INVESTIGATIONS are underway across Europe into suspicions of illegal slaughtering and traceability defects among hundreds of horses killed for human consumption, on foot of evidence uncovered as part of this week’s RTÉ Investigates report into equine welfare issues.

After it received material from RTÉ Investigates, the European Commission issued alerts for horses slaughtered in Ireland, Italy, and Spain, because there was evidence animals should have been removed from the food chain - or they had been declared dead a considerable time - before they were supposed to have been slaughtered.

The material compiled during research by RTÉ Investigates raised issues beyond Ireland and highlighted significant concerns related to other EU member states. The resulting non-compliance notices were issued in recent weeks through the Commission’s Agri-food network, which shares information among EU member states on potential fraud cases.

On Wednesday night, RTÉ broadcast the findings of its investigation, which involved compiling and comparing a large number of datasets held by countries and bodies across Europe. Included in the documentary was evidence of illegal activities to change the identities of horses and compromise the integrity of the human food chain at a site connected to Ireland’s only active abattoir for horses, operated by Shannonside Foods in Straffan, Co Kildare. The report also showed undercover footage of what experts said was the microchipping of horses by Shannonside Foods staff prior to being sent for slaughter.

Significant issues around how horses are processed for human consumption through slaughterhouses in mainland Europe were also detailed.

“Extremely serious”

European Commission spokesperson on Food Safety Stefan De Keersmaecker told RTÉ Investigates: “As soon as fraud cases are identified, all kinds of triggers go off. The Commission intervenes, the different member states intervene, and it’s followed through. I can only say with very strong reassurance that when such issues are identified, when lists of cases like this are handed over to the national level, to the Commission, these are cases that are taken extremely seriously.”

In the period January 2023 to March 2024 identification records showed that 20 horses had been declared unfit for human consumption in the UK or France, but were later slaughtered at the facility in Kildare run by Shannonside Foods Ltd.

Ingrid Kragel, director of Food Watch in France, said the revelations raised concerns about where the meat ended up.

“Even if Irish people don’t eat horse meat, this meat is exported and it goes into one country, it might be then re-exported, it might travel also, it might be used in processed food, it might go into supermarkets, restaurants, we never know.”

The Department of Agriculture said it was unable to comment on the 20 specific horses but said the allegations “if true, would constitute clear breaches of the EU Animal Health Law.”

In April, after it received material from RTÉ Investigates, the European Commission issued non-compliance notices in respect of 332 horses slaughtered in Ireland, Italy, and Spain. The notices identified the issue as “illegal slaughtering, traceability defects.”

Traceability problems

RTÉ Investigates identified numerous instances where microchip records indicated that horses were slaughtered even though they had already been declared unfit for human consumption somewhere in Europe.

Professor Christopher Elliot, who led the UK parliamentary inquiry into the 2013 horse meat scandal, said horses were still a problem area when it came to traceability systems, more than 10 years on. “This isn’t just one or two or five or 10 horses. This is many hundreds of animals are entering the food chain, which shouldn’t be,” he told RTÉ Investigates.

In the same alert the Commission issued another non-compliance notice related to 51 horses that affected Italy and the Netherlands.

These were animals that were declared dead in one member state and yet their identification number turned up later in the records of slaughter plants somewhere else.

“Sickened”

In the Dáil on Wednesday afternoon, Minister for Finance Michael McGrath said he was “sickened and appalled” at what was contained in the reporting broadcast.

He added it is now the subject of a “thorough investigation” by the Department of Agriculture. He said the government “unreservedly condemns” what was shown in the programme, adding the “full force of law” will apply if breaches are proven in court.

Ms Kragel, director of Food Watch, said it exposed systemic problems in how records are checked across borders. “Since the 2013 horse meat scandal, there have been improvements.

“We see better regulation and we see that there is this will to monitor the system, but the weaknesses remain. It means we still have a problem. So now the European institutions have to go to the next step. They have a responsibility to protect us.”