Prime time investigates horse cruelty

Akabusi

Just watched this on RTE and it is one of the worst things I’ve ever seen on animal cruelty. The levels of cruelty to horses in this country is disgraceful and the horse racing industry are a big part this. It was always front and centre when a horse falls when racing and has to be put down but what RTE has shown here is what happens to all the others that don’t make it and even some that do. We really need to review all the money this industry receives from us taxpayers.

Also bravo to the investigative journalists who yet again show up the cruelty humans inflict on animals but it also demonstrates just how useless our officials are when in the sheds next to the slaughter such conditions and practices are allowed happen.
Well done RTE, this is the sort of program you can be proud of and justify the licence fee with.

susan678

Flogging a dead horse here I think.

I suppose RTE is going to stop showing the races and stop taken gambling advertising revenue from an industry that causes misery to many families?

The very definition of Virtue Signalling for our state broadcaster.

Gusser09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058355694/prime-time-investigates-horse-cruelty

Agree with all of this. The mask slipped with Gordon Elliott a few years ago. Horse racing is a sport that simply wouldnt exist without gambling. That tells you everything you need to know.

Bbc panorama done a similar expose a few years ago.

The arrogance and ignorance on the sport is outstanding.

Akabusi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122252768#Comment_122252768

Agree nothing will change it will die down after a couple of days. Just is it to much to ask that animals are treated with some respect and dare I say it humanity.

allenview

The elephant in the room here is the massive over production of horses in Ireland and it starts with the likes of coolmore right down to the guy with 2 mares.,some of bigger ones are nearly akine to factory farming.

bigroad

People involved in this should be in prison ,but there not.No surprise there.

Curse These Metal Hands

Just a bunch of money hungry grubs involved in racing. It's always been known that they don't care about the animals, like when that grotesque lump sat on one after it had just died.

Akabusi

If nothing else this shows our department of agriculture officials who are meant to be preventing this sort of thing are either useless or do not have the powers to prevent such cruelty and criminal behaviour in relation to the changing of the horses identities.

Real Donald Trump

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122252768#Comment_122252768

Good point, you can add alcohol in there too.

Hellrazer

The horse racing industry and grey hound racing industry should no longer be funded by the tax payers money.

Lets see how they get on without government funding.

The cruelty in both these sports sickens me.

Id be of the opinion they should both be banned out right - its akin to bull fighting in Spain. Those involved in these scandals should be locked up and not just fined.

Last year I emailed my Tds about the finding of greyhound bodies in Newbridge. One of them brought it to the agricultural ministers attention and I received a reply - 3 of them never bothered even replying and one **** idiot wouldnt engage with me at all and openly told me he supported the industry - guess who wont be getting a vote at the next GE.

This "company" is in my local area and I emailed my local TDs about it today - the same one that replied about the greyhounds replied almost immediately and says they intend on bringing it to the ministers attention again.

Animal cruelty sickens me to the core - we should be out picketing that factory and making sure no more trucks enter the gates - let them lose revenue by stopping them "processing" these animals.

Sickened to be Irish today.

TobyHolmes

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122252768#Comment_122252768

whats wrong with you?

TobyHolmes

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122252793#Comment_122252793

they should suffer eternal damnation.

Hellrazer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122252768#Comment_122252768

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122252836#Comment_122252836

Ill email RTE with that question tomorrow. Ill post the response here if I ever get one.

TobyHolmes

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122252867#Comment_122252867

look i know everyone hates RTE but the job of the Prime Time show is to report. this was an investigative journalist piece which im sure caused some trauma in the journalists and the undercover reporters and perhaps annoyed advertisers. but they still did it and aired it. the virtue signaling is from people who look at a report like this and call them hypocrites. same people who probaby abandon their dogs when they have kids, or eat meat or ignore a stray cat in need. most people live hypocitical lives in some way. evil needs a light shone on it - which RTE did tonight.

bigroad

Inbred criminals inflicting pain on innocent animals and making money out of it.

Nobody should be able to buy horses in this country unless they are registered and have the proper facilities in place.

This craic of buying horses for cash at horse trading fairs needs to stop.

Former Former Former

It was grim viewing but brilliant journalism

The cnuts whacking the shite out of the horses was utterly unsurprising. Tomorrow we’ll be hearing the usual “few bad apples” nonsense again.

What was surprising was how easily the microchip and passport system can be circumvented.

