An animal welfare charity has said a horse they believe to have been ridden into the clashes between protestors and Gardaí at City West last week is now recovering after being abandoned by its owners.
My Lovely Horse Rescue, an animal charity based in Kildare, said it had received a call from An Garda Siochana in Tallaght on Monday, reporting that a horse was lying on the ground and could not get up. It was also suffering from suspected colic – a condition which manifests in abdominal pain and one which can be fatal to horses and requires early intervention.
The charity says it found the horse with injuries on its legs, including severe cuts, caused by ill-fitting straps. It was also found with sores on its mouth from the bit. A spokesperson for the charity say that the rescued horse is the same one used to charge at Gardaí last week. It is understood that Gardaí had been trying to locate the horses seen in the video footage, and that the horse is not microchipped and no one has come forward looking for it.
A female Garda who has experience with horses acted fast, a spokesperson for the rescue charity said, and she was eventually able to get the struggling horse up off the ground.
“He was totally exhausted when the Garda found him and he struggled to walk. He was groaning in pain, the Garda said, and wouldn’t get up – which is very unusual for a horse. We were called out and when we arrived, he was very lethargic but moving, so we called out vet to make sure he’d be ready once we got him loaded.”
The spokesperson said that when waiting on transport, they discovered the horse was featured in a video posted online. The charity believes that the horse is the same animal filmed being driven in a trap during last week’s protests, with a child sitting on the driver’s lap. The markings on the horse are identical, according to the charity.
The incident, the Moyvalley-based charity said, highlights the broader issue of horses being overbred and sold cheaply, then abandoned.
“These horses are often just used and abandoned. We see very often that this has become the norm in cities like Dublin and Limerick and Cork. A big pattern we are seeing is horses being bought for very cheap – €20 or €30 – and being used and then abandoned.
“It has become common in our cities to see horses kept in gardens and in some council estates without any shelter. It has become so easy to get a horse and to see them bought and sold with little care for their welfare. People are just leaving them outside in all kinds of weather conditions with no shelter for them, or even water, some of the time.
“Thankfully, this young horse is doing ok now, but he does have bad wounds on his legs. We were able to treat him straight away and give him the injections he needed, thank God. It’s a heartbreaking thing to see; he’s only about two years old. People will be glad to know that he is in a stable condition. He has food and water and has all the veterinary care he needs.
The charity, which operates in the Leinster and Cork regions, says that animal welfare legislation should be strengthened and enforced. A spokesperson said that better enforcement of animal welfare laws is needed, as is enhanced support for animal welfare groups.
“Cases like this are heartbreaking, and we are seeing them become all too common. Laws to protect these animals are not being enforced. In the case of the horse used in Saggart last week, a few laws were broken. It was a road safety violation as well as cruelty to this animal. But we are just not seeing prosecutions for this kind of behaviour. We would like to see tougher penalties for people who engage in this kind of abuse towards animals, particularly when it is done so openly in our city centres.”
Back in February, the Dáil heard that agencies needed to get stronger on animal welfare, amid claims that horses are being left to “rot and die” in city estates. Limerick TD Maurice Quinlivan said he had seen more than 50 horses on public land and in gardens of vacant council-owned properties, saying that the crisis of abandoned and mistreated horses was worsening.
“In some cases the authorities have been met with threats of violence when attempting to seize abused animals,” the Sinn Fein TD said. Mr Quinlivan said that it was the result of the law not being applied “year after year” and the result of the Department of Agriculture not doing its job properly.
He said that owners were choosing to abandon their horses because it was cheaper to buy a new horse at just €20 or €30, adding that authorities were falling short when enforcing the law on microchipping horses. Pádraig O’Sullivan told the debate that the same issue was happening in Glanmire, Co Cork, where an equine carcass had been left to rot for a number of days.
Gardaí said in a statement: “While on patrol ç observed a horse in a public space in Tallaght, Dublin 24 yesterday, Monday 27th October 2025. Gardaí seized the horse and are investigating this incident while also liaising with the relevant animal welfare organisations. Investigations are ongoing.”