Stray Horses shot by council in Hertfordshire

There are no words to even start discussing all the very wrong actions that went on here.

How were so any people (several council people, marksmen, police etc) able to come to such the wrong conclusion

I'd like to think of a reason to sue them so they (and any other similar organisations!) really learned never to even consider this again - a bit of bad press won't do it sadly
 
Surely there were quite a few members of the public watching this unfold, did they not question them when the man with the gun came out?! I know I'd cause hell if I saw this happening. Absolutely insane.
 
OWLIE185 said:
Which horse welfare organisation advised them on how to proceed?
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They won't say and no-one came out. It's all very well people saying the horses may have been I handled, dumped, feral, whatever, but thing is, no-one got near enough to check, did they? Or were they expecting the horses to heel them like dogs? Not sure if the park is enclosed, I might pop round at the weekend to look. The park behind my street is, bar the people sized gates and the field/park up the road is on swing or kissing gates. Might ask a mate who lives down the road.
 
Thought there was a law about discharging a weapon in a public place too I know of a chap sent to goal for shooting a dog too close to a public highway
 
putasocinit said:
Darting could have easily been done by an experienced deer hunter
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Not in a public area .
I have been present when the police shot a pony that had gone feral close to a major A road .
The day before the RSPCA can managed to get it into a small paddock and left it to settle .
Despite them talking to all the local villagers and telling them to stay away and not attempt to feed or water it they chose to do so and it jumped out and ran away again galloping down a dual carriage in the dark causing mayhem .
The next day I arrived ( having been booked to help with the operation to get it into a wagon).
We worked all day to trying to get back into a enclosed area but with dark approaching the decision was taken to shoot it .
A police marksman killed it cleanly with one shot .
It was a quality pony recently shod what had happened was never discovered the owner never came forward .
 
Disgusting, those poor horses must have been terrified being chased by a quad, everyone should send an email, stating why this action was wrong, three of mine escaped onto a busy main road, luckily not for long, police called the local EC, I called the police when I found the field empty and the report of loose horses had just come in, police and staff from the EC came, by which time the beggars were caught and headcollared, so a happy ending, but I moved shortly after.
Come on people let this stupid council know how wrong they were, off to send an email
 
flirtygerty said:
Disgusting, those poor horses must have been terrified being chased by a quad, everyone should send an email, stating why this action was wrong, three of mine escaped onto a busy main road, luckily not for long, police called the local EC, I called the police when I found the field empty and the report of loose horses had just come in, police and staff from the EC came, by which time the beggars were caught and headcollared, so a happy ending, but I moved shortly after.
Come on people let this stupid council know how wrong they were, off to send an email
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echo above disgusting behaviour too trigger happy

those poor horses

Rebecca Emmett is a total idiot should be removed from the council. Total idiot and should be ashamed of her comment and her council low low act.

Christ sake what if the ,owner saw this I hope if they have they sue the council for not getting help to round up ,the horses. trigger happy
 
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If lots of you email, maybe we'll get a response. I've had nothing after my last email telling them they were wrong and ought to have called a horse expert, scanned for chips, not chased with a quad etc. I asked for an apology, nothing yet. :(
 
She says it's surrounded by footpaths and alleys so horses could go anywhere but if they were by the football pitches, unlikely they'd go anywhere as the grass there is good.
 
cinnamontoast said:
If lots of you email, maybe we'll get a response. I've had nothing after my last email telling them they were wrong and ought to have called a horse expert, scanned for chips, not chased with a quad etc. I asked for an apology, nothing yet. :(
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As amanda said close the park let them calm down would be a normal thing to do. I emailed them telling them my disgust.
 
Ultimately the horses are the owners responsability legaly , (or the mirhavedy case is complete nonsense) The Owner has strict non fault liability yet the council consider they have the right to kill the horse. They are in doing so ,taking on the liability presumed upon the owner by the Animals Act. An interesting point THAT THE COUNCIL IN QUESTION MIGHT WISH TO CONSIDER.
 
I can only hope that the 'owners' if in fact the horses had been dumped, decide to come forward and sue the hell out of the council.
So a dart loaded with Immobilon - and presumably someone there with Revivon, is safer to use in the open than a free bullet?
Who actually killed the horses? police, council worker or what? Its not clear.

This could start an easy precident for a lot of councils, with the number of abandoned horses around. I just hope someone with clout takes this up and pursues it further.
 
Bloody disgraceful behaviour, i would like to know which "body" they took advice from and which person gave this as the only safe action, if these were my horses i wouldnt rest until i had justice for them, what policies or procedures are in place at that council to deal with events like this, and who sanctioned them, this action if left unchallenged gives the red light for any council to do the same thing.
 
The British Horse Society together with other welfare organisations and the Sussex and Hampshire Fire and Rescue Services developed a training course for the emergency rescue of horses and large animals which is being gradually rolled out across the entire country. This ensures that the Fire and Rescue officers have received training in dealing with horses and large animals, that they have the correct equipment available and that their controllers have direct 24/7 access to local and national Animal/Horse Welfare Officers to assist them further. It is proposed that this training course is rolled out across other emergency services such as the Police, Mountain and Rescue and local authorities so that their staff are trained and that they have immediate access to a 24/7 central point of contact when an emergency situation occurs. The British Horse Society have a team of national and local Welfare Officers. The National BHS Welfare Officers are based at their headquarters (Tel: 02476 840517) and they also have local volunteer welfare officers within nearly every county of the United Kingdom.

