Ms Maddie Doyle:

We are probably in a similar situation to the Leas-Chathaoirleach as we are also wondering why it has not happened. If we were to look at the difference between horses and bovines and any other farm animal, we rear horses in Ireland for sport and leisure and not for food. Generally, horses tend to live for up to 30 years. It depends on the type of horse. They can live beyond that age. During the course of their lives, they could potentially change hands many times, depending on their purpose and whether they are sport horses, racehorses, leisure horses or event horses. There seems to be some resistance. They live so long and move so often that the idea persists that the amount of trouble we would have to go to in order to track all of the movements over all of the years insurmountable.

We do not understand why the legislation on change of ownership is not enforced. With regard to passports, it is illegal to have a horse and not have a passport for it but our experience in rescue is that the majority of animals we take in are not registered. They do not have a microchip and they have never had a passport. This is illegal. Technically under the legislation these animals can be seized.