A 54-year-old man who kept horses in what a judge described as “harrowing conditions” has been jailed for two years after pleading guilty to animal cruelty charges.
Geoffrey Lyons, of The Cottage, Macetown, Tara, Co Meath, but originally from west Dublin pleaded guilty to five out of 102 charges of cruelty in March 2023.
The accused also pleaded guilty to possession of over 930kg of tobacco valued at €700,000 on which tax had not been paid.
Garda Nives Caplice of the Garda Mounted Support Unit told Trim Circuit Court that five ponies were found in an emaciated state on property owned by the accused at Cloghan Stud, Garristown. The horses’ spines, hip bones and ribs were showing despite them having worn winter coats.
When inspected their hooves were seen to be cracked and in a state of neglect. He said one of the ponies was unable to put weight on a hind leg and had a uterus infection.
There were no feeders, there was a lack of food and the only source of drinking amounted to puddles of water.
The horse with the injured leg had to be euthanised and the remaining four which were in various stages of neglect were brought to My Lovely Horse Rescue, the court heard.
Gardaí searched another property at Danestown Stud where 45 horses were kept in a yard. Gardaí told the court the horses were underweight and ill-kempt, there was no shelter in the yard and the ground was covered in slurry 10cm deep.
When gardaí continued their search they found 40 horses in a barn and they were filthy and underweight. They had no access to outdoors and there was a layer of manure and slurry on the ground and going up the sides of the walls. These animals were forced to lie on the slurry or feeding hay that was meant for consumption.
A further 18 horses were seized because they were identified as needing “immediate attention”. Two of these were euthanised and 16 were rehomed with an animal welfare trust.
Defending barrister Martin Dully told the court the main problem was that there were far too many horses for the facilities that were available. He said that during the Covid pandemic people were giving horses to his client because they were either unable to feed the horses or lost interest in them and his client accepted them all.
The barrister said two weeks before the Garda searches his client had been hospitalised and was unable to move around and care for the animals. Before these recent events he had kept his horses in proper condition.
The court was told the accused had a love of horses since his youth and had looked after them since he was able to buy a horse.
Judge John Martin said he accepted the accused was an animal lover “but you have a strange way of showing it”.
In the cigarettes possession, the judge said the State would have been at a loss of €500,000.
He dealt with both the animal cruelty and cigarettes possession charges together and imposed a 3½ year prison sentence with the final 18 months suspended.