Watch: Video shows horses almost colliding with cars in Cherry Orchard, Dublin

The two horses can be seen making their way down an embankment before running across a main road, with the first animal narrowly avoiding collision with a taxi.

“We need a dedicated animal welfare unit to ensure existing legislation is enforced,” said Martina Kenny, co-founder of My Lovely Horse Rescue.

The video which was posted on social media showed the incident which occurred in south west Dublin, alongside a caption which said:

“Cherry Orchard Dublin yesterday at 6pm, taxi was not slowing down! Horses roaming! Law is not enforced. It is not only up to our under resourced An Garda Síochána it is up to all authorities working together. Forget to give it water, jockey it up and down. Who cares.”

“We ask the public to email Drew Harris, the Garda Commissioner: commissioner@garda.ie and request that an animal welfare unit is established,” said Ms Kenny.

"We know there are Gardaí who want a position like this created.

“They want to ensure that those who abuse and neglect animals face prosecutions. It is time, we need this, it is vital,” Ms Kenny said.

Twitter users reacted with disbelief and sadness to the video of the dark and white horses.

“The lawlessness is staggering,” said one.

“Poor creatures,” said another.

“See the same at cashel Tipperary, horses on the main roads , and amount of dogs roaming around looking for food . If you know you know,” said one user.

“It's frustrating and despicable. The Government are doing nothing to rectify this crisis,” said another.

In January, a donkey was rescued following a disturbing video on social media in which it was dragged behind a car in Co Offaly.

The video went viral on Tiktok, causing outage from many social media users and led to Gardaí opening an investigation. The animal is now in the care of the Donkey Sanctuary Ireland.

On top of that, one animal welfare group described the experience of unweaned calves – dependent on milk – on sale at Irish marts, during the first leg of a journey across Europe by saying;

“It must be a nightmare for them.”