and are working with a skeleton staff due to the adverse weather.
“We live in Ireland and we are going to experience bad weather, plans should be in place for events such as snow for animals, such as horses, who are tied to a fence and left to freeze. This is not good enough.
“A horse left to rot for two weeks is simply deplorable, as is letting animals out in the snow to freeze to death.”
Seized horses
Three horses have been seized so far this year by Limerick City and County Council, two outside Colbert Station on January 6 and one outside Roxboro Road on January 10.
Almost 100 were seized by the local authority across last year, while 1,057 were reported as being seized in Limerick between 2016 and 2023.
Horses detained by the local authority are held for five days before being disposed of in accordance with the Control of Horses Act, 1996, with most being re-homed to horse charities outside of Limerick.
There was no response from Limerick City and County Council at the time of going to print regarding the situation. However, the Department of Agriculture said that it takes animal welfare very seriously.
“The welfare of equines is protected by legislation and appropriate enforcement action is taken where breaches or shortcomings are identified,” the Department said.
“In normal circumstances, animal welfare complaints are followed up promptly. At times of significant weather alerts where staff safety is a concern, understandably some delays in investigating complaints may arise, but in those cases follow up will happen as soon as practicable.”
The Department continued that “primary responsibility for protecting the welfare of equines rests with the owner or keeper and owners and keepers should take extra measures to safeguard the welfare of their horses when periods of extreme weather are forecast.”
The Department operates a confidential helpline and email address through which members of the public can report incidents of animal cruelty or neglect for investigation.
