Truro Dispersal Sale

On Saturday 26th October 2013, Our welfare officer attended the Lodge & Thomas unreserved dispersal sale of 40 part bred or section D welsh cob horses and ponies.
The ponies and horses were the dispersal of the Arvorek stud, these included mares and foals, broodmares, ridden ponies and stallions.

On arrival our welfare officer Becky, introduced herself to the Auctioneer. The Auctioneer was welcoming and informed Becky that there were no animal welfare representatives at the sale. The sale was bankrupt stock from the stud and everything must sell. Lodge and Thomas do not usually do horse and pony sales and they assured me there would not be another.

The horses at the sale I have to say were very poor condition, very skinny, cracked hooves and generally looking withdrawn. However Lodge and Thomas did everything they could to move horses and ponies to and from the ring with minimal stress, however the metal gates clashing were startling a few younger ponies.  Stallions were extremely stressed, box walking franticly, rearing and calling to mares near by, however the stallions were separate from the mares and foals.

 

Water was provided at the start of the sale by Lodge and Thomas for all equines going through the sale. Bedding was down in all pens. Everything was sold to private homes and no meat dealers were present.  Our welfare officer watched the horses and ponies load onto their new homes trailers and off to their new homes.

RTC - Cadover road

On 24th October our welfare team received a call from a walker who had spotted a young foal stressed and unable to stand. One particular lad who found the foal, removed his coat to wrap the foal in to keep him warm, despite freezing temperatures out on the moor in late afternoon, he reassured the clearly seriously poorly foal until our welfare team arrived. SWEP would like to say a big thank you to the two lads who spent their afternoon making a very poorly foal comfortable in its last hours after a serious RTC injury. They went out of their way to ensure this foal received our help and then continued to aid our Welfare team once they were on sight - Much appreciated.

On arrival of the welfare team, it was obvious the foal needed emergency veterinary attention, immediately. Our welfare team arrived with thick warm rugs to keep the foal warm and well covered.
 The vet was called and we waited 25 minutes which seemed like forever, the veterinarian concluded the foal was suffering severely through spinal damage from impact with a vehicle and the best course of action was to put him to sleep humanely by lethal injection.
The foals owner was informed and SWEP removed the foal from the moorland straight away.
Rest in peace little foal.

 

Pony Killed in RTA on Roborough Down

This dead yearling pony was reported to our Welfare Officer at 9am on Tuesday 15th October, she went straight out to check it was indeed dead and not suffering. On arrival it was apparent the pony was dead, however it was still very fresh. This foal had obviously been hit at great speed, it had bitten it's tongue clean off, it's neck was broken, it had severe lacerations on one of it's hind legs and it had bled heavily.

Our welfare officer reported the body to DLP who assured her the body would be removed asap, however she returned at 3pm and 5pm and the body was still there. The Welfare Team returned at 10am the following morning and the body was still at the side of the road, a man in a passing vehicle stopped to talk to them as he found it quite distressing the body was still there and had not been removed. The area is always busy with walkers and cyclists, some with children, so we feel it should have been removed sooner; plus it is a legal requirement for dead stock to be removed within a reasonable time.

A member of the Welfare Team called DLP to again ask for the foal to be removed, a message was left. The Welfare Team returned at 3pm that day and were glad to see the body has been removed.

The area where the foal was killed is not known for people driving to fast and it is very rare a pony is hit and killed there, however this incident proves that more care is needed on Dartmoor's roads. This foal would have suffered terribly and his mother was still hanging around the day after. Anyone who hits and kills any livestock on the moor, and this includes ponies, should report the incident to the police. If anyone has any information as to who is responsible for this pony's death please call us on 01822 854823/ 07990823864/ 07717311251 or the police on 101.

Chagford Pony Sale

Our Welfare Team attended the annual Chagford pony sale, this market is a little nicer than the others as it is outside and the pens are on grass with wooden fencing. There is none of the clanging and clattering of metal gates, which causes great fear in many a young pony. The ponies were appropriately penned before the auction took place but there was no water provided. When our Welfare Officer asked if water could be provided she was told that the ponies would not be there long enough to warrant it.

There were around 220 ponies of various ages present, most were moorland ponies fresh from the drifts but there were a few halter broken and ridden ponies. There was a good attendance, but not half as many people as in previous years and not many ponies sold. It was a sorry sight seeing pony after pony being run through the ring and not being bid on, a lot of the ponies that did sell were bought by a meat man.

Watching behind the scenes as the ponies were being moved and prepared to go through the ring was slightly shocking. One drover was seen kicking and slapping ponies, hitting them with his cap and wrestling with frightened young ponies to try and separate them. He was seen at one point with a can of beer in hand sorting ponies and looking very red in the face. We do not think that this is acceptable behaviour, the market is a traumatic enough time for these ponies without being man handled by a potentially intoxicated drover. When the auction was over this same man walked passed our Welfare staff and the smell of alcohol was very strong. Another drover was seen wrestling ponies which caused them to panic, it wasn't all bad though as many of the other drovers were quiet and calm and moved the ponies around with minimal fuss.