TobyHolmes

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122252886#Comment_122252886

how were these people allowed near these poor animals. who is managing the place, why does it even exist. its just appalling disgraceful, evil, shameful.

anewme

I couldn’t watch it, just highlights.
I expected “you bet, they die”, only on the horse industryand was not wrong.

For anyone criticising RTE as speaking out of both sides of their mouth clearly never worked in corporate, the RTE Investigates team are different to the team asking for advertising revenue and yet have to co exist. It’s the schizophrenia of the corporate world.

The investigative team are the reason I buy my TV licence.

Animal welfare is a disgrace in n this country, when you have DAFM officials running puppy farms, something is majorly wrong with this picture.

65535

Well, I hear a lot of condemnation on here about 'animal abuse' and 'the elephant in the room' etc.

I understand, I was that way once - if you really do not want to abuse animals then have a look at how they are treated in order for you to have a taste in your mouth for 3 minutes.

https://www.naracampaigns.org/

https://www.naracampaigns.org/campaigns/

And then of course there's always Dominion -

https://youtu.be/LQRAfJyEsko?si=0pJbnvHq0E3_q6wl

Now, people will say - well, mmm, well, it's how it's done elsewhere - our cattle are 'grassfed' etc.

At the end of the day - no matter how you treat an animal - if they end up on a dinner plate then that in and of itself is cruelty.

Someone more local for you to watch and consider what he says - he, like myself, am not judging anyone - but the truth is out there !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUhLE_13VXg

Quantum Erasure

Knackers...

TobyHolmes

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122252910#Comment_122252910

exactly

mobby

Sure when you have the likes of this from a supposed top trainer….

The DayDream

How is that Aaron Fitzgerald buck able to be appointed as an 'animal welfare officer'? Is there no standards or qualifications necessary as he obviously wouldn't have any, likely a member of a certain culture, a head the ball in a Hugo Boss tee shirt.

Aren't there checks done to make sure they are suitable for these jobs? For anyone that didn't watch he is shown whipping horses with paddles and pipes, punching them in the face, putting new chips into horses already chipped so they can make up a total fake history for the horse (only vets are allowed to chip supposedly) and even spray painting a horse's legs to disguise the markings for the same purpose.

The most heartbreaking was the ex show horse who absolutely knew what was coming and wouldn't go into the gate of the crush and tried to find a way out only to be beaten every which way.

I always kinda thought that the majority of horses got great treatment during their racing lives, it wasn't like dog racing, the owners are rich and that, and they don't die on track very often (zero in the national this year) and kinda was in denial because I still wanted to feel okay doing the odd bet.

I'll never put a penny on a horse race again I don't even want to see them being whipped in a race any more after that. I don't think most of the horses sent to these abbatoirs were from racing but it's just obvious this is a sport with a dark side even darker than what was ever imagined.

bb12

as a horse owner i could never watch such a programme. i can only imagine the horrors. when money and animals are mixed together, the animals always always always suffer. the conveyer belt of horse racing leads to this. i asked my vet years ago about the standards at the abbatoirs and she was a straight talker and said it was well managed, so whether standards have deteriorated in the last few years or whether it has always been bad, i don't know. had to put one of mine to sleep recently due to old age and terminal illness and it broke my heart but i was by her side trying to soothe her till the very end.

kowloonkev

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122253007#Comment_122253007

That's a great point. When money and animals are mixed animals always suffer. That's why I wouldn't take any pet owner seriously if they were whinging about animal rights.

hamburgham

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122252825#Comment_122252825

Sure we had a Dept.of Ag. Vet convicted of cruelty to dogs a few weeks ago. Will he be sacked? Ant action from the Veterinary Council?

whisky_galore

All boils down greed and money, same as the puppy farm industry.

csirl

Government gives more money to horse racing than it does to ALL national governing bodies of sport combined.

NIMAN

€2.5bn industry, yet the Gov gives it taxpayers money to help fund it?

Every cent should be withdrawn from it.

Let Paddy Power and Ladbrokes fund it, and maybe the Gov could give the money to scoliosis patients instead.

SupaCat95

So RTE did a hit piece on the industry. I have skin in this game as I am not a fan of the sport but also from a farming background.

RTE is for people too lazy to find a decent media source and have no idea the agenda the government is playig you. My friend works at a stables properly regulated and everything. It is a skilled and dangerous job. Its nothing like portrayed in the show. Its paperwork, breeding, mucking out stables, physical training, vets visits, farriers calling, feeding oats (expensive hence eats like a horse). That is real stables.

