Hope's Story Day 3 - The Rescue

On Friday 13th our officer returned to the moor to find that "Hope" had not yet been removed from the common.  Our Officer contacted Defra and the RSPCA who were not going to come out to check whether Hope had been removed or not, but they were able to contact Hope's owner to remind him that she had to be removed from the moor by the end of the day.

Our Officer sat with Hope until she was eventually removed from the moor to the pound. Once at the pound, we paid the farmer £30 for her so that she now legally belonged to SWEP. The mare was now covered in tics due to her poor condition. We travelled Hope the short, 5 minute journey to our rescue centre so that she could start receiving the care she needs.

We were told by a BBC reporter that the RSPCA claimed they would not prosecute the owner of this pony because the mare had not suffered. The mare would have to be condition score "0" before they prosecuted, which means that a pony is literally within a few days of death.

31/07/11 -  Here is Hope today - as you can see, thanks to the dedication of our yard staff, she has recovered extremely well from her emaciated condition...and is now on restricted grazing to ensure that she remains a healthy weight.  Eventually she will be rehomed under our loan pony scheme.  No prosecution case was ever brought by the enforcing bodies against Hope's owners.