Matt Shanahan urges regulation of sulky racing and stabling
Matt Shanahan spoke on 10 Dec 2020 about sulky racing, urging registration, regulation and provision of land and stabling. He warned of animal welfare problems, road safety risks and intimidation of landowners tied to unregulated sulky racing.
Concerns raised
He described sulky racing as a cultural activity for some but stressed it is linked to horse trading, gambling and serious animal welfare issues. He warned that ponies are sometimes raced unshod, causing lameness, and that young children are often unstrapped and unsupervised on sulkies.
Road safety and policing
He said sulky racing is frequently conducted on public roads and can be dangerous to other road users who do not know whether it is safe to overtake. He argued that the Garda have enough to do without policing races on the roads and noted that some events have involved notifying guards and closing roads.
Land, stabling and registration
He called for local authorities to make lands and stabling available and for clear standards on the ratio of horses to land - similar to livestock planning - so animals can be properly cared for. He urged enforcement of registration and chipping and highlighted instances where private landowners faced intimidation after ponies were placed on their land.
Calls for regulation and standards
He said many involved in sulky racing would welcome regulation and compliance so the activity can continue safely as a recreation. He argued for mutually respectful compromise, enforcement of equine welfare standards, and referenced the potential to learn from successful models abroad to create a sustainable, win-win industry.
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Thank you, Chair, for the opportunity just to speak on this for a few moments and I hope that the Government will be generous in reciprocating what Deputy McGrath is bringing here. I think this is an issue that needs to be absolutely aired. So I think sulky racing is seen as a cultural activity for many but I think it's important that we don't conflate the difference between trotting ponies and people who keep ponies for recreational use, drawing carts and sulky racing. Specifically sulky racing I would say revolves around horse trading, there's quite a bit of gambling involved and there are certainly animal welfare rights. And like every activity there are some people who do it to a very high standard and unfortunately there are many who do not. Sulky racing particularly is conducted as the Minister knows on public roads and I have never heard of a sulky race in my area and I've seen plenty of them where the guards have been notified of where the roads were closed. I think it's often cruel to animals, it's largely done potentially to ponies who may not be fully grown and I would say that as someone who knows something about horses I would not call upon ponies unshod on a road because that is very hard to their feet and it will cause lameness in animals. But I've seen it done many times in sulky racing. It is also extremely dangerous to other road users because they do not know how someone has already highlighted whether they should overtake and often has been pointed out you will see young children sitting unstrapped unsupervised often on sulky and they are creating a danger to themselves and to some unfortunate who may be involved in an accident with them. I would point out too it is also encouraging the keeping of animals where the owners do not have land holdings or stabling and that is seen around the country and it's particularly prevalent as we know on local authority lands. I think that certainly we know of planning schemes that have been mooted in the past couple of years where stabling is being made available particularly to members of the travelling community and certainly I think that should be encouraged but then lands have to be allocated to make sure that we have adequate lands to care properly for horses. And like any land holding there should be a ratio of horses to land the same as we have cattle to an acre. Stabling is very important and I think the local authority needs to do something about ensuring that there is compliance in terms of registration and ponies and chipping in particular. And I would point out and I've seen this in my own area that oftentimes significant intimidation of private landowners occurs where ponies are put in and if you threaten to take them out you will be threatened as a result. That is totally unfair and as I would say that is in the minority of cases not in the majority. But I believe that you know for Sulky Racing to be successful it needs to be registered to some degree and it needs to be regulated. And I think there are many who are involved in the area would welcome some form of regulation standards and compliance that would allow them to carry on this activity as a recreation safely. So I think we need a solution that respects the rights of all peoples involved here. And we need to allow Sulky racers to create competition because that is how they basically signify their animals. For those who wish to sell their animals on that is how they create value for them. And I think in that respect as Deputy McGrath has already outlined there must be opportunity for the local authorities to make lands available. And certainly if we look at the success of pony racing in the US and as he has highlighted in France you know there is probably a very vibrant industry here to be developed. And I think everybody would be in a win-win in that situation. But I think firstly we must have standards and they must be enforced. So I think we need to look at what is being done successfully in other countries. And we need to start with an area of mutual respect. And in mutual respect everybody has to have you know something of what they want. There has to be a compromise, there has to be a win-win and certainly equine animal standards must be observed. But I think also people are right to have you know their cultural icons preserved. We don't want to do anything to disrupt that. But we want to make sure that it is done fairly and that it is done in the right way. And I would say that the local authorities have a very large part to play. I would say the Garda have enough to be doing without running around trying to regulate Sulky racing on the roads. And therefore we have to provide some amenity areas where this can be done easily and effectively. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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