Coveney questions vets’ role at horse abattoir

At the weekend, the Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue revealed the abattoir, Shannonside Foods in Straffan, Co Kildare, has effectively been put out of commission pending an investigation by his officials and Gardaí into welfare abuses and illegal activity uncovered by the RTÉ Investigates documentary.

The Department also served a legal notice to prohibit horses from being held at the notorious “holding shed” at the facility, where secret cameras filmed shocking scenes of terrified horses being whipped, punched and struck with lengths of piping, and a dying horse that had fallen being prodded with a pitchfork.

Addressing the revelations in the Dáil last week, Minister Coveney, who led the Department of Agriculture amid the 2013 “horsemeat scandal”, said questions were raised in the documentary that need to be addressed comprehensively.

‘Cruelty and fraud’

“First, while the filming of the cruelty and fraud we saw last night was in a holding building rather than in the actual abattoir nearby, I find it hard to believe that Department of Agriculture vets raised no suspicions of maltreatment of horses given their regular presence at the slaughter facility close by… This is, after all, the only operating horse abattoir in the country, so surely experienced vets would have seen horses in the kind of condition we saw yesterday coming into the abattoir and would have raised questions,” he said.

Minister Coveney also queried what conversations have taken place with our counterparts in Northern Ireland about ensuring the trade in horses is not happening inappropriately or illegally, taking advantage of an open border on the island.

He also agreed that the facility should close and said, “If closure means we have a glut of horses that need to be slaughtered and cannot be, there are also issues there that need to be addressed, but under no circumstances should this company continue to operate as it did under the management and staff we saw on our screens last night until a final investigation is concluded,” he said.

Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty said the Irish public were left “distressed and appalled” by the footage. Mr Doherty questioned how officials from the Department of Agriculture, who work on the site on days that horses are slaughtered, were not aware of the mistreatment.

“It has been uncovered that approximately 2,000 horses were slaughtered at Shannonside Foods Ltd in Kildare last year alone, with two-thirds of them bred for the horse racing industry,” he added.

Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue said those responsible will face the “full rigours of the law”.

Horse Racing Ireland said it would “actively support” the Department of Agriculture and garda investigations, and urged anyone with information about the mistreatment of horses to report it to gardaí.

Mr McConalogue said an investigation has been launched into the incidents alongside the gardaí.

“The scenes we saw last night and the treatment of those horses was abhorrent and distressing. Horses are beautiful, sensitive animals and that was absolutely unacceptable,” Mr McConalogue said.

“It’s certainly not representative of the way that people across this country and those in the industry treat and care for their horses. We already have commenced an investigation in the Department of Agriculture.

“We’ve also requested all of the footage that RTÉ has, and any other evidence as well, to make it available to the investigation team.

“Obviously, I would avoid saying anything that might be prejudicial to the conduct of that investigation. But I can assure you, and I can assure the public, that this will be fully investigated, and that the full rigour of the law will be applied here.

“The law is adequate but what we saw last night was not lawful, and it was breaches of the law.”

The Fianna Fáil Minister said there are strict laws in place around the management of what enters the human food chain. He said no stone will be left unturned in the investigation.