TAGGING along for a ‘day in the life’ insight was the original idea for this feature on Ballinasloe-born ISPCA inspector, Karen Lyons. A role reversal from the days we hacked through the Garbally College grounds, Karen bobbing alongside on her pony Rusty.

Court case clashes and then Covid-19 scuppered that plan, instead it’s an hour squared off in her busy diary for a Plan B phone interview.

Despite her tough job, she’s still the same bubbly character. “All I ever wanted to do was work with animals, I had the disease! Between growing up with and surrounded by animals, that’s all I ever wanted.

“I’d be going farming with Daddy and bringing home premature lambs, convinced I could save them. I’d stay up late feeding them, even giving them a drop of poitín and eventually falling asleep on the couch with the lamb.”

Karen’s late parents Jimmy and Caít were always supportive of their daughter with her love of all creatures great and small. “I got Rusty when I was six or seven. Then when I joined the [East Galway] Pony Club, I had the loan of Declan Flanagan’s pony Misty.”

Often, there’s an element of ‘six degrees of separation’ with the characters in this series. Declan, the local vet with a great eye for a horse, is the next-door neighbour of Pony Club doyenne Liz Scott. “Liz was your other mother in the Pony Club. She just gathered us all under her wing and tried to to get us on the right track.

“Vida Tansey was another of our instructors and I did a lot of the national championships with Misty. Even though we once missed the combined training because we – my parents had gone along as well – got there late and missed the dressage!”

Caít was originally from Westport where the family went on holidays. “The others were going to the beach, going fishing.” Not Karen. “From eight o’clock in the morning I’d be gone to Paddy Joe and Padraic Foy’s yard in Drummindoo and stay there until night. I just wanted to be with the horses and the Foys were very good to me. Great times, great memories.”

A later and more poignant Mayo visit was the day Karen found her favourite horse Jack. “Dad had been up in Aughagower buying sheep and heard about this yearling. Mickey Moran bred him and he was by Clover Hill.

“He was, I suppose, the last horse myself and Mammy bought together. She was dying from cancer and wasn’t well enough to go into the paddock but she did see him from the gate. She loved horses as did Dad. Jack turned out to be a really nice horse and won the two-year-old class at Ballinasloe Show.”

Karen Lyons (right) on home ground at Ballinasloe Fair with Elaine Reynolds \ Susan Finnerty

Life experience

After her Leaving Cert, Karen went to the late Pam Gillespie’s yard in Mulhuddart. “It was such a good experience in the Pony Club, I decided I’d do my A.I. and went working for Pam, another lady who taught me so much. She was good, she was stern and she made sure things were done right.”

She then moved to Carrickmines Equestrian Centre as a working pupil. “Paul O’Leary and his mother, Mary are lovely people. I had a brilliant time there too. I was lucky as because I had teaching experience, helping Liz at Pony Club and at Pams, I got to do a lot of instructing. I enjoyed teaching.”

Then she moved back to Galway, first working at the Carey family’s Creagh Equestrian Centre before taking the plunge by setting up her own yard in Ballygar.

“That was around 2002. It was Daddy that knew about the equestrian centre coming up for rent, it was his idea to have a go. I was teaching, taking liveries, breaking, SJI shows on Friday nights, a little bit of everything. It was full on.”

Until the yard was hit by a strangles outbreak. “It was heart breaking. It’s already a huge responsibility looking after other people’s horses but then to have bastard strangles in the yard. The livery horses couldn’t be moved. Liam O’Malley, the local vet, was just brilliant. Once I knew the horses and ponies were all going to be fine, it was such a relief.

“I made the decision to get through that summer, do the pony camps and then finish on a good note.”

There were other reasons she had decided to close down. “The downturn had started, I had to rent land for grazing, you had rates, you had insurance,” she said, listing the rising costs on the balance sheet. “I’ve no regrets, I gave it my best and it’s a great rural community to live in, I’m still here in Ballygar.”

ISPCA calling

And there, with Karen taking up a job in Nightingale Nursing Home in Ahascragh, the story could well have ended. Another pony-mad girl who went on to work with horses, then made a go at running her own yard before moving on.

Until she saw a newspaper advertisement for an ISPCA animal care assistant. “It was only over in Lanesboro but I didn’t even know the Centre was there. I’d no computer or printer but Jackie and Charles Maudlin helped me to do one up. I called on Monday, did the interview on Wednesday and started part-time the following week!

