Unwanted and slaughter horses:A European and Irish perspective

Internet searches demonstrate that horse numbers declined from 40 million in 1913 to 10 million in 1950 in the US and from three million to one million in the United Kingdom during the same period. Horses involved in agriculture declined from 347,000 in 1950 to “too few to be recorded” by 1960, and the global horse population was reduced from 75 million in 1950 to 58 million in 2007. Ireland’s horse and pony population also fell progressively throughout the mid-twentieth century from 402,000 in 1949 to under 300,000 by 1955 and to less than 200,000 by 1962. The rate of decline decreased thereafter and from 98,000 in 1974 to 59,000 in 1989 until sport, leisure, and tourism stimulated expansion (CSO, 2000). Unwanted and slaughter horses: A European and Irish perspective