Nearly 3,000 thoroughbred horses were slaughtered for meat in Ireland since the start of 2020, figures have revealed.
It is the first time official data has been published showing the number of animals bred for racing have ended up as food.
A total of 1,549 thoroughbreds with passports issued by horseracing conglomerate Weatherbys were slaughtered in 2020, followed by another 1,105 last year. Since January, 305 have been put down.
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People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy, who received the data from Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue in response to a Dail question, described the figures as “quite horrifying”.
He said: “It seems like the horses are being killed simply because they are not fast enough to win and it is cheaper to kill them.
“It raises a question about the tens of millions of euro of public money given every year to the racing industry.”
The Government has provided funding of €1.46billion to the sector under the Horse and Greyhound Racing Act since 2001, and Horse Racing Ireland will receive a further €70million this year. Last year, a BBC Panorama documentary claimed injured Irish race horses were being transported to abattoirs in the UK against animal welfare guidelines.
It also alleged contaminated horse meat was entering the human food chain as a result of microchips being fraudulently swapped in animals earmarked for slaughter.
Consumption of horse meat has been growing globally since the 1990s. It is considered a delicacy in parts of France Italy, Holland, Switzerland and Belgium and commonly served in China, Russia, Central Asia, Mexico, Argentina and Japan.
Most Irish carcasses are exported to Europe, where they are eaten as burgers, steaks or roasts.
The figures were provided to Mr Murphy by Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue, who noted all of the slaughtered horses were issued with passports from Weatherbys Ireland, but were not necessarily born in Ireland.
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine previously did not record separate data for thoroughbred horses relating to equines slaughtered in Irish facilities.
HRI did not respond to a request for comment.
A spokeswoman for the National Animal Rights Association said the statistics were “absolutely sickening”.
She added: “It’s horrific. Horse racing just look at these animals as profit-making machines. If they wanted to, they could afford to retire them, but they prefer to kill them.”
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