Hardships of a Nation Push Horses Out to Die

caseyann

Atop a muddy dome stretching over hundreds of windblown acres, bitingly cold in the bitterest early winter many here can remember, roam some of the tens of thousands of horses and ponies that have been abandoned amid Ireland’s financial nightmare. Only miles from the heart of Dublin, the tip, a former landfill now covered with a thin thatch of grass, is the end of the road for all but the hardiest animals, a place where death awaits from exposure, starvation, untended sickness and injury.

I can not believe in this day and age things like this are allowed to happen,why people cant call the Ispca and get advice and help for their Horses.
Why does it have to come from america,and not our own country?
Seriously sickens me.
The likes of the rich and famous who are Irish and can help arent helping.They should be ashamed of themselves.
And the people who are dumping these animals out as well should be ashamed of themselves.
Why cant stable owners allow people to keep their animals in out of cold and sort it out when things get better.Not like they are making money from other people.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/21/world/europe/21ireland.html

meathstevie

In my opinion these horses should be put down. There's no willingness nor means to feed and shelter them and leaving them out there is unnecessarily prolonging their suffering awaiting the inevitable.

easyeason3

I think there will have to be a lot of horses put to sleep in the new year. People can't afford them, most shelters are at full capacity & very few people are adopting them.
The only way I can see some horses surviving is if farmers get a grant/ tax break to take them in & look after them. But not everyone will actually look after them, some will only take them in/ get a tax break for the financial side of things & will forget about the horse. These are the kind of people you never want to re-home horses to.

mikemac

It's a fairly big issue if the New York Times want to write a critical article on what happens in Ireland

I don't see this sort of story in the national media but it went international.

And yes, a lot of these horses will be destroyed in January

texas star

I heard there is talk of someone going up and shooting them and using the meat for the animals in the zoo.Alot of these horses are wild and dangerous and cant be rehomed.

PeakOutput

caseyann wrote: »

The likes of the rich and famous who are Irish and can help arent helping.They should be ashamed of themselves.
l[/url]

why should anyone be ashamed besides the people who left them there?

you even mentioned the rich and famous before you mentioned the actual causes of the problem :rolleyes:

Cherry Blossom

caseyann wrote: »

Atop a muddy dome stretching over hundreds of windblown acres, bitingly cold in the bitterest early winter many here can remember, roam some of the tens of thousands of horses and ponies that have been abandoned amid Ireland’s financial nightmare. Only miles from the heart of Dublin, the tip, a former landfill now covered with a thin thatch of grass, is the end of the road for all but the hardiest animals, a place where death awaits from exposure, starvation, untended sickness and injury.

I can not believe in this day and age things like this are allowed to happen,why people cant call the Ispca and get advice and help for their Horses.
The ISPCA have neither the inclination, time, money, resources or knowledge to help them. All they have have to do is have them PTS and disposed of.
Why does it have to come from america,and not our own country?
Seriously sickens me.
This is a problem that has always existed and had been much publicised in this country since the situation has worsened in the last few years.
The likes of the rich and famous who are Irish and can help arent helping.They should be ashamed of themselves.
In what way can famous people help abandoned horses? Very few people have the knowledge to look after a horse, personally I would't reccommend anyone with less than 5 years experience around horses own one, and I wouldn't recommend anyone who has never owned one take on a rescue.
And the people who are dumping these animals out as well should be ashamed of themselves.
Agreed, they shouldn't just be ashamed of themselves though, they should be identified and jailed.
Why cant stable owners allow people to keep their animals in out of cold and sort it out when things get better.Not like they are making money from other people.
Why should they? Yard owners aren't charities, what they do is a lifestyle choice more than an occupation. In good times people in the business were working 16 hour days and breaking even, you seem to think they are loaded or something. Now that things are not so good yard owners are struggling to survive as much as everyone else.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/21/world/europe/21ireland.html

You have a lot of suggestions there about who should do something about it and what they should do, just as a matter of interest, what kind of contribution are you personally planning to make to allieviate the situation?

tk123

PeakOutput wrote: »

why should anyone be ashamed besides the people who left them there?

you even mentioned the rich and famous before you mentioned the actual causes of the problem :rolleyes:

+1

Sorry but imo the way to prevent situations like this is to put laws in place to prevent the local kids from getting their hands on the horses in the first place. They're a danger to themselves and others - especially when they're galloping home with them from smithfield and people are swerving out of the way to avoid them.

sh1tstirrer

I know those horses need feeding but what a lot of people don't understand nowadays is that horses hair grows longer during winter months to keep them warm. Saying that horses can die from exposure is nonsense.

caseyann

adrenalinjunkie wrote: »

You have a lot of suggestions there about who should do something about it and what they should do, just as a matter of interest, what kind of contribution are you personally planning to make to allieviate the situation?

