Homes urgently needed for horses as more rescued but rehoming applications drop
| Homes urgently needed for horses as more rescued but rehoming applications drop Leading international horse charity World Horse Welfare is appealing to potential horse owners to consider rehoming a horse from one of its four UK Recovery and Rehabilitation Centres after an increase in multi-horse rescues and a drop in rehoming applications. |  Stella is a 14 year old 15.2 I.D cross mare looking for a lightweight rider to hack out 3 or 4 times a week. At Hall Farm in Norfolk |
| Case 5: Five taken to World Horse Welfare Glenda Spooner Farm in Somerton, Somerset "There has been a marked increase in the number of multi-horse rescues we have taken in this year," says Roly Owers, Chief Executive. "Whilst it may be easy to assume that this is down to the current financial situation, we are finding that legislation brought in with the Animal Welfare Act 2006 has enabled many more horses to be removed from situations of neglect than before." When the Animal Welfare Act was introduced in April 2007, it gave authorities the power to remove animals from situations where they ‘were likely to suffer' rather than wait until unnecessary suffering had actually taken place. It is now possible to remove a group of horses from an unsuitable situation even if just one animal amongst them is deemed to be suffering unnecessarily. In the period January to March 2008, World Horse Welfare took in three multi-horse cases consisting of 11, 10 and nine horses, but from January to March 2007 before the new Act came into force, no groups larger than three were admitted. |  Hannah is a 16 year old 15.3hh Hanoverian cross mare who is looking for a home with an experienced rider and handler who enjoys hacking. At Belwade Farm in Aberdeenshire. |
"The Animal Welfare Act is a hugely positive step for horse welfare," continues Roly, "but in the current economic climate we are facing a problem. There has been much speculation in the press that large numbers of horses and ponies are being abandoned or put to sleep because of the credit crunch. It is still too early to tell and there is little evidence to suggest that this is happening in large numbers but what we are finding is that people are less inclined to take on the expense of having a horse and we have seen our rehoming figures drop dramatically. "This year so far we have rehomed 43 horses, compared to 62 in the same period last year. |  Titch is a 13 year old 11.2hh native gelding looking for a home as a companion. At Penny Farm in Blackpool |
| Our four UK Recovery and Rehabilitation centres are all at capacity and we have to ensure that we have the space to take in the most needy horses. At the moment we have over 60 ridden and non-ridden horses and ponies ready to be rehomed and I would encourage anyone looking for a horse to consider World Horse Welfare first." If you are interested in rehoming a horse from World Horse Welfare, please visit www.worldhorsewelfare.org |  Jammy is a one year old chestnut filly looking for a home where she can gain some youngster handling experience. At Glenda Spooner Farm in Somerset |
Added on: 12/04/09.
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