A horse had to be put to sleep after its hoof got stuck in a cattle grid while attached to a sulky in a 'horrific' incident yesterday.
The incident happened in The Curragh on Wednesday evening and has been described as "appalling" by animal welfare charity My Lovely Horse Rescue.
The Kildare Fire Brigade and some members of the Defence Forces rushed to the scene to help the distressed animal.
However, there was too much damage to the horse's leg and hoof, as well as the stress to the animal, it unfortunately had to be put down.
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Speaking to Dublin Live, Martina Kenny, co-founder of animal welfare charity My Lovely Horse Rescue, said that a supporter of the charity witnessed the horse running over the cattle grid and called them straight away.
"It was too far for us to get there but (the My Lovely Horse Rescue supporter) had it under control and knows horses well," Martina said. "We called the vet to get there as quickly as possible and said it was an emergency. We did call the gardai as well.... It was just a horrific thing to happen."
Martina said the firefighters and army members who responded to the scene were amazing. "Our guy said he couldn't get over how well everybody did to try their very best to work together but they couldn't get the horse up," she said.
"By that point, the poor horse had been struggling so much and his hoof was so damaged that the vet said the best thing was to put it down because the stress alone for the poor horse was unreal."
In addition to speaking about this unfortunate accident at the Curragh, Martina also spoke about the role of the charity in promoting animal welfare and dealing with animal cruelty generally.
Martina said the charity is calling for a dedicated animal welfare garda unit. "That garda unit can take on prosecution from all over the country.
"We have guards pinpointed that would absolutely take this role on..."
"We try to help as many horses, dogs, goats, cats and pigs that we can in Ireland," Martina said.
"Numbers of rescued animals are rising and everybody is full to the brim. We keep emergency space open for every animal that we can. It's so unbelievably sad.. the things that are left there for the likes of us to sort are unreal."
A spokesperson for An Garda Siochana said: "An Garda Síochána is aware of reports of an incident involving a horse which occurred in the Newbridge area yesterday.
"An Garda Síochána is continuing to make enquiries in relation to this incident."
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