Kenilworth horse fair!!!!

[ticobay831]

Did anyone go to the Kenilworth horse fair yeaterday?
I popped in yesterday afternoon and wished i hadnt. It was so upsetting i was having such a nice day.
There were puppies in cages everywhere for sale most in appauling conditions. Three pups were in this one cage, the woman reckoned they were 8wks old, yeah right!!! they were so tiny more like four weeks!! there was one, that was so small and fragile looking he sat there with a huge pot belly but was really scrawny across his little back, he looked so poorly, i wish i could have taken him away with me, it was heart breaking. Then there was a coloured pony pulling two kids in a trap. He was clearly lame on his off fore, one of the gypsy men tightend up the bearing strap, i think thats what its called, it makes the horse hold its head up. The poor pony could hardly see where it was going its head was so high. It was taken off and driven round this huge field. It was appauling.
Where are the rspca when you need them!!! Nowhere to be found AS USUAL.
Sorry having a bit of a rant today, it really pissed me off yesterday seeing how those animals were being treated, i know it goes on everywhere, but it just bloody irritates me.
Like to get a big gun and blow.... ok i'll stop there.
Debs x

 

[Sugarplum Furry]

Debs, I know just how you feel !!

At Stow Horse fair (although I don't don't why they are called fairs....they are bloody unfair to horses) a couple of years ago I witnessed some lardy traveller bloke SITTING ASTRIDE a miniature shetland foal. It was a tiny colt, and the bloke was sitting on it, and beating it with a walking stick as it was collapsing under him. I remembered a couple of RSPCA bods had passed by behind a couple of minutes previously, so I raced along the track to find them. They had stopped at a burger van. I tapped one on the shoulder and asked if he could come and sort the situation out. He looked me up and down and said 'No, I'm eating my chips'.

A rather nasty scene followed, where I lost the plot, yelled at him, raced back and screamed at Lardy to get off the pony. Well he did, but only to advance on me waving his stick...my husband had to drag me out of there before battle commenced....I was so angry, and cried all the way home.
(I think one thing worse than having a fight is NOT having a fight, you know, when your all fired up).

But, somebody has to stick up for these ponies, and the other creatures being dragged miserably through the ordeal of a 'fair'. They don't have a voice. We do. This is 2006 for god's sake, not the 18th century, and there is absolutely no excuse for wilful cruelty.

If anybody wants entertaining next month I will be at Stow fair, 26th October, harassing a few horse dealers!!

 

[Twinkle Twinkle]

the rspca are a load of crap there usually sitting in there vans to scared to come out.

 

[ticobay831]

Nice one gala, your my type of person.

Ive approached rspca officers before now at local markets and beleive me they have no choice but to interveine, its the only way to shut me up!!
Maybe we should all get together get big sticks, sit on these dealers and beat the crap out of them!!!!!!!!!!

Debs x

 

[patchandloopy]

im not very far from Kenilworth and have never heard of the horse fair? where is it? is it on often??

 

[Sugarplum Furry]

Cheers Debs.

I've been thinking about this, as you do, and since H and H is such an influential magazine when it comes to horse welfare issues, I propose that the magazine attends the next fair and runs an article highlighting the dirty end of the horse industry in the UK. H and H could also get a campaign running to tighten up welfare laws relating to the fairs, and get some big names behind it....Detorri, Funnell, Fox-Pitt etc.

Or we could run a campaign to either boycott the fairs completely (who are they going to sell the horses to then?), or all turn up en masse and give them a hard time.

I'm sort of thinking out loud here, so please forgive it all seems far fetched. Equine Market Watch..google it in and get the website...have been trying for years to get better welfare at markets and fairs and it's so frustrating for everone concerned that nothing seems to change.

 

[ticobay831]

Equine market watch, i wrote an article for them about Derby market and the way the horses were treated there, also took a few pitures of some of the horses, that was quite difficult everyone watching. Allot of the people that attend these places are gypsies and they all support each other, theyre only out to make money couldnt give a damn about there animals. Trouble is they get away with it because the police and rspca are scared to death of them, they can be pretty nasty people.
I think somthing should be done, but what? i get myself so worked up about cruelty to animals and its so easy for people to say "i dont want to know it upsets me too much" well i think people should be made more aware of what goes on then maybe somthing would be done, if it angers people like it angers me and there was enough of us then who knows!!!!
sorry im going on again. The H&H thing sounds good, but there again would they do it, the mention of gypsies seem to put allot of people off. My oh says to me "you cant save the world" even if i could save a handfull of animals from suffering, its something, at least ive done something instead of sitting on my arse complaining, like allot of people do.
I bet theirs loads of people on here who have saved an animal in one way or another.
Im going to start a new post to find out just how many have rescued an animal.
Debs x

 

[ticobay831]

by the way the fair is on twice a year and it on the kenilworth roundabout that joins the A46.

 

[jinglejoys]

Never been to the Kennilworth one but there are also a lot of well looked after horses at Stowe so don't knock everyone!

 

[ticobay831]

Not knocking everybody, im sure that there are quite a few people that go to these fairs that look after thier animals well, its the ones that dont that concern me.

 

[Sugarplum Furry]

Hi Jinglejoys. No, I know not all of them are bad, and some of the horses and ponies at Stow especially are beautifully turned out and in lovely condition, but they are in the minority. If we boycotted, made a fuss or whatever, there is a good chance that the 'nice' dealers would turn on the rotten ones for giving the fair a bad name, losing them trade and creating adverse publicity, and maybe get them to sharpen up their act.

Traditionally the travelling community takes a lot of pride in their horses, but I think that tradition also dictates the way the horses are handled. Imagine being born in to that way of life, where it's 'traditional' to bang horses horses around with sticks, shout at them, break them to harness at a year old, race them around until they are crippled etc etc. , and any kinder way of handliing horses is scorned. How would you ever manage to change that way of thinking without denting the family reputation of being 'hard'? And yet the change has got to come from within the community somehow, because these people are so anti-establishment they are not going to take telling from, say, the RSPCA or any other authority.

Shoot look at the time, gotta go and iron hubby's shirt for work..!!

 

[jcberry]

i could believe what we saw debbie! cramped on the lorries too. And that man showing off his horse just cos we were looking at! Im not moaning at everybody cos i know most people arent like that, it was very upsetting watching it
sophie x