THEY say a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and that old adage rang true for Ireland’s equine sector on Wednesday evening with the airing of RTÉ Investigates’ Horses - Making A Killing documentary.

Anger and disgust have been palpable since the broadcasting of the utterly depressing scenes that took place inside the Shannonside Foods Ltd abattoir in Straffan. The apparent animal abuse caught on hidden camera was disgraceful. The attitudes, despicable. The failure of the systems involved, damning.

What appeared to be illegal and inexcusable activity was there for all to see in a prime television slot on the national broadcaster, and that comes as a slap in the face for the many whose lives revolve around horses - and for those whose livelihoods depend on the social licence in which we operate with these animals. As the overwhelming majority of horsepeople in Ireland can attest to, the sickening footage is not reflective of the overall level of horsecare received by the equine population every day.

There would be little trouble filling several pages in conveying the strength of condemnation felt over what we witnessed at Shannonside Foods Ltd.

Instead, however, as the dust settles following the important, detailed journalistic work carried out by RTÉ, it is much more imperative that we channel the current strength of feeling into resolving what are unquestionably damaged structures in our equine end-of-life and export processes.

There were multiple aspects of the documentary that demonstrated ridiculously basic system failures, as well as the obvious potential for loopholes to be exploited.

Damaging revelations

The ease with which new passports could seemingly be attained on this island, the inconsistency - and, at times, absence - of stringent checks at ports, the lack of standardisation in being able to digitally check whether horses are fit for human consumption on an international level, the fraudulent activity of misrepresenting horses’ ages and backgrounds for the purpose of more lucrative sales, the tampering of microchips and documentation … the list goes on.

However, it was arguably most galling of all to see the spectacular failure of some officials from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to identify what was going on in the lairage area at Shannonside Foods Ltd. It borders on the unbelievable that such activities could take place under the noses of those whose job it was to oversee regulatory compliance on site.

In the fallout from BBC Panorama’s 2021 documentary that featured abhorrent abattoir practices in Britain, this inaction at the Straffan operation was completely at odds with what was conveyed in comments from the department when challenged on the topic at an Oireachtas session that July.

The department’s deputy chief veterinary inspector Michael Sheahan said of the last remaining equine abattoir in Ireland: “I am happy to say we are very satisfied with how the slaughter plant here operates, or how the plants operated in the past. They are operated and regulated in much the same way as beef or sheep slaughter plants.

“We have a full-time official Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine veterinarian present at all times when slaughter is taking place… We have very detailed guidelines as to how the slaughter plant operates and, in fact, we have a 51-page standard operating procedure detailing every aspect of how the horses are taken in, the documentary and identity checks, the ante-mortem and post-mortem and so on... They operate to a very high standard.”

There are extremely serious questions for the department to answer in how the picture painted by the RTÉ team could be so contrasting from the assured one put to the Oireachtas Agriculture Committee just under three years ago.

Collaborative approach

Horse Racing Ireland is answerable to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and, strictly speaking, the area of regulatory compliance in an abattoir setting is not something that falls under the racing body’s remit. Nor is necessarily tracking the fate of horses exported abroad, or the apparent microchip manipulation taking place before horses enter slaughterhouses around Europe.

The majority of horses featured in the programme did not appear to be thoroughbreds either.

But, when Irish racing and its reputation is coming under scrutiny due to issues arising from Irish racehorses entering these scenarios, the matter does become a problem for HRI, as it does the wider industry.

It was reported in last week’s The Irish Field that Irish racing authorities and administrators were supplied with a list of well over 100 thoroughbreds bred and/or trained in Ireland who have been issued new passports in the Netherlands between 2017 and 2021.

The Irish-based horse owner, who compiled the 18-page report and distributed it two years ago to high-ranking officials in Horse Racing Ireland, the Department of Agriculture, Weatherbys and the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board, described the response to-date as “disappointing.”

According to the article, when asked what response they had received from racing’s administrators, the owner said a HRI director “basically said there was little they could do and it’s a shame all people don’t act the way we would like but we can’t make them all be decent.”

When the stakes are so high for an industry worth €2.46 billion to the Irish economy, supporting in excess of 30,000 jobs, nothing short of a relentless ambition and genuine curiosity from racing’s authorities will cut it when ensuring fit and proper practices in this space. If that strays into the territory of other organisations, then we must push to vigorously explore whatever collaborative work is required at home and abroad, because there clearly is some required. There is also a responsibility on each and every individual owner to act in good faith.

Traceability push

The long wait for an equine traceability system that properly meets the needs of our population and exportation practicalities cannot wait, for all that the practicalities of rolling out such a solution is not straightforward.

This is not a new requirement, though. Far from it. In fact, the Panorama documentary in Britain offered the opportunity to generate real momentum in delivering the solution.

At that same Oireachtas hearing after the BBC programme in July 2021, committee chairman and TD Jackie Cahill questioned: “I cannot understand, in this age of computers and traceability, how there is not a proper traceability system for horses to enable us to know where they are all the time and all their movements.”

TD Joe Flaherty spoke in detail on the subject in the same session. “We must get information on horse ownership, traceability of horses, where and how horses are sold and where they are exported to collate in one central database,” he said. “In this modern age, it is inconceivable that we have not been able to hack this.”

Nearly three years have passed since those Oireachtas discussions. Some progress has been made in recent years, but more is absolutely essential - and with urgency.

When racing was faced with the myriad of challenges that arose in the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, the gravity of the situation and need for immediate response helped to deliver changes that would have taken significantly longer to put in place in typical times.

That same type of collective effort from a range of bodies needs to be replicated now - because the same level of urgency exists in this space.

Anything less would simply be another failure in the national spotlight with obvious potential for further damage to the sector. For a world-leading industry, we cannot afford for this to be our weakest link.