Ms Maddie Doyle:

We were trying to say that Shannonside existed for the slaughter of horses for human consumption and we saw what was uncovered there regarding the laundering of identities. That laundering of identities is only happening because the horses are not fit for human consumption. If they were fit for human consumption, there would not be any need to launder their identities. That is how we feel about that. Some 70% of the animals that went through Shannonside were thoroughbreds, so they were coming from a certain sector and a certain industry. Our feeling is there needs to be better provision within that industry that tackles injured horses, older horses or horses that are not deemed big enough or fast enough for the track. Surely there is enough money within the industry, given how profitable and successful it is, to make provision for an end-of-life care that does not involve slaughter. There were a lot of horses in Shannonside whose owners could have offered a better end than standing in the kill box at the plant. As for the damage the investigation programme did to the industry and the optics there, the repercussions are probably going to be felt for quite a while. A man called Gerard Hussey is working on a proposal for an extensive re-homing programme for the racing industry. He was worked in the industry for 25 years and has some very good ideas about how it could manage a re-homing programme and how that would interact with trainers and owners. As part of that he is also looking at proposals on the welfare and re-homing of brood mares and looking again at stallions and their welfare and long-term prospects.