Officials 'surprised' by Panorama footage showing slaughter of horses in Ireland

Department of Agriculture deputy chief veterinary officer Dr Michael Sheahan said hidden camera footage taken at abattoirs was 'surprising' and something that he was not aware of until the show aired. File picture: Sasko Lazarov/Rollingnews.ie

The slaughter of horses, as seen in a BBC Panorama documentary, does not happen in Ireland, a senior official has told an Oireachtas committee.

Officials from the Department of Agriculture were in front of Tuesday's Oireachtas Agriculture Committee to discuss ongoing issues around horse racing in Ireland. 

Much of the questioning from politicians focused on BBC's  Panorama documentary, which aired on Monday night. 

The programme established that the majority of 4,000 horses slaughtered in Britain and Ireland over the past two years had come from Ireland. More than one in six racehorses under the ownership of Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary have died since 2015.

Speaking to the committee, Department of Agriculture deputy chief veterinary officer Dr Michael Sheahan said that hidden camera footage taken at abattoirs was "surprising" and something he was not aware of until the show aired. 

He said there was one facility in Ireland currently operating which carries out the slaughter of horses and that a department vet is on hand at all times during the process.

“In the footage, we appear to see horses being led into a sort of a room or an antechamber and we appear to see a man with a rifle, in some cases it appeared that he was taking a shot at the horse from a distance and in other cases it looked like he was holding the horse by the halter with one hand and apparently trying to shoot the horse with the other hand.

'Very surprising'

"So I have to say that was, putting it mildly, very surprising for all sorts of reasons.

"You know for health and safety reasons if nothing else, but from an animal welfare point of view as well that certainly was somewhat surprising.

"For the avoidance of any doubt, that is certainly not something that happens here. I don’t know if it’s ever happened in the distant past or not but certainly not in my time. 

When horses are slaughtered here in a slaughter plant, they’re dealt with in pretty much the same ways as cattle.”

Dr Sheahan told the committee the practice of transporting injured animals before slaughter, which was seen in the documentary, was not legal. 

He said prior to January 1, there was "effectively free movement" of horses between Ireland, Britain, and France, but this had ended and now horses going to Britain were subject to "the full rigours" of health checks.