Over production, that is a real thing. It has to be that way its in every industry there has to be some wastage. Some how you will always end up with less than when you started at the end. Education is a prime example. You take in a 100 students onto a science degree, 40 are gone by the summer of the first year. They go for various reasons (useless, unprepared for the course, too much time in the bar, got fond of the bed, didnt study, never turned up for practicals) and its to be expected. They are recycled back into industry as lower level technican /operators. Same with horses, those that dont perform end up being sold to the Burgerman. Yes they are what poorer people eat in cheap burgers and findus crispy pancakes. Its sold as equine beef. The same factories and the same people are at it.

The gambling industry, yeah its a tax on the stupid as the bookie always wins. Dont worry about it the government will just tax someone else. Agriculture/horticulture/equine is a great way to protect your money from the taxman. Hence the wealth are buying up farms.

Humans have always have had working and companion relations with horses (well documented in ancient China). Wheater it is working the land in agriculture or horticulture, hunting or warfare and sport. We have always had close relationships with our horses in history, almost as close as our dogs.

Realise you are getting played and coerced by the government into giving up your culture. Its done by shaming, taxation and regulation. We are having problems with our breeding pool when we are exporting our best horses to foreign buyers.

timmyntc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122253128#Comment_122253128

Realise you are getting played and coerced by the government into giving up your culture

It is not my culture to abuse animals, "boss"

Frumy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122252768#Comment_122252768

100% virtue signaling nonsense the horse racing be broadcast by them the same week!

People always forget something in these debates. So long as something makes lots of money anything goes. Any amount of abuse/cruelty/corruption etc. Money talks. Horse racing makes an absolute fortune.

The very act itself of whipping a horse to run faster is cruel. They will babel on these whips don't hurt but plenty of studies prove they do. Then killing the horse behind a little crappy curtain with a fall? It's barbaric when you think of it. Good showing young stallion you raced well unfortunately you broke your leg so you must die, here and now, in front of everyone.

The Roman Gladiators weren't as cruel with animals

https://animalsaustralia.org/our-work/compassionate-living/science-reveals-whips-hurt/

So long as horse racing turns over millions and millions it's here to stay.

kippy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122253128#Comment_122253128

I don't think there's any issue with the national broadcaster shining a light on whats going on here. It's not their fault that this goes on. It's hardly a government conspiracy either to try and give up our "culture" - the could defund horse racing any time they like.

The type of attitude in your post is exactly why this type of behaviour happens and continues in al walks of life.

Any right minded individual wouldn't be making excuses for what came up in that programme or pointing people to "look over there - they are worse" etc etc…..

They'd be asking why its happened, what controls have broken down to allow it to happen, looking for a criminal investigation and asking how they might stop it happening again.

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122253187#Comment_122253187

the news department and the sports department are separate beasts in RTE; it's not as if either can say (or should say) to the other 'we're broadcasting this, do you think we shouldn't in case it makes you look bad?'

Frumy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122253128#Comment_122253128

Horse meat is sold as equine beef? I always thought 'beef' lately or least cheaper beef tasted different or funny. Maybe this is the reason.

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122253007#Comment_122253007

my wife has a horse too, and i'm up at the stables several times a week. it's kinda interesting, i've never met anyone at the stables who showed an iota of interest in horse racing; they seem to move in very different circles. the sport she and everyone she knows would be interested in would be dressage, jumping, that sort of thing.

Frumy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122253191#Comment_122253191

They'd be asking why its happened, what controls have broken down to allow it to happen, looking for a criminal investigation and asking how they might stop it happening again.

Truth is no one cares. Apathy is the emotion that sweeps over everyone on these things. People eat meat and they know the animals are abused but out of sight out of mind. Most who seen the programme will mention it today in work and then it will never be spoken of again. Just the way it is.

Oscar_Madison

We’ve seen documentaries on elderly abuse in care homes - bad practices in crèches - if we treat our most vulnerable human beings badly then it’s no surprise that animals are being treated badly -not saying it’s right but it shouldn’t be a surprise .

magicbastarder

also, i have a vague memory of reading about some (unsurprising) report that working in an abattoir is not good for the mental health. probably a minimum wage job with zero supports and massive scope for desensitisation.

Leg End Reject

Horses, bull calves, greyhounds, puppy farms, thousands of cats and dogs abandoned in animal shelters every year - the level of animal cruelty here is horrific.

