{"id":43232,"date":"2021-10-12T04:16:48","date_gmt":"2021-10-12T08:16:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ehorses.com\/magazine\/?post_type=news&#038;p=43232"},"modified":"2021-10-12T04:25:00","modified_gmt":"2021-10-12T08:25:00","slug":"animal-cruelty-british-couple-kept-40-horses-in-terrible-conditions","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.ehorses.com\/magazine\/news\/animal-cruelty-british-couple-kept-40-horses-in-terrible-conditions\/","title":{"rendered":"Animal Cruelty: British couple kept 40 horses in terrible conditions"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\"><p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<b>A British couple from Tyne and Wear has been banned for life from keeping animals after RSPCA inspectors found 40 neglected horses at their home.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Gordon Hamilton Metcalf and Denise Ann Clark, of Rutland Street, Hetton-le-Hole, were convicted, following a trial at Peterlee Magistrates&#8217; Court on October 7th. They were each charged with <b>five animal welfare offences<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by the RSPCA. The court ruled based on testimony from RSPCA inspectors Terri-Ann Fannon and Gemma Lynch as well as World Horse Welfare Field Officer Seema Ritson. They claimed to have <\/span><b>found the horses in terrible condition<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Horses were stuck in mud up to their knees<\/h2>\n<p>According to the inspectors, the couple&#8217;s horses were kept in their stables with <strong>mud up to their knees<\/strong> and the foals were stuck with mud almost up to their chests, which is why they could hardly move around the paddock. In addition, there was <strong>no dry standing area, water, hay or dry bedding<\/strong>. Many of the horses were locked in areas that were contaminated with feces.<\/p>\n<p>Due to the lack of dry standing space and the lack of treatment by a farrier, many horses&#8217; <strong>hooves were severely overgrown, curled or twisted<\/strong>. A number of other horses were in similarly <strong>poor health conditions<\/strong>. One Shetland pony was malnourished and suffered from lameness and arthritis in the shoulders. One mare had thick, matted fur around her badly overgrown hooves and was also malnourished.<\/p>\n<h2>Fannon found horses in the &#8220;worst conditions she had ever seen&#8221;<\/h2>\n<p>Inspector Fannon said in court that <strong>she had never seen such a bad case<\/strong>. She added that the horses were standing in piles of hay, dirt and feces up to 1 meter high and there was no access to get in or out of the stables. She also accused Metcalf of <strong>knowingly hiding the horses<\/strong> in such conditions for a long period of time.<\/p>\n<p>According to her, the horses were standing so high on top of the dirt, they were not able to lift their heads or else they would <strong>touch the roof of the stable<\/strong>. Apparently, it took several hours to free the horses from their stalls. One stall door was even <strong>nailed shut<\/strong> and had to be pried open with a crowbar.<\/p>\n<h2>Couple warned beforehand not to keep horses on their property in winter<\/h2>\n<p>It turned out that the couple had already been advised the previous year not to keep horses on their property during winter due to the muddy conditions. Still, <strong>no improvements had been made<\/strong>. They only built an area with cobblestones, which the horses could not stand on.<\/p>\n<h2>Horses taken into care of RSPCA<\/h2>\n<p>After hours of effort to free a total of 40 neglected horses from their stalls, the animals were first examined by a veterinarian. They were then <strong>taken to the RSPCA&#8217;s facilities<\/strong> for safekeeping.<\/p>\n<p>Metcalf was sentenced to a lifetime ban from keeping animals, an 18-week prison\u00a0 with 10 months probation and 750 pounds costs. Clark was fined a 10-year ban from keeping animals, a 180-pound fine and 750 pounds costs.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/everythinghorseuk.co.uk\/man-banned-for-life-after-keeping-40-horses-in-horrendous-conditions\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">everythinghorseuk<\/a>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]A British couple from Tyne and Wear has been banned for life from keeping animals&hellip;","protected":false},"author":123,"featured_media":43236,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[161],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43232","news","type-news","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-equestrianism"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Animal Cruelty: British couple kept 40 horses in terrible conditions - 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