Rescue centre’s year-long search for missing Georgia results in happy ending

A year-long search for a missing rescue horse came to a happy ending last week when those seeking the animal’s safe return discovered her for sale in Ballinasloe – with a new foal in tow.

Georgia, who had been adopted from My Lovely Horse Rescue in Kildare last year, had been sold on by those who took ownership of her – in breach of the contract those who adopt from the charity sign.

Director of My Lovely Horse, Eoin Cullen, said when volunteers at the organisation discovered this, they were heartbroken and set about finding Georgia in a nationwide search that went on for over twelve months.

“When any owner agrees to adopt one of our animals, they sign a contract which states the animal can’t be sold on. If they can’t keep the horse for any reason, it comes back to us. In Georgia’s case, the owner broke that agreement.

“We have a lot of volunteers who work with us and they had always been checking Done Deal and other sites like that in the hope she might turn up,” explained Mr Cullen.

It was on Done Deal that one of their volunteers identified Georgia on sale from an owner in Ballinasloe who, when contacted, was thankfully very cooperative, he continued.

“Once we’d found her, we discovered that she’d actually been sold on four times. We made contact with the guy in Ballinasloe who was trying to sell her and he was very helpful – he couldn’t believe that she was one of ours,” said Mr Cullen.

Georgia was microchipped and had a passport, but none of the four people who took ownership of her had bothered to check, something which Mr Cullen said highlighted a broader problem when it came to the sale of horses in Ireland.

“We’re always the biggest advocates for chipping and getting passports, because it gives everyone involved transparency when they’re dealing with animals. When we found that she was missing, we notified Horse Sport Ireland who put a flag on her so if anyone checked, they would have known she was missing – but obviously nobody wanted to check.

“It’s a constant problem – you can buy and sell horses for as little as €30 and €40. Kids are swapping them for mobile phones,” said Mr Cullen.

Sites like Done Deal weren’t appropriate market places for horses and those wanting to buy horses should have to do so through proper sales yards, to ensure that everything is above board, he continued.

“When it’s being done online, there are no checks that the person buying the horse is equipped to look after an animal. In the case of rescue horses like Georgia, because she was a rescue animal, she had already been through a traumatic experience so it was very upsetting for her to go missing,” said Mr Cullen.

The man who had taken ownership of her in Ballinasloe had looked after her, he said, and was surprised when she foaled given that he hadn’t been told she was pregnant, but the timing suggested she was covered very soon after she was sold by the adoptive owner.

“When he got her, she was a bit skinny and he believed the previous two owners weren’t in good standing

“There were many tears when we went to collect her and we were delighted to get her and her foal back home. She’s still with us now and we’ll wait until we can get her the best home possible before she goes anywhere,” said Mr Cullen.