[Livia]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

around where I work the problem is how they treat their horses, they dump them on other peoples/companies land without adequate food or security, they end up walking around the roads alot of times. A friend of mine and her husband have started a group that goes round feeding them and arranging vet care for them. Sulky racing is a big problem too, just down the road from where I work last week one of the horses collapsed on the road while they were in a sulky, they just unclipped him from it and left him there on the road to die. It's heart breaking

Disgusting. I don't know if it's the same in Ireland, but the police are scared of confronting them. Last year in Cromer - a costal town - the place was all but shut down when the travellers arrived... and it was like an invasion. And where were the police? Nowhere. Afterwards they apologised and said that lessons had been learned, etc... but the fact is that the locals had to fend for themselves.

And as AJ was saying about the supermarket... I've seen them descend on a supermarket en masse and the staff have had to follow them round the shop. There's also been a spate of them nicking stuff from charity shops. Charity shops!

A Labrador was stolen from my local village. Eight years old, beloved family pet... taken by travellers and used as a bait dog in a dog fight. The owners were distraught as you can imagine. Another part of the traveller culture we're not supposed to interfere with?

Conversely, not far from me, not even a mile, is a Romany camp. It's immaculate and they're really nice people, their kids go to the local school, they use the local pubs and there has never been a problem with them.

Travellers cannot continue to be a law unto themselves, and hanging flowers outside this couple's house was a provocative act.