Travellers and Sulky Carts

Motivator

How on earth are they allowed get away with absolute blatant animal cruelty. I passed two carts going a fair clip at 5.30 this evening on the Tramore Road heading out towards Williamstown. It was 20 degrees at that stage and these two animals were in the middle of the road in more or less rush hour traffic hitting the horses. We all know the guards are very quick to stop and summons someone for doing 5 km/h over the speed limit yet a blind eye is turned to the suffering of horses.

There was an accident on the Killure Road a few weeks ago where a horse collapsed, I’m not sure if it died or not, but with the weather the way it is today and what it could be over the summer something has to be done. Animal Welfare, despite being very good at doing undoubtedly tough job, haven’t got the power to deal directly with this crowd. Can the guards seize animals? Will they even act on it? If someone is abusive towards a dog there’s uproar and rightly so and the guards and animal welfare are involved, but despicable cruelty to horses is going on in broad daylight on main roads in rush hour traffic day in and day out and nothing is being done.

I’m genuinely wondering what steps can be taken to get the horses and other animals that are clearly neglected and mistreated taken off them? Can anything be done? What I saw today was both angering and heartbreaking in equal measure.

Wanderer2010

Its very cruel no doubt and i totally understand your anger. All you can do is keep reporting the issue to both animal control and the Guards and if you feel nothing is being done, maybe request a chat with a senior Guard or management and outline your concerns, bring any photos, dates of incidents etc with you.

Certainly the law has no problem siezing abused cats and dogs from the average joe soap and horses too but the travellers can do whatever they want and they know nobody will take them on. If you do highlight how criminal a lot of them are, they run crying to Pavee Point about how discriminated and victimised they feel. And there isnt a local councillor or politician in the country who will risk their own skin but publicly stating how much of a menace these people are, so when you have a collective blind spot coupled with the inertia of the Garda, who simply dont want to deal with them, you have a tough battle OP.

Cabaal

Lets be clear, regardless of who commits animal cruelty the laws are extremely poor when it comes to enforcement, fines and sentencing.

After all, you can swing a dog by a lead and smash it into the ground 30 times infront of children and you won't get a jail sentence or even be banned from keeping dogs again in Ireland. https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/circuit-court/man-avoids-jail-after-violently-killing-dog-in-public-park-1.2299771

Animal abuse is far from just a traveler thing, but keep reporting stuff and if you have dashcam footage provide that to support your reports.

In relation to the above comment "And there isnt a local councillor or politician in the country who will risk their own skin but publicly stating how much of a menace these people are". Plenty of councillors certainlly locally to me have spoken about cruelty and sulky races. Thankfully none have decided to label all travellers as a menace, if they did I'd hope they wouldn't get re-elected.

Motivator

This thing of people being afraid of being challenged or labelled as discriminatory for taking on travellers is absolute nonsense. Wrong doing is wrong doing no matter who or what they are. Travellers are menaces and that’s just a fact. Why people aren’t allowed say it is just beyond me. If more people felt they could call things as they are then maybe more would be done in this country.

I sent a text a friend of mine last night who’s a guard in Cork and he said reporting it is a waste of time. By the time a squadcar goes to try and find them then they’ll be long gone. He said even if they do come across them on the road then there’s a chance they more or less leave them at it. They don’t want or need the hassle. I was pretty shocked by it to be honest but he said that’s just the way it is. If they get a fine they’re not going to pay it and nobody is going to seize the horses so essentially this crowd are lawless, even in the eyes of the guards.

Animal Welfare can’t do much beyond calling out to halting sites and letting them know they got a complaint. To be fair to Andrew and the lads in Animal Welfare I wouldn’t like to have that job. But to witness what I witnessed yesterday and know there’s pretty much nothing can be done is just so frustrating.

Cabaal

As a mod I'm nipping this in the bud right now,

It's simply unacceptable to label travelers as a menace. It's not acceptable to label any other groups or races as a menace such as black people, English etc and it sure as hell isn't acceptable here to do it with travelers. If people want to go down this road then I'll be handing out warnings and bans.

I strongly suspect this thread will have a very short life.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120642273#Comment_120642273

They are though

Cabaal

and we're done.