Financial strain leads owners to abandon horses in skyrocketing numbers
Posted by Labels: Animal Rights, European Union (EU), Financial Crisis, Horses and Equines, United Kingdom
(Daily Mail) The impact of the financial crisis has been felt by businesses and individuals across the country, but now it appears to be taking a devastating toll on Britain's horse population.
Feeling the economic pinch of the current recession, an alarming number of owners have been giving up their cherished animals because they can not afford the increasing costs of care.
Even more worrying, some horses have been chained up and left to fend for themselves without shelter.
The Independent on Sunday reports the country's horse charities are under unprecedented pressure, forced to cope with the dramatic rise in horses left abandoned by their financially-strapped owners.
The country's leading horse charity, Redwings, said it has seen the number of abandoned horses increase from 160 in 2009 to 450 in 2011.
The cost of caring for the large animals has spiked due to the increase in hay and straw prices, while the value of the horses has declined.
This significant financial burden has meant some owners are choosing to sell their animals for meat. A 50 per cent increase in the number of horses killed for their meat between 2009 and 2010 reveals owners are in desperate need for cash.
Other horses have simply been released into the wild or left chained by their owners.
Last year, the RSPCA received a 21 per cent increase in reports of horses left tied up with no shelter - that amounts to an estimated 7,000 calls in 2011.
But the fate of some of these animals has been even more dire. Some young horses are slaughtered before they reach six months, the age at which they must be legally registered.
Auctioneer at European horse dealer Brightwells in Leominster, Herefordshire told the Independent on Sunday: 'There was a huge demand for horses, and some of the breeding was pretty indiscriminate, trading was becoming relentless and then, in the autumn of 2008, the bubble burst.
'I don't like to use the word "cleanse", but the horse industry is a huge business - it was overproducing and it has to be adjusted.'
These sad figures are part of a larger trend that indicates an alarming number of pet owners are no longer able to take care of their animals.
The RSPCA recently reported over 28,000 pets were abandoned in 2011, an increase of a third from the figures in 2007.
By VALENTINA JOVANOVSKI
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