Drop off centres for unwanted horses?

[Polos Mum]

Scratching my head for some sort of practical response to these tragic abandonment cases recently. The 2 colts in the news today just another example of this horrible form of fly tipping.
If people are bothered to load them up and drive them somewhere quiet - while alive! couldn't we have some sort of anonymous / prosecution free places to take them to - at least so they can be PTS quickly not left to die in the cold slowly. If vets signed up to it you could have a network around the country (or in areas where which is most prolific)
Would there even be a hope that people would dump them a little before it's completely too late? so the odd one could make it.

Would hunts take these kinds of poor things in for hound food? Should that me much better advertised ?

Or should we all be getting horses put back on the dog food menu so the 6 month old colour colt is at least worth £25 for dog food and won't be pushed out the back of a truck unable to stand in a storm

Sorry for ranting - really made me sad this morning reading the news AGAIN !

 

[rowan666]

In theory that's a great idea but in reality who would find it?

 

[Goldenstar]

Who would pay for these drop of centres ?

 

[Polos Mum]

I don't think you'd build anything new - just get existing vet horspitals/ hunts/ large racing yards with quarantine facilitates etc. to sign up and somehow advertise it as a drop off centre.
Who pays to PTS the ones they find dump currently? - the RSPCA I'd guess or even local council - someone is paying anyway at the moment (not the owners obviously)
No not a big cost - just getting the owners to understand there are no implications of leaving them somewhere they can be dealt with promptly

 

[blitznbobs]

No one would sign up you'd get 'do gooders ' hanging round them in a misguided endeavour to stop them 'murdering' innocent ponies.

 

[Goldenstar]

I don't think you'd build anything new - just get existing vet horspitals/ hunts/ large racing yards with quarantine facilitates etc. to sign up and somehow advertise it as a drop off centre.
Who pays to PTS the ones they find dump currently? - the RSPCA I'd guess or even local council - someone is paying anyway at the moment (not the owners obviously)
No not a big cost - just getting the owners to understand there are no implications of leaving them somewhere they can be dealt with promptly

Great, a carte Blanche to abuse your animal to the edge of life and leave it where someone else picks up the pieces with no sanction .
No thanks terrible idea .

 

[Polos Mum]

Great, a carte Blanche to abuse your animal to the edge of life and leave it where someone else picks up the pieces with no sanction .
No thanks terrible idea .

But they have this already - the foaling mare driven out and dumped obviously wasn't worth the vets call out charge - and the 2 colts over night similarly - the abuse is happening already -
As I said scratching my head - how else do you try and stop it? Or just accept if you go walking on quiet country back roads you might find a half dead colt too weak to move out of your way and THEN the council is called to shoot it.

 

[Polos Mum]

Or do you get the councils to pre pay the local slaughter man and get him to make friends with the likely owners or these poor creatures so he can PTS them on site without filling in too much paper work?

 

[MiniMilton]

Horse disposal is expensive, someone would have to fund it. Even if the PTS was free what do you do with the body?Somebody would have to collect it which costs time and money.
No vet wants a bunch of horse bodies laying around their premisis. Then you would get people transporting their very poorly equines to avail of free pts.
I think the only solution is proper jail time for the ones who get caught.

 

[Goldenstar]

Or do you get the councils to pre pay the local slaughter man and get him to make friends with the likely owners or these poor creatures so he can PTS them on site without filling in too much paper work?

Why should we encourage people to behave illegally let them off with out sanction and pay for it .
It's a mad idea .

 

[Goldenstar]

Horse disposal is expensive, someone would have to fund it. Even if the PTS was free what do you do with the body?Somebody would have to collect it which costs time and money.
No vet wants a bunch of horse bodies laying around their premisis. Then you would get people transporting their very poorly equines to avail of free pts.
I think the only solution is proper jail time for the ones who get caught.

I would not go to a vet who did such work I would be subsistising it .

 

[Polos Mum]

But other people are already paying for the PTS and disposal and all the (probably more expensive) costs of sorting the mess out when these are dumped. You and I/ the council paid for those 2 colts in the press today to be PTS collected and their bodies disposed of, we already are doing this.

What would the better solution be? The police are so under funded they will never have resource to investigate and find the owners let alone get a successful prosecution and filling up jails which are at crisis point can't be sensible use of tax payers funds!

What is a practical solution - or do we just go on ignoring?

 

[pennyturner]

If it weren't for the red tape, every horse would be worth roughly 70p per kilo as dog food, and that in itself would encourage the bottom feeders to set up in the 'horse disposal' business.

Horse passports and EU regs on human consumption effectively killed the horsemeat business, and the current situation is the direct result.
It is madness that 500kg of meat is a £400 liability, not a £300 asset.

 

[rowan666]

But other people are already paying for the PTS and disposal and all the (probably more expensive) costs of sorting the mess out when these are dumped. You and I/ the council paid for those 2 colts in the press today to be PTS collected and their bodies disposed of, we already are doing this.

What would the better solution be? The police are so under funded they will never have resource to investigate and find the owners let alone get a successful prosecution and filling up jails which are at crisis point can't be sensible use of tax payers funds!

What is a practical solution - or do we just go on ignoring?

