Shocking footage has emerged online of a sulky racing accident in Kilkenny, in which a horse lost its life.
The driver was thrown from the cart following the collision with a stop sign, but was not seriously injured.
The video was posted on Facebook by Fianna Fáil's Andrew McGuinness, who is in favour of banning sulky racing on public roads. In the post, he described the incident as "another display of horrific animal cruelty" and confirmed that the Gardaí are investigating the incident.
See the video below:
Andrew explained what he would like to see happen with sulky racing in Ireland:
"In my experience it's become a much bigger issue than normal over the last twelve to eighteen months, where it seems every couple of weeks there's an incident like this happening."
"During my term as Mayor of Kilkenny, I brought forward bylaws to ban sulky racing on public roads in Kilkenny, and I would like to see them enforced with a zero tolerance policy. I'd also like to see intervention at national level and bring forward some sort of legislation to govern the use of horses and carts right across the country."
Geoff Power, producer of the documentary Ireland's Sulky Racers, agrees with the idea of regulation, but argues that horses are often well cared for.
"During the course of making the documentary we were aware of the need for regulation. It has grown hugely over the last ten years and it's not going to go away."
"We met a couple of vets and they said the injuries that were sustained by the horses in sulky racing were minor in comparison to the kind of issues that they had to deal with in jumping."
We also spoke to Mark, a sulky racer from Limerick who maintains that not everyone involved treats their horses badly.
"It's like any other sport to me. Horses were always my passion."
"I do it because I love horses, I love the sport. These lads are young lads most of the time when things like this pop up. There's nothing going to change kids all over the country who keep horses from not looking after them properly and not going when to stop."