The tragic incident that arose in a Hertfordshire park needs to be fully investigated by an independent body so as to determine what actually occurred and if there is a case to answer for animal cruelty.
 
PeterNatt said:
The British Horse Society together with other welfare organisations and the Sussex and Hampshire Fire and Rescue Services developed a training course for the emergency rescue of horses and large animals which is being gradually rolled out across the entire country. This ensures that the Fire and Rescue officers have received training in dealing with horses and large animals, that they have the correct equipment available and that their controllers have direct 24/7 access to local and national Animal/Horse Welfare Officers to assist them further. It is proposed that this training course is rolled out across other emergency services such as the Police, Mountain and Rescue and local authorities so that their staff are trained and that they have immediate access to a 24/7 central point of contact when an emergency situation occurs. The British Horse Society have a team of national and local Welfare Officers. The National BHS Welfare Officers are based at their headquarters (Tel: 02476 840517) and they also have local volunteer welfare officers within nearly every county of the United Kingdom.

The tragic incident that arose in a Hertfordshire park needs to be fully investigated by an independent body so as to determine what actually occurred and if there is a case to answer for animal cruelty.
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Its unlikely that the Fire Service would be involved with this as they only usually get involved in animal rescues where the animals are trapped somewhere and can't be freed, such as in a large ditch or an overturned cattle truck.
Incidents like the one in the park normally seem to be dealt with by the police and RSPCA.
It all seems very odd, and I'm sure that we don't have the full story.
Hopefully the council will email someone back with a proper explanation of what happened, although I think thats probably unlikely!
 
Peter who could look into this? Is it something the BHS would take on?
My horses are kept only 15 minutes away and you can understand the concern for many of us with horses in the area.

To my knowledge none of the local yards were asked for help in the round up, something I'm sure most of us would of been happy to do.
 
Better shot with a bullet than Immobilon. Far more survivable. If the vet draws up the antidote before the drug itself that is because there would be no time to draw it up if required. That would not give the time to get to wherever the accidental target is. Add in the animal running blind until it collapses danger as well.

Darting is not the answer. Shooting is highly unlikely to be the answer.

There are effective sedatives/anesthetics that can be administered IM but not at a dose which would be carried by a dart (guesswork here). Long range stabbing devices exist but more use for down horses as you'd not get that close to them with the long stick.

IMO need to use good old fashioned horsemanship techniques for catching - close park, leave to settle then try to catch quietly. General knowledge of animals is low within most even rural emergency services. OH was called out to assist fire brigade with horse in ditch. Got there and they have rope around neck. Turns rope into halter, sorts a leg position and horse gets up and is led from ditch. ..

He did some training for them after he'd done the Hampshire course and did most on basic handling and danger zones rather than the advanced stuff!
 
Got an answer, at least they checked for chips. Still not happy that they didn't call someone from stables, nonsense that there wasn't insurance in place!

'On Tuesday 4th March our animal control enforcement officer received a call that 2 horses were loose in the grounds of Leavesden Country Park. She arrived on site at approximately 1.30pm and met up with the Park Ranger. They came across 2 ponies on the football pitch and tried unsuccessfully to approach them. Numerous attempts were made including trying to lure the ponies with food, however the ponies were excitable and broke into a run whenever anyone moved towards them. They appeared to be wild. As there were many people in the park including loose dogs the officers called for assistance from an equine welfare agency. When help arrived attempts were again made to get near the ponies whilst keeping members of the public and their dogs away. Officers called 101 for the Police as it appeared the ponies would get onto Bedmond Road. When the Police Intervention Officer arrived he advised that he was concerned about the ponies getting onto the road. The TRDC officers explained a plan to create a corral using crash barriers from the Council Depot, however this would not have been possible until the next day as by this time the Depot was closed. The Police Officer advised he was not happy to leave the ponies overnight. Several people did offer their help and one call was presented by a third party as being from the owners saying that if everyone left the site they would come and collect the ponies. This was not practical to achieve however. A slaughterman was eventually called and whilst he did arrive on a quad bike he did not chase the ponies or cause them to be even more excitable. The Police cleared the site of members of the public and had officers on points to prevent people walking in. The first pony was shot with a single round. The slaughterman did follow the second pony which ran for a short distance and was then dispatched again with a single shot. The use of tranquilisers was not considered appropriate as the ponies could still have run and caused an accident after being darted.
I appreciate that this was an unfortunate situation however officers did not have any option given the circumstances and correct procedures were followed. One of the ponies was subsequently found to be chipped, however there was no phone number and an old address. No reports have been received of missing ponies since the incident.
Offers of help from third parties were made however it would be inappropriate to take these up in such situations for insurance reasons alone. Had the ponies got out onto surrounding roads and caused an accident or even hurt someone in the Park there could have been even more severe consequences.
Regards,　
Geof Muggeridge
Director of Community & Environmental Services'
 
Well that sounds fairly sensible tbh. At least they didn't suffer. The fact no owner can be traced says it all, really.
 
They had no right to kill someone's horses after all of 3/4 hours?!
When I came across loose horses in the a41 the police came and shut the road down whilst I helped them catch and return the horses to the field they had broken the fence of.

Shameful farce.
 
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