“Isn’t it funny, I’d watch television programmes about animal inspectors, I remember one was about Liz O’Donovan, the Cork ISPCA inspector and going ‘Oh my God, I’d love that job!” and my mother, Lord rest her, used to say ‘that’s interesting’.”

A love of animals is a given on such a CV but can you still be a big softie in this tough job? “Oh you can but you have to hide it very well! You learn on the job, you have empathy but you can’t let your emotions take over until you get home. You just care about animals and you want to look after animals. I don’t know any other way of life.”

The ISPCA National Animal Centre in Keenagh, Co Longford, is one of nine nationwide ISPCA centres with Mallow and Letterkenny being the other main sites. “I’ve great colleagues and bosses, Kevin McGinley and Conor Dowling. We’re a small team and we rely on each other.”

Promoted to the rank of Inspector in 2012, no two days are the same. “Mostly you’re on the road and you have to allocate time to do up case files. Calls come into our helpline, complaints are sent to us and then we go to check these out. The ISPCA has had over 700 calls since Christmas in relation to equines.

“You try to conserve ISPCA diesel! You make a route plan in the morning but something could change, an urgent call could come in and that takes priority. Every call is investigated because you can’t leave anything to chance.

“Sometimes we have to wait for transport. We have vans so we can transport smaller animals, although once I had a Shetland pony foal in my van. He had collapsed so we had to get him back to the centre quickly. Needs must. He was safe and secure and best of all, he’s been rehomed since.”

Photos of rehomed animals living the life of Riley must be the silver lining reward for animal charities. However, to get those cases over the line often involves complex laws and sometimes, situations.

A day in court

“We’re authorised officers since 2013,” Karen explained. “With that authorisation from the Department of Agriculture, we have certain powers, say, to enter someone’s back garden or a shed and we’ve the power to seize an animal.”

ISPCA officers relied on An Garda Síochána to assist in gaining access and seizing animals prior to 2012. “We would become a witness then for the Guards and put our evidence forward to the Guards if they were bringing a state prosecution. It’s pretty much the same now, only we’re a witness to the State as an authorised officer.

“We gather the evidence, we interview people under caution, have our photographs, our statements and then we put all that forward, depending on what the situation may be, either to the Department or sometimes you’re dealing with the Guards. We are witnesses to both of those authorities.

“Our job is to present the evidence, the judge will make the decision and sometimes impose a hefty fine. All we can do is see that the legislation that is there is being used. These things take time, the courts are backed up. It can be frustrating.

“You’re dealing with individuals. No inspector is ever out to get anybody. Our first step is to advise and give people a chance. Failing that, we take it further. We see a lot of people with personal problems, then that passes on to the way they care for themselves, their property and their animals.

“It’s a horrible circle and sometimes it can’t be rectified and the only solution is to remove the animal. That mightn’t always end up in a prosecution, it might be somebody who’s gotten in above their head.

“Hoarding [animals] in Ireland is a huge problem. It’s a mental health issue and it’s a very difficult one to manoeuvre. You try and build up a relationship with those people, you want them to trust you. Is it always in the public’s best interest to prosecute a person like that? No, I don’t think so. You have to take a very measured approach to every call.

“It’s not black and white and people looking in from the outside... everyone has their own ideas on how an animal should be looked after and everyone is entitled to their opinions. The ISPCA is not out to get anyone, we’re there to make a difference and that’s the bottom line.”

So is the job a combination of both ‘the carrot and the stick’, through education or prosecution for blatant cruelty cases? “I think so, you’re niggling away the whole time.”

Fair day

Ballinasloe Fair, one of the events attended by the ISPCA, is on her home ground. “For sure, growing up pony-mad in Ballinasloe, I couldn’t wait from one October to another. Country Fair Day is my favourite day. The day the countryman comes in with his foal to sell, it’s a tradition. Although Country Fair Day will never be the same for me without Dad on the hill selling his sheep,” said Karen.

“People come to us with concerns, about a horse tethered for example. We’ll check it out, walk around the Green, offer advice. Some people say you’re great; with some, there is negativity.”

