Tipperary council ‘ignoring’ its own by-laws on horse ownership
Tipperary County Council is ignoring its own by-laws when it comes to the control of animals, according to one local councillor.
That was the claim made by independent councillor Liam Browne at the September meeting of Tipperary County Council, who said that it was time for the local authority to get serious about enforcing the rules they set.
"We are completely ignoring those by-laws as a council, we have them there, we’re not taking any notice of them. What’s the point in spending time sitting down, producing by-laws, reviewing by-laws, updating by-laws and ignoring by-laws?” the Cashel-based councillor hit out.
Referencing a social media post that he put up where a distressed young pony was filmed in the Cashel area, Cllr Browne said he had a huge reaction to the post, and that the horses in question “disappeared” after the post was made.
"It’s not the first time, it won’t be the last time. As soon as I put it up, the horses disappeared for a week, I don’t know where they went, but slowly and surely, they’ve started to come back again.
"The exact same thing happened in Clonmel, videos of horses being abused, which is back going on again, which is still going on, which has been going on for years, and yet we have by-laws which would stop all that immediately, by having the horses taken off people who are abusing them and not looking after them properly, according to the rules that we set,” Cllr Browne said.
“So are we either going to get rid of the by-laws altogether, or are we going to ignore them, because we can’t do both,” he added.
He argued that horses should only be kept by people with proper facilities, as required by the by-laws.
"If anybody doesn’t have stables for horses, they shouldn’t have horses, if they don’t have feed for horses, they shouldn’t have horses, if they don’t have the horses microchipped, they shouldn’t have horses, and that's not Liam Browne saying that, it’s Tipperary County Council saying that in their own by-laws,” he said.
"Lets start implementing the by-laws we have, there’s an awful lot of solutions that are very simple, we should settle it once and for all, and move onto business that we could be doing instead,” the Cashel councillor said.
In response, a representative from the council’s environment section said that the control of horses is an ongoing issue, and that the local authority has responsibility for loose horses, but not animal welfare, as that rests with the Department of Agriculture.
"We work with the gardaí and other agencies in resolving that, but we’re not ignoring legislation or our responsibility, there has been a number of horses seized recently,” the council representative said.
"There is a cost that has to be bore in this, but we’re certainly not ignoring any legislation or by-laws and we will continue to work in this area,” he added.