Enough Neglect To Be Removed ?

devilwoman

devilwoman

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Accross the road from where I live is a lovely kids park with a ballcourt, swings etc, and plonked up one end on a chain attached to a headcollar is an old 15.2hh (ish) trotter who is extremely underweight, looked bedraggled and unkempt, hooves not too bad but not perfect, but recently has had his chain wrapped round his back leg and got a nasty cut on his fetlock.

The playing field is surrounded by houses each side and a few of the "old ladies" have taken to caring for him as his owners (local well known travellers) dont come to him daily, so they are taking him over bucket loads of carrotts, apples, potato peelings, bread you get the gist and are filling his water bucket twice a day.

I go to the field most days with my young nephew so always pop over to him and give him scratch and turn round and let him have a good scratch of his head on my back, he's always so itchy.

I have tried to tell the old ladies about what they are giving him etc, but they don't like to see him going without, RSPCA have been phoned and visited twice, but as he has water and grass will do nothing about him, last week I phoned our local pony sanctuary who also visited and said the same, despite the injury to his fetlock not being tended to.

I am spending so much time worrying over this poor old lad (believed to be about 25 years old) because of the winter coming in, when it was pouring with rain the other day I popped over to see him, he was standing with his back to the rain all hunched up, and looking thoroughly depressed, which to be fair he does look depressed most days.

i have taken photos of him on my phone and of the injury which I e-mailed to the pony sanctuary but am a bit worried about posting them on here as he's not mine and because who his owners are.

Any suggestions who to turn to next, I really want to get this old boy off of that chain before winter ?
 
I would try the BHS welfare line. Sounds awful but sadly not as bad as some. If nothing else they could give sone advice to the well-doers who will give the poor thing colic.
 
Thank you both I will ring BHS Welfare Line.

I really wish I could take him off them, would love to give him a home and see him off that chain, fat and happy BUT sadly I can't, I have 2 of my own already, although I did do a lucky dip on the lotto tonight as well as my other 2 lines in the hope I could win, buy him and give him a lovely retirement, as usual though I got nothing :-(
 
I would go down the route of contacting whoever owns/runs the park since there is a liability issue for them if they allow the horse to remain. Not only if a kid gets hurt but also under the welfare act. If they do the correct notices and the horse isnt removed, they may be able to seize it which sound like the best thing for the horse.

My old YO is near a (small, legal) travellers site and on more than one occasion she has had to help the welfare charities deal with a horse so abused it had to be put down, or even deal with the police regarding the corpse of a horse thrown out onto the road and left there......

Edited to add personally I dont have an issue with tethering overnight when travellers are travelling (since horse will have fresh ground to munch on) but to tether horses on land that you have no permission for them to be on, and to leave them tethered for weeks or months and not move the tether regularly to me is unacceptable and should be an offence.
 
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lachlanandmarcus said:
I would go down the route of contacting whoever owns/runs the park since there is a liability issue for them if they allow the horse to remain. Not only if a kid gets hurt but also under the welfare act. If they do the correct notices and the horse isnt removed, they may be able to seize it which sound like the best thing for the horse.

My old YO is near a (small, legal) travellers site and on more than one occasion she has had to help the welfare charities deal with a horse so abused it had to be put down, or even deal with the police regarding the corpse of a horse thrown out onto the road and left there......

Edited to add personally I dont have an issue with tethering overnight when travellers are travelling (since horse will have fresh ground to munch on) but to tether horses on land that you have no permission for them to be on, and to leave them tethered for weeks or months and not move the tether regularly to me is unacceptable and should be an offence.
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Thanks for the reply, I did think of phoning the local council but was worried that they would just make him move the old boy off the field and then where would he end up, at least where he is he is getting watered daily, its not right, if folk don't want to take care of animals why do they have them :mad:
 
Can't you but a bag of horse feed and give it to the old ladies to feed him? We've bought a neglect case food-been feeding it several weeks now and it already looks so much better :-) we also rugged her!
 
devilwoman said:
Thanks for the reply, I did think of phoning the local council but was worried that they would just make him move the old boy off the field and then where would he end up, at least where he is he is getting watered daily, its not right, if folk don't want to take care of animals why do they have them :mad:
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It's a gamble; depending on what you think the owners will do, if they remove him then he's out of your control, but they may not, in which case he could be rescued

What about when the people watering him go on holiday, or move away, or pass away....they can't do it forever.
 
Sadly if the welfare organistations have visited and said he isn't bad enough to be removed (although I wouldn't trust the RSPCA on this) then it will only be when his condition deteriorates sufficiently that action can be taken, and while it seems completely counter intuitive, it is sometimes better in the long term to not feed/water the horse as it is inadvertently keeping him in that situation.

We had a similar incident near us when horses were neglected no action could be taken because they were getting fed by well meaning strangers.:(
The RSPCA did turn up with small amounts of hay, sufficient to keep them from starving, and they were moved on shortly afterwards.
 
This is where I don't understand the Animal Welfare Act, and I admit I have not read it in full, but surely the way this horse is being kept is not within the criteria laid down by the Act, i.e. with its own kind/able to see its own kind, freedom of movement, etc. (sorry, I can't remember the correct wording).

OP try the BHS.
 
MrsMozart said:
This is where I don't understand the Animal Welfare Act, and I admit I have not read it in full, but surely the way this horse is being kept is not within the criteria laid down by the Act, i.e. with its own kind/able to see its own kind, freedom of movement, etc. (sorry, I can't remember the correct wording).

