Horses for mane courses

Unsuccessful racehorses and other unwanted animals are being butchered and fed to lions and tigers at Dublin Zoo, the Sunday Tribune reported last month.

The recession is hitting animal owners hard and some are no longer able to afford to keep their stock. Horses are expensive animals to keep and it has been reported that poor prices are forcing owners to cull even young stock in an attempt to reduce their numbers and cut costs.

The Sunday Tribune reported that the unwanted horses are sent to an abattoir in Co Kilkenny, where they are slaughtered and sold on to Dublin Zoo, pet food producers and restaurants in other EU countries. Dublin Zoo has confirmed that it sources significant quantities of horse meat from B&F Meats, a factory based in Thomastown.

One horse owner admitted to the Sunday Tribune that due to the expense of keeping a horse, if they can’t race or jump and can’t reproduce, then they are not much use to anybody: “It may seem cruel to people, but this is one of the day-to-day realities of the equine industry in Ireland.” The Sunday Tribune understands that B&F Meats currently slaughters around 100 horses a week.

Bernard Cullinane a horse breeder and owner from Co Waterford spoke to the College View and says he has noticed horse owners struggling to cope.

“It was so bad at one stage there was a waiting list of two weeks to have your horse killed.”

Even a leading Irish owner had to have 40 horses put down, and “he’d be a billionaire”.

Cullinane sees that his is mirrored all the way down from the very top to the bottom. “I believe that there’s two new factories starting to kill horses now, such is the demand from owners and trainers.”

BBC News Northern Ireland reported that Crosskennan Lane Animal Sanctuary near Antrim is currently caring for more than 30 horses but its founder, Lyn Friel, says the credit crunch is placing a severe strain on its volunteers and feed stocks.

The leading horse sanctuary has warned it is running out of room as more and more owners abandon their animals.

It’s not just horses that are hit by the recession. In January the Irish Independent reported that hundreds of unwanted dogs are being sent to animal rescue centres as their owners are emigrating because of the recession.

Many animal owners who have set their sights on Australia are refusing to pay out the €4,000 needed to bring their pets abroad. Instead they are leaving them in shelters and rescue centres which are already struggling to cope with the increased number of abandoned animals since the recession hit.

The estimated annual costs of keeping a medium-sized dog is €1,500, one of the factors that the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ISPCA) has attributed to thousands of animals being abandoned and put down every year.

According to the ISPCA, 12,500 dogs were put to sleep in Irish dog pounds in 2007 compared to 300 in Scotland. With figures like that pre-recession, it makes one wonder how high the figures will be now that Ireland is in an economic crisis?

With the current situation expected to last until 2011 it is inevitable that horse owners will face further hard times ahead and rescue centres will struggle to cope with the influx of abandoned animals.