18/05/2011

Archived item. This item is published here for historical reasons. The information below may be out of date.

18^th May 2011: Press Release: Regarding Impounding of Wandering Horses

Two horses were impounded by South Dublin County Council on Monday 9^th May, 2011.  The horses were on public open space when they were rounded up.   The horses were brought to the Council’s horse pound where the owners have five days in which to come forward and reclaim them. (S.6 Control of Horses SDCC Bye Laws 1996)  If the horses are not reclaimed within the five days the Council arranges to have the horses disposed of.

In order to reclaim the horses the following criteria must be met:

Owners are required to produce a valid Horse Licence and Horse Passport for each horse impounded including a letter from the landowner.  The location where the horses are kept must be in accordance with Section 5 of South Dublin County Council Control of Horses Act 1996 – Bye Laws.  No information in relation to an application for the licence was received by the Council and therefore no inspection of any proposed facility could take place by the Council’s Vet.
A release fee for each horse must be paid which is detailed as follows: 

Transport of Horse to Pound:          €475.00
Horse Licence Application Fee:       € 30.00
Insertion of Microchip:                     € 44.26

Overnight charge per horse:            € 18.73

These fees are for costs which have already been incurred by the Council and are standard fees.  The Council does not accept payment by instalments.

The Council, in conjunction with the Animal Welfare bodies have re-homed the animals.

As a result of the horse seizure there have been protests by the owners and a group of their supporters each day since the seizure at County Hall.  These protests have been extremely disruptive to the normal workings of the Council and on six occasions the protestors have refused to leave when the building closed.  The Gardai have been called each evening to deal with the situation and arrests have been made on two occasions.  As a result and on the advice of the Gardai the Council took an unprecedented step and went to court to secure an injunction against those protesting.  The Council had to call the Gardai again on Tuesday evening and the Gardai again had to clear the protestors from County Hall.  The injunction is currently in place with effect from Tuesday 17^th May, 2011.

-ENDS-

For further information please contact communications unit at communications@sdublincoco.ie

Ph: 01 414 9285