Policy Update
We are all animal lovers here in DoneDeal and would hate to think of any animal being mistreated. For this reason, after consulting with the PetAware team and other welfare groups we have made a decision to no longer allow the advertisements for Horse Factory Ads on DoneDeal.
We had originally felt that this was a genuine service but it appears that people have concerns as to how this service is being offered. We have passed on the details to the ISPCA to be reviewed and we will naturally assist in any investigation that may follow.
We will now update our policies, remove the other similar ads that we have found and put some new processes in place to ensure these ads are no longer accepted on the site. If anyone has any comments or concerns please feel free to contact us via our support team.
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I agree it is a very casual way to discuss such a thing however I think for these guys removing themselves emotionally from the service is very important. I personally would not send any of my horses to slaughter, they are my pets. However for people who are in horses as a business and depend on them for their income it really is a different story. In 2005 614 horses were slaughtered for human consumption in Ireland, in 2010 that figure was 7,009. Two extra slaughter houses had to open their gates to horses in the intermitant years. In the same time frame the Irish sales aggregate for thoroughbreds dropped by 78million thats 57%. I totally agree that slaughter houses are no place for a horse to meet its end and that the animal’s final days are fearful and full of distress…but compare that to the long drawn out starvation and neglect of horses across the country. In a perfect world we would all retire our horses to green pastures and make the tough call to the vet to give our darlings a dignified passing however such is life. As cruel a reality as it is these guys are offering this service in response to a massive demand and are not the ones at who the finger of blame and disgust should be pointed. If we want someone to shout at it should be Simon Coveney. It should never have been necessary for 3 houses to open for equines but with no legislation in the breeding of horses and the money that was associated with them throughout the boom it was always going to be the outcome.
Hi Denise,
Thanks for taking the time to post this. We think your points are really valid and this is exactly why we had always allowed these ads to date. We felt it was a service that was required and only would have been concerned if we felt the number of the ads had dramatically increased on the site.
We only removed four yesterday when we changed the policy. But when the complaints from our customers increased recently we had started to review our stance. I know that John Mooney recently wrote a piece in The Sunday Times entitled “The illegal Irish Horse Meat Trade” which certainly highlighted how some of these services are not genuine. With these points in mind, we felt that as a classified ads website that perhaps we were not the best platform to offer this service.
If you are interested in directing complaints in the hope of making changes, we found an interesting page on the IHWT website which allows you sign a petition that goes directly to Europe. You can read more here