Concerns raised about Borris Fair after people and horses shot with BB guns

BB GUNS were discharged and animal welfare concerns were raised at the annual Borris horse fair over the weekend.

Martina Kenny, the co-founder of the animal charity My Lovely Horse Rescue, said that volunteers from her organisation who attended the fair saw a mare being shot in the shoulder with a BB gun.

“The mare went running up the town, with her foal, who could have only been a week old, running after her,” Martina said.

A garda did manage to gain control over the mare and catch the individual who shot it.

Another person who attended the fair on Saturday afternoon told The Nationalist that they were shot in the shoulder at close range by a young boy possessing a BB gun.

“I was lucky it didn’t hit my face,” the eyewitness said. “It stung me right in the arm. It has left a slight bruise.” 

According to the eyewitness, there were several stalls at the fair selling BB guns. After being shot herself, the eyewitness saw the same boy pointing the BB gun in another woman’s face.

Martina said that her volunteers saw “horses and some dogs tightly tied to fences with no access to water or hay just standing there exhausted, some looked very skinny, some sickly and some had worm bellies.” The eyewitness also claimed there were several malnourished ponies at the fair.

“There was a bit of commotion around a chip van as I was walking up and the next thing I saw was a man shouting and roaring who had a fairly malnourished pony with a dodgy leg on a lead. He then decided to leg it through the crowd with his pony and a woman from animal welfare was chasing him. The man was not exactly in control of the pony,” the eyewitness said.

Martina confirmed that her organisation did rescue a pony from the fair. The pony had been sold at the fair for €150 and the buyer was known to the organisation.

“The horse was really skinny and really weak. It only had one shoe on, was a little bit over a year old and covered in ringworm, which is highly contagious to all other horses.” 

Members of the rescue approached the buyer and told him that they would take the horse off him. The buyer resisted at first but eventually let the organisation take the horse, which is currently receiving medical treatment.

Carlow councillor Willie Quinn attended the fair on Friday evening, whereas the events that have just been described occurred on Saturday afternoon.

“There was a good crowd around on Friday night,” Willie said. “Saturday, it was mostly members of the Travellers community who were there.” 

Willie was made aware of issues with parking and traffic in Borris over the weekend as the event is not insured by the council or gardaí, so does not have dedicated parking facilities. “It’s kind of a free-for-all,” Willie said.

The eyewitness also saw a number of young men attempting to grab women.

“There was a lot of that there,” she said. “I’d say the oldest boy involved in that was probably 14, the girls were a lot younger that they were grabbing and lifting up, and they were screaming ‘put me down’. It was not nice to see or hear.” 

The eyewitness did wish to reiterate that most people were walking peacefully around the fair and enjoying themselves.