Clare County Council has used its powers to seize 160 horses over the past five years.
New figures also show, that in spite of the pandemic, the number of horses seized this year will be higher than in each year from 2016 to 2018.
Under the Control of Horses Act, local authorities may take a range of actions in relation to horses, up to their seizure.
This can happen horses have been found to be straying or put on land without the owner’s permission, including land owned by Councils themselves.
The Department of Agriculture provides financial support in respect of this work.
Here in Clare, 2015 and 2019 both saw the highest number of horses seized in Clare in recent years, with 47 seized in each of those years.
Up to September, 23 more horses were seized, and this is higher than the years 2016 and 2018 when the amounts of horses seized were 11, 18 and 14 respectively.
This year, Limerick has seen the highest number of seized horses of any local authority area, at 101, although 117 were recovered by the four Councils in Dublin.
A total of 631 horses were seized by all councils during this period.