The reasons why SWEP are apposed to rough handling, wrestling, hitting and kicking as a way of moving ponies around is because it makes the fearful of humans and can cause them to be difficult to handle and bring round in their new homes, if they are lucky enough to be bought. We have many ponies who have come to our rehabilitation yard that have been so traumatised by the market experience that they have taken months to come round and trust humans. Rough handling can cause them to be head shy, bite and kick as well as show avoidance behaviour. Some ponies never get over the experience and never trust humans. Many of these ponies have the potential to make children's ponies, however if they have a traumatic start in life they often end up in rescue centres because their behaviour is deemed difficult.



Once the auction was over the ponies were again separated and loaded into the waiting lorries and trailers, this was done in a much calmer manner and there were not issues. We were a little worried about a very small spotty pony (see above picture) who was in a pen with some much larger ponies, however he was soon ushered out by his owner and loaded onto a trailer with a small group of ponies the same size as him.

Staff from another organisation and SWEP staff asked for a stallion to be removed from a pen of mares and foals as he was covering them, he was bought by the same person as the mares but we felt he needed to be removed and kept away from them as they were in an enclosed area and getting stressed, this was eventually done and the stallion was put in a pen well away from the mares.

Pony Killed in RTA involving 4x4 Near Wotter

We were informed that a pony had been killed in a collision with a large 4x4 on the stretch of road that runs past Lee Moor and Wotter. This stretch of road is a notorious livestock collision area, this is because many drivers insist on breaking the speed limit of 40mph. This poor pony never stood a chance against a speeding 4x4.

Our Welfare Assistant went out to investigate but the pony's body had been removed, the farmer is always quick to remove dead livestock from this road.

Poundsgate Pony Drift

SWEP were aware that there would be a drift today and were informed it was near Poundsgate but our informant thought it was all over. A member of the Welfare Team travelled out to be sure. On arrival she became aware of a small group of ponies galloping away from where the drifters were congregated, they were being pursued by a group of horseback riders. These ponies were rounded back up by the whooping team of riders who then galloped them back across to the holding pen, the group had a number of mares and two foals.

Tavistock Dartmoor Pony Sale

SWEP's Welfare Team attended this mornings Dartmoor Hill Pony sale at Tavistock livestock market. 94 ponies were due to go through the ring, however only 57 were present and went through the ring. A couple of sellers did not arrive and some sellers did not bring all the ponies they had listed. On arrival the market was extremely quiet and not at all bustling due to the low numbers of ponies and potential buyers, very different from last year when around 186 ponies were up for selling.

Initially our Welfare Team thought all was well, the ponies were grouped together in relevant sizes, mares and foals were kept together and handling was done with a minimum of force.

Everyone was asked to enter the sales ring room as the sale was about to begin, bidding would be in guineas and not in pounds sterling as it was last year. Bidding was painfully slow and many of the ponies did not sell, those that did sell varied in sales price from 10 guineas to 240 guineas. The strange thing was that looking around to try and establish who was bidding no one could be seen! It wasn't until a little later that our Welfare Officer over heard an argument between a seller and market staff that the reasoning for this became clear. The seller questioned why ponies that sold were put back in the pen with the unsold ponies. The seller was then told that the ponies had not sold. Our Welfare Team took records, including prices of all the ponies that sold and the two in question were on that list; the seller was then offered half the price of micro chipping and passport.

We were a little concerned about the ages of a few of the foals, some looked to be under the age of 4 months; the minimum age to be allowed to go through a sales ring. A representative from another welfare agency said he had raised these concerns with Trading Standards staff who questioned the foals owners, these owners said that these foals were born in April. We cannot prove that this is not true so we could not take it any further.

Another troubling sight was that of a young foal being taken from it's mother after being bought after the official sale, the foal was dragged out of the pen and taken to be microchipped. It was then put in a pen, on it's own where it was seen pacing and trying to get through the bars; obviously extremely distressed. Our Welfare Assistant did question the foals age and was told it was 5 months old, she also questioned whether it should have been separated in such a manner; this was shrugged off by a staff member, (photo below)



As always our Welfare staff stayed to ensure all the remaining ponies were loaded correctly and that none were left. There was a pen of 12 young foals left and after a discussion with a young man our Welfare Officer was informed that these foals were going to the zoo to become zoo meat. Our Welfare Officer spoke to the owner and offered to buy these foals, it was agreed that she would buy the 6 youngest looking. A price was agreed, however the auctioneer was alerted to the fact it was a SWEP representative who was buying the foals, he then informed the owner who then retracted the sale. Our Welfare Officer tried to reason with her but she would not agree to the sale, we can only assume that this owner would rather these foals go to the local zoo to become lion fodder than go to loving homes.

The picture above is of a foal attempting to suckle from another youngster, this behaviour is due to stress. These youngsters would have been drifted off the moor at the beginning of the week and then separated from there mothers. They would then have been loaded into a trailer and bought to the market, where they then go through the market process. This experience is extremely stressful for these young animals.

Foals were also seen licking water off the railings and drinking from small puddles, our Welfare staff asked if some water could be provided for the ponies as they were obviously thirsty. They were told that they were behaving in this manner because they were stressed, our Welfare Officer asked again if water could be provided to which she was told the ponies would be gone soon. If they were still there at lunch time then they would put water down for them.

 

We are investigating todays findings further