The fair is one of dozens of cancelled events this year due to Covid-19. Animal welfare is yet another area affected by the pandemic. “At the start of the outbreak, we were getting calls; ‘Could dogs and cats carry Covid?’ The science at the time said domestic dogs and cats don’t carry the virus.”

Dealing with owners, whose income has been hit by the pandemic and want to rehome pets is another issue. “Numbers-wise, we always seem to be up against it, we always seem to be full. We’ve over 70 dogs seized since Covid, they can’t be rehomed because the courts are all backed up,” said Karen about these canine ‘wards of court’. “They’re walked and loved and played with but that’s not a long term solution.

“We’re always looking for volunteers to help, playing with dogs, cats, walking them. Always welcome, although because of Covid, access is limited and we are rehoming animals by appointment only.

“We’d love to extend, have more animals, more staff but the money just isn’t there. Every little helps, including buying items from the ISPCA website. A lot of people presume the ISPCA is completely Government-funded but we’re not. The Department grant is always welcomed and we are very grateful for that grant. We really depend on the public too.”

As do other animal charities. “There’s a lot of very good rescues and charities out there, you just have to be careful not to be overwhelmed.”

‘Adopt, not shop’ and spaying/neutering pets are the mantras of pet rescue centres, all concerned about the recent spate of dog thefts. “It’s massive, every time I look at Facebook, there’s a new stolen dog,” Karen responded, advising owners to microchip their pets and to ensure that gardens are secure.

Puppy farm horror

She and her ISPCA colleagues are often sighted on various TV programmes but the media spotlight is not for her. “Do I enjoy it? Ah...no. It’s hard work because you get stuck into the job you’re on and forget the cameras are rolling. Like the time, Elaine [Reynolds] and I were on a call where there was loads of dogs being hoarded. This massive rat ran out of a shed and she took off. The language was good!

“I ended up crying on that episode because the owner got so upset. There you go, I cried on national television. So, no, I don’t like being on TV but I hope people learned from it.”

Another limelight moment happened on Dublin Puissance day when, unbeknownst to her, Liz Scott had placed a birthday request with the MC, The Irish Field’s Brendan McArdle.

“There was a break and the next thing, Brendan McArdle is walking towards me singing Happy Birthday. I was absolutely mortified, Liz is not forgiven to this day!”

Dublin is often an opportunity to meet up with school friend Edel Burke Quinn – “we had our 21st birthday parties together”– and her husband Jimmy, who owns Cappa Stud. In fact, it was Karen who first introduced Jimmy to Irish Draughts when he fell for a Sea Crest mare in her Ballygar yard.

“I’d still like to find a nice cob to go to Dublin or HOYS with. I miss having my own horse, of course I do.”

In the meantime, is there not the temptation to bring home every abandoned pet? “It’s like a chocolate factory for me! I’ve fostered a few that I’ve saved until we’ve found them forever homes. I had up to seven dogs, now I have four.”

Although a great Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush fan, those four dogs are ranked as the “best way to unwind. When you walk in the door after work and see my lads ready to greet me.”

And another lad, her fiancé and part-time farmer, David Naughton. Wedding plans? “No, we’re quite happy the way we are! Now, Anne Marie my sister, is the wedding planner, she’d have spreadsheets ready for organising a wedding day.”

Although Anne Marie and her family have since relocated to Toronto last summer, her previous South African home was an opportunity for Karen to visit there while on holidays from her job. Or vocation.

“It is a vocation and it takes a certain kind of person to do it. You’ll never know everything and the day you think you do is the day you’re in trouble. There’s little thank you and people recognising what you do along the way but that’s not why you do it. Animals aren’t the problem, it’s the people you sometimes deal with.”

One notorious example was the Myshall puppy farm, regarded as one of the worst neglect cases ever seen by the ISPCA. It took nine days for their team, together with the help of other animal rescue organisations, to remove 340 dogs and 11 horses from the premises in 2014 and four years to bring a conviction against its owner James Kavanagh. He subsequently received a three-year jail sentence and had a lifetime ban on owning horses and dogs imposed.

“We all got together to remove the dogs and that was a day and a place that none of us will ever forget. They’re [images] there in your mind. You won’t forget but you try to learn from it.

“I remember driving home from Carlow exhausted but...just to know that shed was empty...there was great satisfaction. You can make a difference.”