The Plight of Irish Racehorses

Here at Animal Friends Pet & Equine Insurance, we were concerned to hear of Irish racehorses being slaughtered as the Irish economic crisis hits hard.

Tom Hogan, a trainer based in Nenagh, County Tipperary, has spoken of his concerns.

Back in 2007, he had 80 horses and employed 17 full-time staff. His yard was fully equipped with many stables and boasted a spa and blood analysis equipment. Today, however, he has only 25 horses in full-time training and has just 5 full-time staff members.

He is not alone. Many trainers in Ireland have had to face the problems that are sweeping through the Irish Republic's racing industry.

Many people may dream of owning a racehorse and for some it will always remain a dream, but during Ireland's boom times, many more people were able to have their own racehorse, either as individuals or as part of a syndicate. Thoroughbred horses registered between 2000 and 2007 increased from 8,793 to 12,633 as the demand to own a racehorse grew.

It is estimated that a thoroughbred will cost around £15,000 a year to keep, so when Ireland faced its recession, these horses became a luxury that few could afford. This was exacerbated by the fact that many of the horses were owned by syndicates comprising of builders, carpenters, electricians, plumbers and the like - the very people to suffer most in the economic crisis as no new properties were being built.

Mr Hogan found himself left with the horses, but with no money from their owners to pay for their upkeep. Some of the horses were exported, some retrained and others he has kept for himself.  Others, however, have had to be put down. He has even had to buy back some horses which he had given to what he believed to be a good home, only to find they were not being cared for properly and in some cases mistreated. He then had no alternative but to have them destroyed.

In 2008 the Irish Republic had just one abattoir, now they have five. Of the 9,790 horses killed in them last year, 4,618 were thoroughbreds.

Shane O'Dwyer from the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders' Association (ITBA) acknowledges that there was over-breeding during the boom times, but says that putting down a horse is the responsible thing to do.  "We said when horses come to the end of their time or when there was no use to them, there should be euthanasia, voluntary euthanasia... rather than leaving the horse out in the field to be a welfare case."

The ISPCA are struggling to cope with the number of horses they have had to take in and their Chief Inspector, Conor Dowling, said: "We're seeing every shape and size, from little ponies’ right up to cobs and draught horses. So far this year, our inspectors have taken in nearly as many equines as we did in the entire year of 2010." He also said that all sections of the equine community were irresponsible.

"We have a serious problem here and we need to find a solution. We all appreciate money is tight in every area of the country, but this situation involves living creatures and we can't allow this to go on."

It has been suggested by the ISPCA that a mass cull may be necessary to bring the amount of Irish horses down to a more manageable size and has called for better regulation across the entire industry.  However, Brian Kavanagh, Chief Executive of Horse Racing Ireland, disagrees, saying: "If somebody wants to breed a horse, it's very, very difficult to stop them. Everybody looked at the idea of regulation and the reality is the market is regulating it now but it's regulating it in a very, very severe and harsh manner."

Some, like Tom Hogan, believe that by raising betting tax, more money could be put into racing.

Mr Kavanagh agrees with this, by saying: "All other racing jurisdictions around the world are funded by a direct link with betting. We would be very supportive of that. We've been lobbying for some time, but the devil is in the detail as to how it's actually worked out but it's definitely a positive development."

All of us here at Animal Friends Pet and Equine Insurance will be following this story closely and hope that something can be done to prevent any future over-breeding on this scale. We feel that this kind of breeding for money must stop, as it is unethical and immoral to produce such animal stock that are then being sent for slaughter – unfortunately the scale of this problem has become so severe that this was the only option left for far too many of the horse owners.