Funding for humane horse slaughter likely
“If people have horses that they cannot feed and they have no market for those horses and there is likely to be a welfare problem as a result, we must and will act on that, and we are willing to allocate funding to ensure it is done in the most appropriate way,” said Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney.
Tighter rules since the horsemeat scandal have reduced the number of factories slaughtering horses, leaving the Department of Agricultuer to ensure there is no welfare issue for horses that have no market value.
“We are trying to assess the extent of the problem and there is a potential cost implication next year from that,” said Mr Coveney.
“We will not have an amnesty to allow people to slaughter horses inappropriately. We have considered approaching this problem purely from the point of view of horse welfare. I will not reward anyone financially for having a large number of horses that are not microchipped.”
“Whether the animals have to be slaughtered humanely or given appropriate treatment, it will be done.”
Horse welfare considerations arise because the number slaughtered in Irish factories fell from 24,000 last year to about 6,000 to date this year.
“An important factor is that many of the facilities that slaughter cattle no longer want anything to do with slaughtering horses because of the reputational issues that have arisen.”
During his pre-budget briefing to the Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, said Mr Coveney, “I wish to nail a few matters in respect of which people appear to have totally unrealistic expectations. One of these is the idea that we could simply roll over REPS next year, that this would be okay and that we would still be able to save the same amount of money. The latter is simply a non-starter.”