Has Primetime ever gone into abattoirs here to see how lambs, sheep, cattle and pigs end their days?

Leroy42

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122253187#Comment_122253187

I don't understand your point about RTE here. Are you saying that since they show horse racing they shouldn't investigate? Or that they should stop showing racing as soon as they start investigation?

can you imagine the uproar, the claims of left wing wokeness, if RTE cancelled all racing coverage because a few journalists said they found instances of bad treatment?

you want RTE to be the judge and jury?

this show has done great work in highlighting what could be a major issue in the industry. There are serious questions for the industry, and government, to answer. This show highlights these issues, drags them into the mainstream and starts the conversation.

Up until last night this was an area that the vast majority or people didn't know about, and probably never even thought about. Now far more people are aware and it begs questions to be asked.

Well done RTE.

Former Former Former

So let’s see, we had;

Animal cruelty that was absolutely sickening
Falsification of documents
Fraud
Tainted meat illegally entering the human food chain

Yeah, RTE virtue signaling is definitely the problem here.

The entire horse industry is absolutely rotten. This shyte about loving the animals and sure they have a better life than most people is all well and good until the horse can no longer race, and then things get pretty grim.

StevenToast

Todays news....tomorrows fish and chips....

Please RTE tell me what to be at outraged at next week and the week after....

No one will talk about this ever again tmw.....

This thread will die a death and be ground into a boards burger....

Frumy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122253266#Comment_122253266

Well my point is simple.

So long as horse racing makes money it's here to stay, RTE show it, take the advertising revenue etc. I understand it's a different department but your also saying the people in the department involved with showing horse racing and advertising it can leave their conscious at the door. It's not like they can't show other content it's just that horse racing content makes more money. They could show 500 other things but CHOOSE to show horse racing due to the big bucks involved.

So long as people can be greedy it's here to stay, different department or not they are still following the mega money.

Frumy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122253364#Comment_122253364

true, outrage seems to affect us for 24 hours and that's it. Once it doesn't affect us personally meh

Iguarantee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122252865#Comment_122252865

or at least a bit of temporary damnation…

rainagain

I didn't watch the programme as I don't need more images of cruelty in my head - 30 years ago I did a project in school about the shipping of horses abroad for slaughter in horrific conditions, and those photos haven't been forgotten.

What I do know is that Ireland has plenty of legislation around animal welfare, but very little enforcement.

Loads of info on https://animallaw.ie/

Former Former Former

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122253261#Comment_122253261

Has Primetime ever gone into abattoirs here to see how lambs, sheep, cattle and pigs end their days?

Well, the main focus of the programme was the criminal activity around tracing, sales and export of horses, the abattoir bit was just the unsurprising icing on the cake.

The other point is that the beef and pork industries don't hold the animals out to be anything other than a commodity that is to be grown, killed and eaten. We might not like to think about the inside of the Kepak factory but I doubt anyone believes it to be anything other than messy and bloody. The horse industry is built on a very different image that is - let's be honest - a complete load of bollocks, and receives huge amounts of government money to maintain that image.

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122253364#Comment_122253364

if you dislike the news and current affairs section of RTE covering negative stories, you could always watch dancing with the stars instead?

Leg End Reject

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122253525#Comment_122253525

I know that, but there is still a blind eye turned to the conditions that animals end their days in. The fact that sentient animals are considered commodities confirms that. Humans have been treated the same in the slave industry in the past, and it still happens in people and child trafficking.

I bet this won't have any real effect on attendance at race meetings.

Leroy42

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122253396#Comment_122253396

You said it was virtue signalling.

I'm asking you what way they should have done it. Should they have ignored it completely, because it may cause them some commercial issues? Or should they have immediately cut all talk of horse racing and other horse events based on what they have uncovered without bringing it to a wider audience and letting the government and public discuss it?

Horse racing will be here to stay if the public decides that despite the issues brought up yesterday their enjoyment of the sport tops the issues the issues that were raised. RTE are merely bringing a product to the public that they continue to want.

You are blaming RTE, it's the horse racing punters that are to blame, and the rest of the public. We will either demand changes to be made or we won't. If the public no longer accepts horse racing then RTE will stop showing it as there won't be an audience and without an audience there won't be advertisers.

It would have been far easier for RTE to say nothing, and protect the commercial side of a business that is under increasing commercial pressures. What they have done is be able to separate that out and bring a serious public interest story into the public domain.