Q. “I have recently found a number of stray horses abandoned on a piece of forestry that I own. I only check the forestry occasionally and consequently do not know who put them there or when they were put there. What should I do?”

A. The Animal Health and Welfare Act 2013 came into operation on March 6th, 2014. The Act makes it an offence for a person to abandon an animal in his or her possession or under his or her control and a person may be fined on summary conviction of an amount up to €5,000 or imprisonment for up to six months, or both.