Equipped with a more robust recently introduced welfare legislation, An Garda Síochána, the Department of Agricutlure, Food and the Marine (DAFM) and Waterford Society for the Prevention of Cruelty of Animals (SPCA) joined forces to bring a long-standing equine cruelty case to a custodial conclusion for Kilkenny repeat offender Simon O’Dwyer Snr.

O’Dwyer was convicted of 10 counts of neglect under the Animal Health and Welfare Act 2013 and sentenced last week to four years in jail.

Reduced on age and health-related compassionate grounds, O’Dwyer was ordered to serve two and a half years in jail and was banned from having horses for life following multiple previous convictions of animal cruelty.

As reported in The Irish Field, Waterford SPCA said of the initial inspection to O’Dwyer’s property: “The inspections revealed a total of 41 horses being kept in the most appalling conditions in sheds and stables knee-deep in wet dung and most horses had no access to water. Some were eating their own manure due to lack of feed.

“Five emaciated yearlings were housed in a pitch-dark dung-filled shed, without feed or water. At least 30 of the horses on-site were in a very poor condition and there was no evidence of either hay or hard feed present around the farm.

“One horse carcass was present outside a shed in a state of decomposition. A grey mare who was in horrendous condition, was seized and removed immediately from the farm.”