Irish Rail have said they are investigating reports of mistreatment of animals on one of their trains by a group of youths on Sunday.
One train passenger who was onboard told Gript that he witnessed the group of up to 20 children “appear to torture” a variety of animals including chickens, ducks, a rooster, and a cat over the weekend.
In a statement, the rail company apologised to customers “who experienced any distress during their journey.” The train in question was the 17:00hrs Galway to Dublin Heuston.
“At Ballinasloe, a significant number of customers boarded the train. A number of unaccompanied minors were amongst those who boarded, and it appears many had bought small chickens and other small birds at an event in the town,” Irish Rail said.
“Security was on board the train, there were a number of reports of anti-social behaviour amongst both adults (primarily drinking) and children, and security attended a number of these throughout the journey.”
“Specifically, a customer contacted an off-duty staff member they knew personally by phone alleging that there was mistreatment of animals on board by one group – the staff member alerted our central control who in turn alerted security on board. Security went through the train at Tullamore to address this (awaiting further details from our security contractor).”
One Irish Rail passenger who was onboard the train told Gript that he witnessed the group of up to 20 children “appear to torture” a variety of animals including chickens, ducks, a rooster, and a cat over the weekend. The passenger says that the experience will “stay with him forever,” and that he will never use trains in Ireland again, after getting on the train at Athlone after visiting a relative on Sunday.
The customer said that during the journey on Sunday evening, which lasted one and a half hours, the animals, which were held in cardboard boxes, were reported to be in “obvious distress,” calling out in pain as they were kicked, with their feathers plucked out.
“Where were their parents? Where was the security?” the passenger told Gript. “They tortured the animals and abused them for the duration of the 1.5 hour journey. At no point did security arrest them or kick them off the train. When the train arrived in Hurston they strolled out with the animals. I dread to think of what the fate for these animals was but I’m guessing it wasn’t humane.”
“It was the whole journey from start to finish. It was horrendous – one of the worst things I’ve ever seen in my life,” the man told Gript.
The group consisted of around 20 young people, according to the eyewitness, with the oldest being around 14 years old.
Describing the scene, he said: “It was a huge group, the youngest being only 10 or 11, and the oldest being maybe 14. They were all boys. They were all congregating together while others were sitting in different seats in the same carriage, making a huge amount of noise. It was hard to believe. They had chickens, ducks, and a rooster. They also had a cat. You could hear the poor animal.
“All the animals had been placed in these big cardboard boxes. They proceeded to take the animals out of the boxes and drag them around the place. They had a chicken on a leash, and they were dragging it up and down the aisle. They were literally throwing the animal around. The chicken was literally being thrown up and down.
“They had a lighter, and at one point, it appeared as though they were burning the animals with lighters, burning their feathers. This is hard to believe, but it is 100 per cent true. They were basically just abusing these animals, who were in obvious distress by the sounds they were making. It was vile.”
The customer said that passengers on the packed train were terrified, especially because one of the youngsters was carrying a knife. When one woman tried to intervene, he says that the group started surrounding and “ganging up” on her.
“The children were being abusive to other passengers also. One of the group had a small knife in his pocket, and at least three or four of the children had these big wooden clubs. Everyone was just terrified to do anything or say anything to them because there were so many of them, between 20 to 25.”
“There was a security official there who was on his own. Multiple people were raising concerns, and passengers had also contacted the emergency Irish Rail number. People were asking the security official for answers regarding what was going on. He simply walked up the train and seemed to nod. He knew what was happening. He did speak to one of the children, but of course they took no notice.”
When the train stopped at Tullamore, for about five to ten minutes, we thought, “Great, the Gardai are going to come on the train.” Two security staff came out from the station, and of course we thought, “Brilliant, they are going to solve this now.” But they basically just had a look at the door of the train, and did nothing about the chaos inside. That was it.”
When the train arrived at Dublin Heuston, the group of boys met a separate group of girls at the station.
“Someone on the train told me that they texted an emergency number and they were told that there would be Gardai there to arrest the kids at Heuston. When we got there, there was nobody there of course. The kids just walked straight past the barrier at Heuston without even being asked for a ticket. They didn’t get asked on the train either. We were walking past them, and saw the kids get on the Luas with the big boxes. Nobody said anything to them, and off they went.
“It was very scary. They were really aggressive and abusive to everyone. The fact that one of them had a knife in his pocket – I could see it when he was walking past me – made the whole thing scarier. They were running up and down the aisle, so it was easy to see. I dread to think what happened.”
He claimed it appeared to be the case that Irish Rail was attempting to “downplay” the incident.
Irish Rail added in a statement provided to Gript that two customers raised the issue of the animals at Heuston Station, “however their complaint was that youths had brought birds on board, they did not report any issue of mistreatment.”
“At least myself and two other customers were in the customer service booth in Heuston Station when I was there and all of us were complaining about the mistreatment of the animals. Perhaps the customer service representative simply didn’t record the complaints? And I even showed him the pictures of the boys with the animals. I also complained online last night on their website and received a message saying they received my complaint,” the customer said.
“It appears they are downplaying what happened. Everyone in the carriage I was in were revolted at the mistreatment of the animals. And I spoke to several passengers about it as we left the train and we were all horrified. Up to 25 boys rampaging through the train abusing customers, pushing a woman, abusing animals, carrying weapons (a knife and at least three or four with wooden clubs) for an hour and a half without anything done about it by the company. By the way, none of them had tickets for the train. It’s on their CCTV.”
“Whatever procedures Irish Rail have in place for an emergency, they are clearly not good enough. This was a serious emergency situation.”