Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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935. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the total number of horses that were killed by his Department or by a local authority in 2011 and in 2012; if he will provide a breakdown on a county basis; the number of these horses were mares in foal; if he considers that the killing of mares in foal is a particularly cruel practice except in the most extreme of circumstances; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46627/13]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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My Department provides funding to Local Authorities under the Control of Horses Act, 1996, to enable these bodies implement their powers relating to the control and welfare of stray or abandoned horses. While efforts are made to rehome horses to responsible new owners, the reality is that this is not possible in all cases. The advice from the Farm Animal Welfare Advisory Council (which comprises representatives from a wide range of stakeholder organisations including farming, equine and welfare bodies) is to humanely dispose of horses, where no possibility of re-homing or returning to owner exists.

There are rare occasions in which my Department’s Veterinary inspectors would on animal welfare grounds require a herd owner to humanely dispose of animals, including horses on farms.

Details of horses humanely disposed by Local Authorities in 2011 and 2012 are set out below. Statistics on the number of these horses which were in foal at the time of slaughter is not available.