I agree something does need to be done but realistically council funding and services nation wide have been cut drastically already so i cant see any that would opt for this the BHS already run castration clinics although saddly they can only do so much and I'm guessing those that should use that service, in reality, don't. I would happily pay more for my BHS membership though if they could somehow offer this service?

 

[Goldenstar]

I would have the situation properly policed .
I am happy to pay for that .
I would do with the ridiculous notion that's it's not PC to say don't get horses you can't afford it's wrong to do so .

 

[Polos Mum]

The money thing I don't think is the big point - this cost is being incurred largely by councils at the moment - it couldn't cost any more to have it done in some sort of planned/ organised fashion. Councils can't (and never will) just leave dead horses all over the place - so they have to pay already to have them taken away (and PTS if they aren't already dead)

Unless we think loads more people would start neglecting their horses if PTS was free ! (I hope we live in a slightly better world than that!)

 

[pennyturner]

Why not put the effort into establishing a viable route to market for the meat. That way fewer old horses would be neglected, because they'd be worth something to the meat man again. More abbatoirs, more employment, cheaper dog food, and better horse welfare.

Problem is, that doesn't scan well for the money-collecting machines who are the animal welfare charities. Nobody gives money to a charity which wants to build an abbatoir and ensure lots of old, poorly ponies are shot as quickly as possible. Otherwise they'd be lobbying for just that.

 

[Goldenstar]

The money thing I don't think is the big point - this cost is being incurred largely by councils at the moment - it couldn't cost any more to have it done in some sort of planned/ organised fashion. Councils can't (and never will) just leave dead horses all over the place - so they have to pay already to have them taken away (and PTS if they aren't already dead)

Unless we think loads more people would start neglecting their horses if PTS was free ! (I hope we live in a slightly better world than that!)

We certainly would have loads of people dropping them off to be PTS for free .

 

[Sparemare]

We have a huge problem with abandoned gypsy colts in this area. To be honest I can't imagine the people who abandon them would be bothered to take them to an 'approved' place to abandon them humanely, any more than they would take their rubbish to a tip rather than fly tipping.

 

[Polos Mum]

We certainly would have loads of people dropping them off to be PTS for free .

Maybe the abbatoir route is the right option then - if there are load of horses only being kept alive by people because they can't afford the £150 odd the knackerman charges. I think I'd happily feed horse to my dogs to never have to look at similar to the photo on H&H this morning!

Pennyturner - you're right though reinstating them might not be super fashionable !

 

[Micropony]

We certainly would have loads of people dropping them off to be PTS for free .

I completely agree. I am having a particularly grumpy curmudgeonly day today and my proposal would be that people shouldn't be allowed to have animals unless they can prove the means and inclination to look after them properly. Or children, for that matter.

 

[pennyturner]

There are plenty of people who would sell their own granny to the knackerman for £100, never mind a horse. Making it pay is the key.

 

[luckyoldme]

There are plenty of people who would sell their own granny to the knackerman for £100, never mind a horse. Making it pay is the key.

true!!!!

 

[Clodagh]

Golden star, it isn't that these people cannot afford to have their animals either properly looked after or pts humanely, it is that they do not value them sufficiently to spend the money. I bet the men that dumped those colts today have a shiny new pick up and caravan.

 

[Fairynuff]

in the US they have euthanasia clinics where you can take your sick/old or unwanted to be humanely PTS. Good idea but I can't see it working in the UK. More equine slaughter houses is the only answer to the glut that we have at the moment then closely followed by a ban on breeding unless you are licensed .

 

[Cecile]

There are plenty of people who would sell their own granny to the knackerman for £100, never mind a horse. Making it pay is the key.

What about this? I saw it on Dragon Driving
I have no idea who, what or where as I haven't seen this advert previously

http://www.dragondriving.co.uk/horseforsale-97952.html

 

[Goldenstar]

Golden star, it isn't that these people cannot afford to have their animals either properly looked after or pts humanely, it is that they do not value them sufficiently to spend the money. I bet the men that dumped those colts today have a shiny new pick up and caravan.

I am certain this is probably the case .
But I am not paying to PTS their horses while they get away freed from any sanction

 

[Nudibranch]

Surely it's not a case of one solution. I doubt it will ever stop but surely a combination of (1) the continuation of the castration clinics, (2) more equine slaughter houses, and (3) proper prosecution of those caught doing it would be a better deterrent. Yes, in an ideal world people would have to prove they have the means/education to own a horse but that is too woolly, too difficult and too expensive to carry out. And yes, the police are overstretched, as are all the public sector under this government but if there's money for HS2, Trident and all the rest then surely there's funding to tweak the existing state of affairs. There will never be a total solution but imo those three are our best bet.

 

[pennyturner]

What about this? I saw it on Dragon Driving
I have no idea who, what or where as I haven't seen this advert previously

http://www.dragondriving.co.uk/horseforsale-97952.html

Good spot. I haven't seen this advert before. Do any of the hunts advertise their services? Our local ones no longer offer the service, alas.

 

[D66]

If all the horses were micro chipped and passported it would be possible to find the owners. It is once again the case that we have the laws in place, but they are not enforced.