Thousands of Irish horses are exported for slaughter each year, against State policy - almost €2 million worth of such exports were registered with the Revenue Commissioners last year. Now the Irish Horse Welfare Trust is trying to stop failed racehorses ending up on dinner tables abroad. Joe Humphreys investigates.
Chances are, if it weren't for Sharon Newsome and the Irish Horse Welfare Trust, Dancer would have ended up on a dinner plate by now. One of hundreds of thoroughbreds which leave racing each year, the gelding faced such a fate when he retired last September with a minor tendon injury. For an "also-ran" like him - he trailed in last of 16 runners in his final race in Ireland - the only question was whether he would be sent for slaughter straight away, or traded first, the latter possibly the start of a downward spiral of abuse and neglect before death.
"If he had been sold to a dealer," says Newsome, "he could have ended up on a shipment overseas with no food and water for 20 hours." Such ill treatment is the norm on journeys to the abattoir, according to the surveillance reports from the RSPCA in Britain, the most common slaughtering destination for Ireland's unwanted racehorses.
Not only is it a cruel trade, says Newsome, but it's against State policy. The Department of Food and Agriculture does not issue export licences for horses-for-slaughter, apparently in a desire not to facilitate the practice. As recently as January 2002, moreover, Department officials were stating boldly that "Ireland does not export horses for slaughter".
But the Central Statistics Office confirms the trade exists, with €1.8 million worth of horse exports for slaughter registered with the Revenue in the 10 months up to October 2002.
As well as travelling on long journeys, often without food and water or in overcrowded containers, some horses are being exported without proper identification in breach of the law, says Newsome. "The last truck we followed had no identification papers with them, and that would be the norm."
Despite its policy of not issuing licences for the trade, the Department describes it as a "legitimate" one. It says all horses which travel must comply with an EU directive on the protection of animals during transport, adding: "A welfare check by an official veterinarian takes place at the port of departure and an animal transport certificate accompanies them on their journey."
But Newsome says these checks are "cursory" at best. "There might be a bit of hay thrown under the door for when the inspectors look in. The whole thing is so uncontrolled it leaves it open to abuse." She also believes the State is in breach of EU directives on the traceability of horsemeat, the biggest markets for which are France and Belgium. "You can trace sheep and cattle leaving Ireland but not a horse," she notes.
Her campaign for tighter controls is backed by the Racing Club of Ireland whose president, Kevin Smith, says legislation preventing the export of horses for slaughter should be introduced, "and then enforced".
He notes the UK has helped to stop the practice by putting a minimum value of £715 on every horse which is exported. A similar condition here would run into problems due to the lack of Border controls in Northern Ireland. However, says Newsome, the Department should address these problems rather than ignoring them. "Either there is a State policy against this practice, or there's not. If there is, the Department should be putting measures in place to stop it," she says.
The Department of Agriculture does not record the number of horses exported for slaughter but it is believed to run into thousands each year. They include sport horses of various types but, according to the trust's research, most are thouroughbreds. As for Dancer, he avoided the fate only because his owners, a syndicate, contacted Newsome to see would she take him in. "None of them wanted him to be put down. Perhaps naïvely they thought there was some alternative."
Although she had never re-schooled a thoroughbred before, Newsome gave it a go, and thus, the horse which raced as Flower Hill Lad was renamed and retrained and is now leased out to a caring home in Co Wicklow where he is ridden in dressage. "He is a very special horse. They all are - all of those who come to us - because it's so rare to get a second chance."
The trust's work has pricked the conscience of an industry which for many years has had a blind-spot to the issue of ex-racehorses. "No one counts how many leave the sport each year but you're talking hundreds, possibly a couple of thousand," says Newsome. "An awful lot of thoroughbreds don't make it into training, and of those who do, a proportion of them won't make it into racing. Then, you'll have horses retiring from injuries or because they're not good enough. So there are three different ways of ending up on the scrapheap."
It is not just the slow-runners, moreover, which are disposed of when their value to the industry expires. "You could be a Northern Dancer or a Hallo Dandy. It doesn't matter," says Evlyn Branagh, a co-founder of the trust. Her latter reference is to the 1984 Aintree Grand National winner which was rescued by prominent UK equine welfare campaigner Carrie Humble, who set up Britain's first racehorse rehabilitation centre in 1991.