OP try the BHS.
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tethering a horse is not illegal, as long as it can display normal behaviour, (which is a grey area when it comes to tethered horses) if the tether is too short to allow stretching, self grooming, grazing and movement, then yes it can be acted on, if however it is long enough to allow above then no. the part about being housed with or apart from other animals, if you applied to this horse you'd have to apply to every person on here who has a single horse at home etc. Now if the horse were openly distressed from being alone then again you could argue that the horse was suffering.

The main issue here is food, water and care and sorry but whilst other people are taking it upon themselves to provide these the horse has his needs met to some extent regardless of who is providing it.

Did the rspca attend pre or post fetlock injury? does it require vet attention? If it does I would call them back and advise of this as this could be an avenue that could get a result.

Otherwise I'm sadly afraid it's going to be a case of monitoring the situation until it deteriorates to an extent where by the pony can be removed. How poor is the condition now. compare to the diagrams on this link: http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/livestock/horses/facts/98-101.htm
 
Tethered animals okay, in some circumstances it's necessary and as you say CD, if it's long enough and the animal can move (without getting caught up!). Re. the horse being on it's own and other horses being on their own, well if those horses need to be with others, then surely it is right and proper that action is taken? I know of two horses that really don't like being with others, so to put them in a herd situation would be wrong for those animals, but on the whole horses are herd animals. We have a pony that was kept on his own for quite some months before we got him, but he's very happy in a herd and has chilled out from what he was, so the herd situation is right for him and being on his own was wrong.

Hope that's come across how I meant it :)
 
There must be so many animals in the category of "not quite bad enough for intervention" but still in a poor state and suffering.

I don't know what to suggest, I just wanted to say I feel for the OP. This sort of thing can keep animal-lovers awake at night, and yet there's often little you can do.
 
How about contacting local press if you don't get joy anywhere else? You also should try to explain to those people feeding and watering him that they are preventing his rescue, and can they stop please. Poor old boy :(
 
This sounds a bit strange, the travellers I have met over the years would not saddle themselves with a very old horse which had no purpose. If they have kept him at all it suggests that they might be fond of him, however poorly they may look after him.

It might be worth having a word with them, the ones I know are quite reasonable people if they are approached correctly. Offer them some money for him and tell them he would go to a good home, dont mention rescue. Obviously not much money, if they agree then we could have a campaign on here similar to Rosie. I, and I am sure other would help with small donations. Perhaps someone could even offer him a home, it happened for Rosie, even though she did not need it.
 
My friend was once warned by the RSPCA that if she fed and cared for an apparently neglected horse that she would be open to prosecution as a "care-taker" which, in a worst case scenario, could result in her being banned from keeping animals herself.

So I'd tread very carefully around caring for this horse if people are reporting it.
 
Thank you for all the replies, and to answer some of the questions, the RSPCA have said that they would have to do something if no-body gave him water although they would still not remove the horse it would be to "educate" his owner about correct watering, I have suggested to the old ladies that they take him water and let him drink then leave his bucket empty and call RSPCA/Horse Welfare whilst his bucket is empty to see if that has any effect, but unfortunatley i'm drumming on deaf ears at the moment. The main lady who does the feeding spoke to me yesterday evening and told me she'd cut her back garden grass in the afternoon (I know you all know what i'm going to say before I say it) and yes she gave the cuttings to him "and he absolutely loved them" !!! I told her straight about grass cuttings and colic etc, and she said she would never give him them again. I said to her that if she insists on feeding him I would give her a bag of mix and a bale of hay which he would benefit from much better than what she is currently feeding, so thats what I have done, this morning I dropped a bale of hay to her house and a sack of cheap livery mix, told her to give him just a little in the morning and evening and a section of hay morning and evening so he doesn't poop and pee all on it and i'll see how its going during the week, I think i'm getting in deeper than I really should here but can't switch off so have to see this through one way or the other, the lady does speak to the traveller guy when he does come to move his chain and she says he seems very nice although apparently has driven this old boy several times since he's been there (i've never seen that or the owner) and apparently has run him round and round and round the playing area until he's dripping in sweat in a sulky trap then just stuck him back on his chain and left him there. i'm going to upload the photos for some opinions and see what you all think, maybe i'm overreacting :0(

I have also today washed his fetlock in hibiscrub and put some antisceptic cream on it as it was looking a bit manky this morning.
 
So these are photos from my mobile and are not very good, they do him quite a bit of justice to be honest, he looks worse "in real life" but you will get the gist ;-

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Aww, poor old man, he doesn't deserve to live like that.

That said I seriously doubt if he is a rescue case. Just hate to think of him being there, especially if the winter is going to be as bad as forcast.
 
Copied from RSPCA website;
The five welfare needs

This means pet owners are now legally obliged to care for their pet properly - which most owners already do - by providing these five basic needs:

•somewhere suitable to live

•a proper diet, including fresh water

•the ability to express normal behaviour

•for any need to be housed with, or apart from, other animals

•protection from, and treatment of, illness and injury.

Surely this poor old boy doesn't have somewhere suitable to live? he has no shelter for a start? He isn't in the best condition and his owners clearly don't care enough to even provide him with water. With the winter fast approaching surely it isn't justified in leaving him there?

That's so sad,whilst I've seen much worse it's really dissapointing that the welfare organisations think it's an appropriate way to keep an elderly horse.

Really hope something can be done to help him before winter.
 
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