News
Probe into starvation of Galway horse herd
Up to 20 horses were found in appalling conditions in Briarhill, following a complaint to the Department of Agriculture’s Animal Health and Welfare unit.
It was only when the Department, assisted by the charity Hungry Horse Outside, entered the 30-acre site near Ballybrit racecourse last month that they realised the full extent of the mistreatment and cruelty.
Seven carcasses were found in the field at varying stages of decay, while the horses that had survived their horrific circumstances were starving, weak and being eaten alive by worms.
The horses that died of starvation had undergone unimaginable pain and suffering.
According to Hilary Robinson – founder of the Longford-based charity that took the live animals into their care – they died the cruellest of deaths.
“To die of starvation is a terrible thing, it’s just desperate. It’s just so horrendous because they fight so hard for their lives; that is just their natural instinct. Can you imagine standing in that weather and the cold all over the Christmas, hungry from one end of the day to the other, searching around for a bit of food?
“Even eating bits of branches, chewing on the timber and, you know, trying to plough the muck – just horrendous,” said Hilary.
On their first attempt to rescue the horses, Ms Robinson and her team took seven horses back to their Newtownforbes base, only filling the lorries to a safe level in the knowledge that the weakness of those rescued would almost certainly mean they would ‘go down’ during transportation.
When they returned, they found that the owner had removed several of the horses from the area before they had a chance to be rescued.
Of the eight horses rescued, only four have survived – three of which are mares and heavily in foal.
She has since had the owner of the horses at her door demanding the horses be given back – the details of which she has passed on to Gardaí.
She described how it is difficult to prove ownership and convict neglectful owners due to non-enforcement of laws surrounding micro-chipping – which has been a legal requirement since 2009 – and called for tighter controls.
“That’s where we come in – prevention is the best the whole way around – education, micro-chipping, and castration, those are the three important things – why breed horses if you don’t have a market,” said Hilary.
The charity is calling on the owner of the land to come forward so they can close it off to prevent a reoccurrence of these horrifying conditions.
“We need to emphasise this, we need the owners of the land to come forward so that we can close it up so that never happens again.
“The reason this one is so bad is the fact that it is Galway City, a very rich and affluent city; it’s beside the racecourse with helicopters flying for racing and things like that and these animals have been starving all winter long,” she said.
An investigation will now be carried out by the Department of Agriculture into this horrendous case of neglect.
A Department spokesperson said: “The Department can confirm that it is continuing its investigation into the neglect of horses in Briarhill.”
Ms Robinson believes the problem of neglect is at serious levels in Galway, with a further eight horses needing rescuing from a location in South County Galway this week.
Hungry Horse Outside, the GSPCA, the Department of Agriculture and a Dept of Agriculture vet will meet this week in Galway to formulate a strategy of prevention.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
On the eve of completing his 150th marathon, an odyssey that has taken him across 53 countries, Loughrea’s Marathon Man has announced that he is planning to hang up his running shoes.
But not before Jarlath Fitzgerald completes another ten races, making it 160 marathons on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
“I want to draw the line in 2026. I turn 57 in October and when I reach 60 it’s the finishing line. The longer races are taking it out of me. I did 20 miles there two weeks ago and didn’t feel good. It’s getting harder,” he reveals.
“I’ve arthritis in both hips and there’s wear and tear in the knees.”
We speak as he is about to head out for a run before his shift in Supervalu Loughrea. Despite his physical complaints, he still clocks up 30 miles every second week and generally runs four days a week.
Jarlath receives injections to his left hip to keep the pain at bay while running on the road.
To give his joints a break, during the winter he runs cross country and often does a five-mile trek around Kylebrack Wood.
He is planning on running his 150th marathon in Cork on June 4, where a group of 20 made up of work colleagues, friends and running mates from Loughrea Athletics Club will join him.
Some are doing the 10k, others are doing the half marathon, but all will be there on the finishing line to cheer him on in the phenomenal achievement.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
