Thousands of farm animals will die of hunger within the next two months unless the Government takes action, according to the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
ISPCA chairwoman Ms Angela McCarthy said yesterday the society had received an unprecedented number of reports of farm animals dying or being held in terrible conditions.
"Inspectors who have worked for this organisation for 30 years are telling me they have never seen anything like what is happening on Irish farms, where there is little or no food for animals," she said. "The main complaints concern animals standing all day in waterlogged fields with nowhere to lie down and no grazing.
"We have reports of lambs being born in fields where they are being dropped into water and dying. We have had reports of death from starvation," Ms McCarthy said.
Vets had substantiated the reports and also agreed that the weather, which has led to the shortage of hay and silage, had never been so bad, she added.
"We have reports from all over the Republic and it appears that in the autumn, farmers from the west coast have purchased all surplus fodder on the east coast and now there is a nationwide shortage of hay and silage," she said.
Where available, the price of small bales of hay had risen to £6 or £7 per bale, more than twice the normal price for such an amount.
"Normally, we begin to get reports about the treatment of animals at this time of year from counties like Donegal and Leitrim where, for geographical and other reasons, feeding can be scarce," Ms McCarthy said.
"We have, unfortunately, plenty of video evidence of welfare problems from around the country. We have footage from Wexford, which traditionally has been the model county for farming."
Ms McCarthy said the ISPCA had sought a meeting with farm organisations and the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, but so far, there had been no response to the requests.
"The Government must move quickly, because failure to do so will result, very quickly, in many farm animals dying and great welfare problems on Irish farms," she said.
Last night, the president of the Irish Farmers' Association, Mr Tom Parlon, said Mr Walsh had given him a commitment, following a meeting yesterday, that he would seek additional funding from the Department of Finance to ease fodder difficulties.