Horses found in appalling conditions

Tuesday, 29 November 2011 10:55

Last week more than 60 horses and ponies were rescued in Antrim, near Belfast, after police and volunteers from Crosskennan Lane Animal Sanctuary visited the premises where the animals were crammed together.

Nine of the animals were found dead, with their corpses left in the enclosed spaces with the other animals. Thanks to the poor state that the animals were left in, four had to be put down humanely as they had reached a declined level of health that meant any continued care would only have prolonged their suffering. Another was put down yesterday after becoming too weak to stand.

The animals were kept together without food, water or clean bedding, with no room to move around. The squalid conditions meant that all of the animals were in a poor state of health and there are worries that further animals will have to be put down. Workers state that the equine crisis that is affecting Ireland has caused the value of horses to plummet, and this is clearly one such case where the thoughts of welfare for the animals was absent.

Crosskennan Lane Animal Sanctuary is the only charity in Northern Ireland which also takes in horses, and receives a massive number of calls each day about cases where horses are being mistreated, abandoned or abused. As they are volunteer based it is difficult for them to cope with such a high influx of animals. They find that their cases are usually reported by neighbours or people that pass by fields that have a collapsed or dead horse on the property that alert them to a possible case of animal cruelty.

Animal Friends fully supports the great work that Crosskennan Lane Animal Sanctuary does, and we hope that the equine market in Ireland can resolve itself before too many cases of animal cruelty and poor horse welfare become the norm.