Four dead horses found on Irish golf course
The decomposing bodies of four horses have been found on a disused golf course in Blarney, in Co Cork, Ireland.
Garda (Irish police) are investigating after the dead animals and ten more neglected horses were found on the former Blarney Golf Course on Tuesday (19 January)
A member of the public reported the poor state of the horses to the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ISPCA) last week and an officer called in the Garda.
ISPCA inspector Lisa O’Donovan told a local newspaper: “The number of dead horses here is more than I have seen before.
“We have been unable to trace the owners. It is very frustrating to not be able to hold anyone accountable.”
She said there was very little grazing on the land and that combined with recent cold weather may have caused the death of the horses.
One of the horses is thought to have died a couple of weeks ago and the others a couple of days before being found.
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The live horses — including a mare and foal — are thin and had no access to food or shelter. None of them is microchipped.
The charity does not have facilities to remove the horses from the site but has been providing them with hay. It expects more horses could be on the 200-acre site.
A self-confessed newshound, farmer’s daughter and journalist of many years' experience, Charlotte worked on regional papers before joining H&H in 2007. A regular rider, she visited Ireland in 2010 to investigate the fate of Irish horses through the recession, to much acclaim, and reported from the FEI General Assembly in Rio de Janeiro in 2011. She left Horse & Hound in March 2013.