50 dead horses found illegally buried at a Danish Stud farm

[Maxidoodle]

Well, I have to say having lived in Denmark for over 3yrs, this just does not surprise me at all. The neglect there is shocking, even what we would consider to be basic care, isn’t given. I wonder if it is the abundance of land, cheap rural properties and the complete lack of knowledge (or care) that fuels the neglect. The very fact that the stud farm has been on the authorities radar for many years and the owner had received 35 warnings previously for his studs in Poland and Denmark (I’ve read a lot more in the Danish news).

Found approximately 50 deceased horses buried at stud farm - The Copenhagen Star - cphstar.dk

In recent times, Stuttetriet Viegård near Viborg has been accused of neglecting horses on the premises. Authorities have previously conducted inspections at the Stud Farm, and on Wednesday, Midt- og Vestjyllands Police, in collaboration with the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration...

www.cphstar.dk

 

[skint.spotty]

the images online are absolutely hideous

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

I can't look at the moment I feel a bit fragile but how disgusting.

 

[Maxidoodle]

the images online are absolutely hideous

They are.

 

[Maxidoodle]

I can't look at the moment I feel a bit fragile but how disgusting.

I hope you are ok. For anyone wanting to learn more, the article I linked above does not contain any images, just text.

 

[LadyGascoyne]

I’ve just come home from Denmark and this was spoken about so much while I was there. Everyone who mentioned it was absolutely horrified.

 

[Maxidoodle]

I’ve just come home from Denmark and this was spoken about so much while I was there. Everyone who mentioned it was absolutely horrified.

Can I ask what part of Denmark you went to? The stud in question was fairly close to where we lived in Jutland and it is a very different environment to other parts of Denmark (Sjælland for example where Copenhagen is).

They’re not a nation of animal lovers like we are. A lot of the disgust will also be that the horses were buried, illegally, as the Danes are so compliant, they will be horrified also that someone didn’t follow the law for disposal (DAKA, which you pay £200ish per horse for a wagon with a crane on it to come and pick your horse up and they are taken to the biomass plant.

 

[LadyGascoyne]

I was on Sjaelland for a few days just outside Copenhagen, with friends who have horses on livery. And then up to Aarhus for a bit to see my cousin and his wife who were particularly concerned about it. They keep their horses at her parent’s farm in rural Jutland on the east coast. I think the closest place of any consequence is Fjellerup. We spent a few days up there and it came up a few times whilst we were at the farm, with them and their friends who also keep horses. A mare which was gifted to me when I lived there is actually still with there, and kept and ridden by my friend’s teenage daughter. I might bring her home when she goes to university though. But that’s a tangent

There was definite concern about the horses but these are generally people who keep their own horses, and some of the family compete internationally in show jumping. I think a lot of concern was about not knowing it was going on, and there was concern for horses sold on and not knowing what their care is going to be.

 

[shortstuff99]

Danish equestrian is also under scrutiny via the Helgstrand issue and this rider being banned for a year for abusive riding. Not a good month for them!

Danish Warmblood Suspends Anders Sjobeck Hoeck for One Year after Disciplinary Hearing

Danish young rider Anders Uve Sjøbeck Hoeck has been suspended for one year from all Danish warmblood related competitions and events following a disciplinary hearing.

eurodressage.com

 

[Maxidoodle]

I was on Sjaelland for a few days just outside Copenhagen, with friends who have horses on livery. And then up to Aarhus for a bit to see my cousin and his wife who were particularly concerned about it. They keep their horses at her parent’s farm in rural Jutland on the east coast. I think the closest place of any consequence is Fjellerup. We spent a few days up there and it came up a few times whilst we were at the farm, with them and their friends who also keep horses. A mare which was gifted to me when I lived there is actually still with there, and kept and ridden by my friend’s teenage daughter. I might bring her home when she goes to university though. But that’s a tangent

There was definite concern about the horses but these are generally people who keep their own horses, and some of the family compete internationally in show jumping. I think a lot of concern was about not knowing it was going on, and there was concern for horses sold on and not knowing what their care is going to be.

Unless your mare is stud book registered and worth bringing over, I’d suggest to you that it’s probably a good idea to leave her there. The work we had to do and the hoops we had to jump through to get our three British born ponies home (two stud book registered and our mare who isn’t stud book registered), was phenomenal. Not to mention having to have our 4th pony PTS sleep, as we were told the Danish State vet would refuse to sign him off to travel, just based on his age (33), regardless of his health and fitness, as the Danes don’t generally keep their equines alive after their early twenties .

The Danish ministry is an absolute nightmare to deal with too. They don’t understand the EU rules and make it incredibly and unnecessarily complex and their own weird things like the fact that we had to drive a three hour round trip the day before they were due, to go and buy special “Kingdom of Denmark” watermarked paper for the state vet to print the health certificates on, as the vet doesn’t carry their own paper to print on.

Just might be worth you knowing what you’re potentially getting into if you did decide to bring her over.

