An investigation is continuing after a pony was seized by Gardaí in Tipperary.
The animal was believed to be under severe distress as it pulled a cart with three people on board on the Clonmel Bypass yesterday.
Gardaí stopped the cart and removed the horse.
It has been treated by a vet and is being held in a secure location.
Speaking on Tipp Today, Anne Williamson from the Cappanagarrane Horse Rescue says mistreatment of these animals is all too common.
“Every time you take a pony there seems to be another one in its place when we go back.”
“They need to enforce the law; they need to make sure everybody’s horse is micro chipped and everybody’s horse has a passport. That’s the only way.”
“Then they have the power take it if they haven’t those. And there have been a lot of horses stolen and lots of dogs are being stolen at the moment.”
Anne says they are constantly seeing cases of animals being abused.
She’s been campaigning to stop this kind of abuse for years.
“It’s just heartbreaking – I was just rummaging through things and I had copies of all the signatures I got to take up to Dublin in 2017. We had something like 12,000 signatures and the Minister for Agriculture didn’t even have the decency to come out to take them from us. He sent somebody else out to collect them. And we went to so much work to get those signatures just to stop all this.”
“I mean as late as last night I got a call about a horse in a terrible condition in Carlow – it just seems to be rampant all over the country.”