They could donate money to help couldnt they?
I give what money i can as donations.
And if they asked me to go out there to help i would,if i had a way of adopting them i would also.
I dont own a farm so cant house them

caseyann

sh1tstirrer wrote: »

I know those horses need feeding but what a lot of people don't understand nowadays is that horses hair grows longer during winter months to keep them warm. Saying that horses can die from exposure is nonsense.

If you knew anything,you would know lack of food and water, means lack of fat and lack of energy and heat so therefore death by exposure.

golden8

had to delete reading my post would sound too harsh.

sh1tstirrer

caseyann wrote: »

If you knew anything,you would know lack of food and water, means lack of fat and lack of energy and heat so therefore death by exposure.

That would be death by starvation not death to exposure

caseyann

sh1tstirrer wrote: »

That would be death by starvation not death to exposure

No they cant heat up lacking in food so therefore die of exposure
No smiley faces that are funny, as its a tragic thing to know is happening to those poor animals

sh1tstirrer

caseyann wrote: »

No they cant heat up lacking in food so therefore die of exposure
No smiley faces that are funny, as its a tragic thing to know is happening to those poor animals

They would surely die from hunger first in that situation as their hair would grow thicker to compensate for the lack of food and inner heat.

I didn't know smilies were banned in your thread :rolleyes:

Waterfordlass

sh1tstirrer wrote: »

They would surely die from hunger first in that situation as their hair would grow thicker to compensate for the lack of food and inner heat.

I didn't know smilies were banned in your thread :rolleyes:

I didn't think smilies were appropriate where any animal is suffering

Sigma Force

The laws need to be changed, inspectors can only do so much if man power and money is low.
If worried about animal rights in Ireland best thing to do is contact your local councillors etc. check out anvil ireland and get involved even if it's just to donate.

If you live near the area perhaps get people together and see if you can bring up feed and hay to the horses or offer to volunteer to help local welfare groups.

Nulty

http://www.ispca.ie/news_detail.aspx?footer=1&news_id=216

ppink

caseyann wrote: »

They could donate money to help couldnt they?
I give what money i can as donations.
And if they asked me to go out there to help i would,if i had a way of adopting them i would also.
I dont own a farm so cant house them

I am slow to think that throwing money at this situation is the answer. A cull seems to be the only way forward and proper legislation. If you throw money after money all that will do is keep the cycle going, like every other crazy thing in Ireland.
I do really wonder why the "rich and famous" should have to bail out the people who are so callous they will leave animals to die. Is this not the same as us bailing out bankers and developers?

I also will never give money to many of these "rescues", unless I know where it is going! I have had dealings with several rescues adopting, fostering, donating and helping manually and 70% of those I had dealings with I most certainly would never go near again or donate to. There are some good ones out there but it would surprise folks which ones. For anyone donating I would advise them to volunteer first and get to know where you are sending your money.
I am fortunate that I have land and facilities and I have offered those and my time free to assist but low and behold if there is not a whole bunch of red tape attached and the offer, while taken up briefly, is now sitting idle...just like my facilities.

caseyann

ppink wrote: »

I am slow to think that throwing money at this situation is the answer. A cull seems to be the only way forward and proper legislation. If you throw money after money all that will do is keep the cycle going, like every other crazy thing in Ireland.
I do really wonder why the "rich and famous" should have to bail out the people who are so callous they will leave animals to die. Is this not the same as us bailing out bankers and developers?

I also will never give money to many of these "rescues", unless I know where it is going! I have had dealings with several rescues adopting, fostering, donating and helping manually and 70% of those I had dealings with I most certainly would never go near again or donate to. There are some good ones out there but it would surprise folks which ones. For anyone donating I would advise them to volunteer first and get to know where you are sending your money.
I am fortunate that I have land and facilities and I have offered those and my time free to assist but low and behold if there is not a whole bunch of red tape attached and the offer, while taken up briefly, is now sitting idle...just like my facilities.

Thats very good of you,it must be highly annoying when the offer is there for them out of goodness of your heart and ignored.:mad:

I do agree but offering money seems to be only thing i can do as i have not got the facilities to take them in.If i could i would go up and pick up as many as i could.
Does the red tape stop you from doing that? Get some volunteers who are like minded as you to help bring some in?
How is it looking up there now,has the snow cleared a bit for them to at least graze a bit?

The previous poster i agree with anyone who can bring some hay and water up to them.Stuff waiting for people to say you can.


ISPCA have won me over and paws.DSPCA I am very disheartened with.

