Costs of stray horses roundups force cuts in city services

BY DARA BRADLEY

A TOTAL of 109 wandering horses have been ‘lifted’ in joint Garda and local authority swoops on city housing estates in the past 18 months.

The impounding of horses is estimated to have cost Galway City Council €80,000 during that period and will surpass €100,000 by the end of this year if the problem persists.

This week, Gardaí and specialist contractors hired by the City Council captured nine roaming horses in two separate operations – seven animals were ‘lifted’ in a swoop on an estate in Ballybane on Monday night and two more were taken in a dawn raid on Wednesday, also in Ballybane.

The ‘lifts’ had been planned for some time and were not related in any way to the grim discovery on Monday morning of a dead horse in Ballybane near a children’s playground at Glenbawn, which provoked revulsion among the local community.

The Galway City Tribune understands further raids are planned in the coming weeks, as the Council continues its clampdown on horses roaming and grazing in public areas, posing a health and safety risk. The problem of roaming horses has soared this year, according to a spokesperson for the City Council’s housing department.

The Council allocated €40,000 to the problem in 2011 but this budget has already been spent and it must cutback or save in other areas to enable it to continue to impound roaming horses for the remainder of this year. Council figures reveal 47 horses have been impounded so in the city in 2011, a figure which includes this week’s nine. This compares with 62 for the whole of 2010.

The problem is not confined to Ballybane and is widespread across the city with horses seized in operations carried out in Carrowbrowne, Bóthar na Tréibhe, Rahoon, Westside, Headford Road, Ballybrit and Knocknacarra this year.

The horses are transported to a pound in Urlingford, Kilkenny, and owners are given seven days to reclaim the animals. If they are not collected, the horses are re-homed or destroyed. None of the 47 Galway horses brought to Kilkenny this year, and just four of the 62 last year, have been reclaimed. Information on how many of these were re-housed or put down is not available.

The impounding of each horse costs €500 plus VAT, as well as €25 plus VAT per day in the pound. Owners are also liable for fines.

“It is cheaper to buy a new horse than to reclaim a horse that has been impounded,” speculated the City Council spokesperson, when asked why they are not reclaimed.

Councillor Declan McDonnell (Ind) urged the Council to tackle the source of the problem. He said it was not right that Council tenants are using their back gardens, sheds and garages to house horses, which breached their lease agreements.

“It’s okay to impound the horses is but the problem keeps coming back – you impound nine today and there’s nine more there the next day. The Council needs to get to the root of the problem and evict tenants who are breaking tenancy agreements,” he said.

For more, read this week's Galway City Tribune.