Councillor claims horse centre audited after criticism of department

Anton McNulty

A County Councillor and a horse welfare campaigner claimed the Department of Agriculture carried out an audit on his horse charity because he criticised their welfare programme.
The claim was made by Independent councillor Gerry Ginty who has been a long-term critic in relation to the Department of Agriculture’s policy on stray horses.
Cllr Ginty, who also runs the North Mayo Horse Sanctuary, claimed the Department of Agriculture have abdicated their responsibility in relation to horses and prefer to have stray horses put down rather than re-home them. Instead of tackling the issue, he intimated that his premises was audited by officials soon after he raised this matter.
“I raised this issue at a County Council meeting and the only response I got was a notification by the Department was that my rescue centre was to be a subject of an audit. They came on my premises and took every horse, about 40 of them. We had passports for all of them but they would not take our word and we had to hold the horses. I put a question to them why other pounds were not audited and I was told to mind my own business,” he claimed.
The Ballina-based councillor made the comments at last month’s Joint Policing Committee meeting where he said the law in relation to the microchipping of horses was not being enforced by the Department.
He said stray horses were a danger to the public and called on the Garda Chief Superintendent Pat Diskin to use his influence on the department to abide by the law.
“They are not microchipped nor have passports. You are not allowed to keep equine without a number like a herd number but all these laws are flouted openly in Ballina. I blame the Department of Agriculture.”
Superintendent Joe McKenna replied that the gardaí in Ballina and Castlebar have met with officials from both Mayo County Council and the Department regarding their concerns. He stated he was not in a position to disclose what was said as negotiations were at a ‘delicate stage’ but hoped to report at the next JPC in June.
The stance of the Department of Agriculture in relation to horse welfare was criticised by many members of the JPC who praised the work of animal welfare groups in caring for stray animals.
While complimenting Cllr Ginty on his work, Fine Gael councillor John O’Hara said that if the cost of caring for stray horses was excessive, the right thing may be to put them down. However, Cllr Ginty said it costs as much to put an animal down as it is to care for them and cannot understand the Department’s attitude to horse welfare.
“One of the biggest scandals is a person can pay €2/3 million on a foal to win the grand national and not give a shilling for animal welfare projects. My blood boils at the hypocrisy in this country where we bring the Queen to see million euro horses but will anyone bring her to see horses shot between the lugs?”