PeakOutput

caseyann wrote: »

They could donate money to help couldnt they?
I give what money i can as donations.
And if they asked me to go out there to help i would,if i had a way of adopting them i would also.
I dont own a farm so cant house them

why is it anyone elses responsibility but the people who left them there and the people who are meant to be enforcing the law?

doctor evil

Sigma Force wrote: »

The laws need to be changed, inspectors can only do so much if man power and money is low.
If worried about animal rights in Ireland best thing to do is contact your local councillors etc. check out anvil ireland and get involved even if it's just to donate.

If you live near the area perhaps get people together and see if you can bring up feed and hay to the horses or offer to volunteer to help local welfare groups.

Animal rights and animal welfare are two different things.

It may seem callous to use smilies in this thread but there is no body language behind written words.

Discodog

Firstly the law already exists. The Control of Horses Act allows any Council to make a local By Law.

There is some evidence to suggest that horses are being transported to the West & being dumped. I believe that a number of horses were found dumped in Furbo. This could be a side effect from the feeding program instigated by GBFM. Rather that pay to have their horses put down owners may decided to dump them in Connemara under the belief that they will be rescued.

The foreign press coverage has been extensive - even Al Jazeera ran a report. This can only be a good thing. Government & Local Authorities don't give a damn about what we think but they hate bad publicity especially from other countries. Hopefully a big US Investor will say that they won't come to Ireland because of our animal welfare record - we would have an Animal Welfare Bill within weeks.

Not all horse owners are short of cash. I believe that some of the wealthiest race horse owners have put down horses. There are people who have horses & could afford to take a rescue. Us dog owners do it all the time. It isn't just a case that people can't afford to care for their horses. The sale value of horses has plummeted & some people won't look after their animals if there is no economic reward.

It would wonderful to see Irish horse owners making the same effort as those in the UK, which is also in recession. 84 horses survived the Spindle Farm horror in England & offers have flooded in to rehome them.

Many horses owners here do so for economic reasons, to breed & make money. Now that the money has dried up they feel no obligation to help horses.

It's easy to criticise people for doing nothing but the average person cannot take on a rescue horse. Neither can they roam the countryside assessing the condition of horses. One obvious option, which won't happen as the horse lobby are very powerful, would be to impose the Control of Horses regulations on the whole country with immediate effect. The revenue could be used to pay for welfare & rescue. They could even impose a one off welfare tax on horse licenses to cover the current problem.

sh1tstirrer

Discodog wrote: »

Firstly the law already exists. The Control of Horses Act allows any Council to make a local By Law.

There is some evidence to suggest that horses are being transported to the West & being dumped. I believe that a number of horses were found dumped in Furbo. This could be a side effect from the feeding program instigated by GBFM. Rather that pay to have their horses put down owners may decided to dump them in Connemara under the belief that they will be rescued.

The foreign press coverage has been extensive - even Al Jazeera ran a report. This can only be a good thing. Government & Local Authorities don't give a damn about what we think but they hate bad publicity especially from other countries. Hopefully a big US Investor will say that they won't come to Ireland because of our animal welfare record - we would have an Animal Welfare Bill within weeks.

Not all horse owners are short of cash. I believe that some of the wealthiest race horse owners have put down horses. There are people who have horses & could afford to take a rescue. Us dog owners do it all the time. It isn't just a case that people can't afford to care for their horses. The sale value of horses has plummeted & some people won't look after their animals if there is no economic reward.

It would wonderful to see Irish horse owners making the same effort as those in the UK, which is also in recession. 84 horses survived the Spindle Farm horror in England & offers have flooded in to rehome them.

Many horses owners here do so for economic reasons, to breed & make money. Now that the money has dried up they feel no obligation to help horses.

It's easy to criticise people for doing nothing but the average person cannot take on a rescue horse. Neither can they roam the countryside assessing the condition of horses. One obvious option, which won't happen as the horse lobby are very powerful, would be to impose the Control of Horses regulations on the whole country with immediate effect. The revenue could be used to pay for welfare & rescue. They could even impose a one off welfare tax on horse licenses to cover the current problem.

Since when do you need a license for a horse?

Discodog

sh1tstirrer wrote: »

Since when do you need a license for a horse?

When the area you live in is made a "Controlled Area" under the Control of Horses Act. It will cost you €31 per year & your horse has to be microchipped.

EGAR

Horse licences apply in controlled areas:

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/environment/animal_welfare_and_control/control_of_horses.html

Discodog

EGAR wrote: »

Horse licences apply in controlled areas:

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/environment/animal_welfare_and_control/control_of_horses.html

Snap

Cherry Blossom

http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100001910755037

Discodog

adrenalinjunkie wrote: »

http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100001910755037

"Content unavailable"

EGAR

Loading for me, DD.

Cherry Blossom

Discodog wrote: »

"Content unavailable"

Clicking on it is working ok for me, this is the same fellow:

http://www.irelandsequinecrisis.webs.com/