 

[LadyGascoyne]

Unless your mare is stud book registered and worth bringing over, I’d suggest to you that it’s probably a good idea to leave her there. The work we had to do and the hoops we had to jump through to get our three British born ponies home (two stud book registered and our mare who isn’t stud book registered), was phenomenal. Not to mention having to have our 4th pony PTS sleep, as we were told the Danish State vet would refuse to sign him off to travel, just based on his age (33), regardless of his health and fitness, as the Danes don’t generally keep their equines alive after their early twenties .

The Danish ministry is an absolute nightmare to deal with too. They don’t understand the EU rules and make it incredibly and unnecessarily complex and their own weird things like the fact that we had to drive a three hour round trip the day before they were due, to go and buy special “Kingdom of Denmark” watermarked paper for the state vet to print the health certificates on, as the vet doesn’t carry their own paper to print on.

Just might be worth you knowing what you’re potentially getting into if you did decide to bring her over.

Oh interesting! Thank you. Yes, she is stud book registered and she’s graded. She’s 14, and very fit and well. She’d go with a pro transporter / importer through the family.

I would only bring her back if her rider isn’t able to look after her anymore and if my cousin’s family don’t want to keep her on the farm indefinitely - I’m not sure I’d want her to be sold. Otherwise she will stay there.

I’m very sorry to hear about your pony, that must have been incredibly stressful and sounds like very odd advice from whoever it was re not having old horses in Denmark. Mistral’s dam is 20 and still in full work. Her grand dam and her grand dams’s half sister are in hacking work at 26. No one has mentioned retiring them yet, let alone letting them go.

I’m not sure if they would be retired completely though, thinking about it. I suspect that if the mares were too stiff or sore to hack, they would be put down. They don’t do a lot, perhaps hacking once or twice a week but I think they probably wouldn’t have horses who weren’t sound standing in a field.

I would say that there is an element of considering usefulness and contribution from the horses which may not be entirely consistent with the U.K. pet horse concept but I haven’t found it massively foreign when compared to people keeping hunters or horses for sport.

One competition yard in Denmark where I rode for a while did put horses down too quickly for me, personally, although I wouldn’t say the horses suffered. They were running a business producing young horses for top competition and by their logic, large sports horses who are bred and kept entirely for sport are not appropriate leisure horses or pets. If they needed to be retired from sport due to injury, and didn’t have breeding value, they would be put down.

 

[Maxidoodle]

Oh interesting! Thank you. Yes, she is stud book registered and she’s graded. She’s 14, and very fit and well. She’d go with a pro transporter / importer through the family.

I would only bring her back if her rider isn’t able to look after her anymore and if my cousin’s family don’t want to keep her on the farm indefinitely - I’m not sure I’d want her to be sold. Otherwise she will stay there.

I’m very sorry to hear about your pony, that must have been incredibly stressful and sounds like very odd advice from whoever it was re not having old horses in Denmark. Mistral’s dam is 20 and still in full work. Her grand dam and her grand dams’s half sister are in hacking work at 26. No one has mentioned retiring them yet, let alone letting them go.

I’m not sure if they would be retired completely though, thinking about it. I suspect that if the mares were too stiff or sore to hack, they would be put down. They don’t do a lot, perhaps hacking once or twice a week but I think they probably wouldn’t have horses who weren’t sound standing in a field.

I would say that there is an element of considering usefulness and contribution from the horses which may not be entirely consistent with the U.K. pet horse concept but I haven’t found it massively foreign when compared to people keeping hunters or horses for sport.

One competition yard in Denmark where I rode for a while did put horses down too quickly for me, personally, although I wouldn’t say the horses suffered. They were running a business producing young horses for top competition and by their logic, large sports horses who are bred and kept entirely for sport are not appropriate leisure horses or pets. If they needed to be retired from sport due to injury, and didn’t have breeding value, they would be put down.

It’s a lot easier to bring her over if she’s stud book registered. The ministry sent us two bills for entering the two registered boys onto TRACES and checking the journey log for my unregistered mare, plus the state vet visit, which has equated to almost £800. They hardly did a thing! Parker’s brought ours back over (they took them there 3yrs ago) and we’re just brilliant, their agent (based in France was amazing and dealt with a lot of nonsense too). Denmark is apparently notorious for being difficult to deal with to get horses out of the country.

Our own vet first told us that our little 33yr old wouldn’t be allowed to travel by the state vet, as he said it’s rare to see anything in their 30s, as they are generally put to sleep early (which isn’t a bad thing I agree, better a day too early), friends then also confirmed The state vet was extremely strict and they do everything by the letter, so there would be no way to get him home. So bloody frustrating, as he was doing so well and our own vet had already said if it was then who signed them off to travel, he’d have no issues signing him off, as he was fit and well.

I guess it’s as horses are classed as livestock in Denmark, a lot of people seemed surprised that ours were pets and they seemed to not really see the point of having horses as pets. It’s just a whole different concept out there, most Horses seem to be considered useless if they can’t be ridden or used in some way.