Neighbours who lived near horse abattoir exposed on RTÉ documentary made repeated reports of animal cruelty

‘Thin doesn’t come close to describing the condition of some of the horses. The two I complained about, every bone in their body was visible. They were just skeletal’Senior Department of Agriculture vet who accused public of ‘jumping on the bandwagon’ following animal welfare exposé is listed as a steward for the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board

John Joe Fitzpatrick, who runs the abattoir shown in disturbing documentary; and, inset left, stills from last week’s ‘RTÉ Investigates’ programme

Maeve Sheehan

Neighbours living beside the equine abattoir at the centre of an investigation into animal cruelty and criminality have accused the Department of Agriculture of “minimising” their complaints about neglect of horses.

One neighbour, who is experienced with horses, said she reported concerns three times about injured horses in a field adjacent to the abattoir. On each occasion, the animals were in urgent need of care.