While Newsome says she is not anti-racing, she has difficulty accepting the status quo.
"It's a mind-set problem. In England, people have a greater responsibility to their horse over its full lifespan. In Carrie's yard, for example, half of the horses are aged over 12 years whereas here you'd be lucky to find an ex-racehorse aged over six. Yet we are meant to be the nation of horse-lovers."
Brian Kavanagh, chief executive of Horse Racing Ireland, the sport's governing body, admits some thoroughbreds are "euthanised" when they leave racing. "At the end of the day, trainers and horse breeders are businessmen. They are in the business of buying and selling horses."
Asked whether horses were treated as "disposable" in the industry, however, he replies, "I would not accept that view. I have seen some trainers extremely upset at losing horses, and trainers by nature are a hardy bunch."
Whatever about governors of the sport, it is clear some participants are choosing to ignore the issue. Branagh recalls the trust set up a stand at the Leopardstown races recently.
"We were outside one door to the grandstands and everyone walked through the second one. So we moved to the second door and everyone walked through the third," she says. "They all walked by with their heads down. They just did not want to know."
The trust's isolation is reflected in its location - in rented stables on a rocky hillside near Laragh, Co Wicklow. First set up as a rescue centre for ponies and horses, it formally became a charity just last year. The aim, says Newsome, is to create a horse sanctuary and to develop a rehabilitation programme for racehorses.
"Our plan is to re-school several racehorses at once. We have someone lined up to do the training. All we need now is the funding."
To date, she says, they have got by on donations, and some sponsorship, from Horsewear Ireland and feed companies Blue Grass and Top Spec, as well as by dipping into their personal savings. But she says, "it's been a struggle to keep going at times". Apart from her and Branagh, there is just one other volunteer on the project. Nonetheless, they have managed to rehabilitate and retrain 28 horses and ponies. Most had been referred to them by gardaí under care orders for mistreated animals.
As for prospective owners, "we have a waiting list now, although half of them don't want what we have", says Newsome. "The horses we get need a lot of work because of their history, and the trauma they've gone through." That work-load can increase significantly for racehorses as they "might spend 23 hours a day" in stables, only to be let out for one thing, "to gallop forwards", remarks Newsome. "It takes six to nine months to retrain a racehorse, to teach them that there's a lot between a walk and a gallop. They can't be thrown into anything easily. If you put a foot on a stirrup, for instance, they'd just take off because they're used to jockeys vaulting onto them."
The trust estimates it costs about €10,000 to retrain a single racehorse, an animal which might be sold for as little as €400 to the meat-market instead. For this reason, she admits: "People ask: 'Why put so much money into something so worthless?' But that's the mind-set we want to change. That horse could be priceless to the person who owns it in the end."
Already the trust is making its presence felt, not only in the area of ex-racehorses and their slaughtering, but on drug trials too. Having discovered one such trial in the south-east, in which up to 20 horses were abused - some of them broken-down thoroughbreds - the trust took the Department of Agriculture to the European Court of Justice over its failure to police the sector. The trust won and Ireland was condemned by a court ruling a year ago.
Newsome says the trust plans to investigate other issues around racing, including whether galloping horses at the age of two, when bones aren't fully formed, contributes to the high number of injuries in the sport. As for welfare surveillance, she says: "I think every racehorse should be checked by a vet prior to racing." As yet, she notes, the trust's meetings with the industry have been positive. Horse Racing Ireland, which has a welfare mandate for the sport, has signalled its intent to part-fund the rehabilitation programme. A battle has yet to be won, however, in stopping the exodus of "also-rans".
"If a horse has to be put down we'd rather it was brought straight to a local abattoir on the morning of slaughter to ensure a minimum of stress," says Newsome. "Unfortunately, when someone sells a horse to a dealer it's just gone and they don't want to know about it again."
• The Irish Horse Welfare Trust can be contacted at Clarabeg Stables, Roundwood, Co Wicklow. Tel: 0404-45720.