Animal welfare charity My Lovely Horse Rescue is calling on local authorities to better enforce by-laws designed to protect horses and how they are treated.
The charity, which recently released a video showing hundreds of stray and tethered horses grazing on public lands across Dublin, says it wants local authorities to work with the charity and help the horses find more suitable homes.
It is illegal to allow a horse to graze, feed, stray or remain in a public place without the consent of the local authority.
All horses must also have an equine passport, a microchip implant and, in Dublin, a licence.
One clip featured in the footage shows several horses grazing on the former Dunsink Landfill in Castleknock.
My Lovely Horse Rescue says there is approximately 100 horses roaming the 200-acre site.
In a statement, Fingal County Council says that “large numbers of unregulated horses (are) left to graze,” on the land.
It said: “Fingal County Council has committed to supporting the establishment of a Working Group with the DSPCA and the Department of Agriculture to address equine welfare issues.
“Indiscriminate breeding, with stallions running loose with mares, means that large numbers of foals are born each year”.
It said its plan was to work with the DSPCA Equine Welfare and Rehoming manager to run a five-year outreach project and to include an initial report on horse numbers at the site, twice yearly health and identity clinics where horses would be deliced, wormed and registered for passport, and the promotion of equine castration.
The issue was also brought up in the Dail by Dublin South Central TD, Joan Collins.
In her address to Tánaiste Leo Varadkar TD, Deputy Collins said: “I want to raise the issue of equine welfare, particularly in urban areas on public lands and in public parks.
“There were 100 horses loose in Dunsink and others were tethered with no access to water.
“There is legislation in place, but it is not being implemented as it should be.
“I ask the Tánaiste to raise at Cabinet the need for the establishment of a multi-agency to enforce that legislation.
“Many animals are not microchipped or licenced. I propose that the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Senator Hackett, who has responsibility for public land, would take up this matter.”
In response, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said that “in this country we have a particular attachment to horses, and we hate to see them maltreated.
“The law is in place but, as the Deputy stated, it is not adequately being enforced. I will raise the issue with my colleagues, the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, and the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, to see what we can do better.”