A FATHER and son team at what was once the country’s only approved horse slaughter plant were fined €4,000 after they admitted possessing fraudulent passports for horses destined for human consumption.
John Joe Fitzpatrick (70s), of Montpelier, County Limerick – whom the court heard had a prior conviction for animal cruelty – was fined €3,000 after pleading guilty to five counts of possessing horse passports without having horses to match on July 15, 2022.
More than 30 other similar criminal offences brought against him were struck out by the court, with consent from the Department of Agriculture, who brought the prosecution before Limerick Circuit Criminal Court.
Mr Fitzpatrick’s son, Arann Fitzpatrick (24), also of Montpeilier, County Limerick, was fined €1,000 after he pleaded guilty to one count of possessing a horse passport without having a matching horse on July 15, 2022.
Shannonside Foods Ltd, Straffan, County Kildare, owned by John Joe Fitzgerald, and where Arann Fitzgerald was working as an animal health and welfare officer, was fined €2,000 for two related charges after it had pleaded guilty to possessing a forged horse passport for an animal presented for slaughter on June 2, 2021.
Judge Michael Ramsey heard that the horse passport presented in June 2021 contained false health information to obscure the fact the animal was not fit for human consumption.
The issue was detected by a Department of Agriculture veterinary officer, and the horse did not enter the food chain, the court heard.
Kieran Sheehan, assistant principal officer at the Department’s Investigation Division, told the court that all horses going to slaughter for human consumption are issued with a unique passport identifying their health information to prevent unsafe meat entering the food chain.
Mr Sheehan said any horse treated with the phenylbutazone painkilling drug – commonly referred to as ‘bute’ – “cannot be allowed into the food chain” due to risks to public health.
He agreed with barrister for the Department, Thomas Wallace O’Donnell, that the department has strict checks in place to prevent unsafe horse meat entering the food chain and that it would be “very serious” and “very concerning” if this was to happen.
Mr Sheehan said there is a monetary “incentive” to tamper with a horse passport, in that “a horse that is not fit for the food chain is essentially worth nothing, or worse than nothing if you have to dispose of it, costing you €170 — but if it is deemed fit for human consumption, the horse is worth money”.
He said that on July 15, 2022, he and other department officials, supported by An Garda Síochána, searched the Fitzpatrick’s home in County Limerick, which was also the registered address for Shannonside Foods.
During the search, 30 horse passports were found for which no horse was presented.
When asked by the judge what became of the 30 horses, Mr Sheehan replied: “We don’t know, frankly. We haven’t been able to establish where they went.”
Tom Kiely, solicitor for John Joe Fitzpatrick, said his client has suffered mental and physical difficulties after undergoing a number of surgeries, and that Mr Fitzpatrick had “lost the use of his right shoulder”.
Mr Kiely said Arann Fitzpatrick’s role at Shannonside Foods was “animal welfare officer and his duties included the procurement of horses”, he was also previously involved in a now defunct horse welfare body.
The father and son no longer work at Shannonside Foods, which the court heard had ceased operating.
Mr Kiely said John Joe Fitzpatrick had retired and that Arann Fitzpatrick was running his own landscape gardening business.
He said no unsafe meat was ever found to have passed from Shannonside Foods to the food chain, adding that the firm slaughtered approximately 20,000 horses for export before losing its licence last year, and that customers in Europe had never complained to the Department.
Judge Ramsey ordered costs of €1,500 against Shannonside Foods.
The charges against the father and son pre-dated separate events in 2024 which saw slaughtering practices at Shannonside feature in the RTÉ Investigates programme, Horses: Making a Killing.
The exposé resulted in the seizure of meat and the withdrawal of the plant’s operating licence.
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