Industrial scale killing of stray horses

Almost 17,000 stray horses have been euthanised on “an industrial scale” over the last nine years at a cost of millions to the taxpayer.

From 2008 to the end of 2016, 24,433 stray horses have been seized by local authorities around the country and of these, 16,971 have been put down.

The Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine has spent €4.5m since 2014 on the control of horses.