Irish horse hides are reaching customers in continental Europe
30/11/2012
Following newspaper reports that the number of horses slaughtered in Ireland has increased sharply the last two years, a spokesperson for the government department broke the figures down for us.
Government-approved abattoirs slaughtered just over 2,000 horses in 2008. A year later, the figure was 3,220. Then a considerable increase occurred in 2010, possibly because of the downturn in the Irish economy and the financial difficulties some horse-owners and stables ran into. The total number of horses slaughtered in approved abattoirs in 2010 was 7,296, an increase of 265% on two years earlier.
In 2011, horse slaughter in Ireland increased by a further 72.3% to 12,575.
According to the department of agriculture, the hides from these horses are salted in Ireland and sold to customers in continental Europe. It keeps no formal record of these sales.
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