A couple has been banned from keeping animals after an RSPCA inspector found ponies kept in appalling conditions.
Jack Carter, 75, and wife Barbara, 72, both of Bank Bridge, Tarleton, Lancashire, who bred, showed and kept horses for 60 years, both pleaded guilty to three animal welfare offences when they appeared before Lancashire Magistrates on Thursday (20 Jan) in a prosecution brought by the RSPCA.
The RSPCA provided a number of images of the ponies they found. The ECHO has chosen not to use those which were most distressing.
The investigator visited a house in Bank Bridge, Tarleton after a member of the public raised concerns for the welfare of a pony at an address.
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When attending the address, home to Jack and Barbara Carter, both of Bank Bridge, Tarleton, Lancashire, on March 22, 2021 Vicki McDonald could see a rundown stable block behind the couple’s house but couldn't get to the block without the permission of the homeowners.
Over the following days, she tried to make contact with the couple to arrange a date and time to visit.
On a number of occasions, Jack Carter messaged back saying he was unable to show the inspector around the property, citing various reasons, or failing to make contact with her.
Inspector McDonald became increasingly concerned that the defendant was avoiding a visit so she returned to view the stable from a public footpath where she saw that the doorway of the dilapidated stable was now covered with a green sheet and wired mesh.
She returned with police officers on April 7 where she met with Jack Carter. He denied there were any ponies or horses at the site on a number of occasions but reluctantly agreed to let her see inside the stable at the back of the house.
She told the court of her shock from what she found in this stable and a further three ramshackle stables which she checked, and discovered a further three stabled ponies in a yard area directly behind the house.
Inspector McDonald said: “Inside the first stable I found a grey pony in horrendous environmental and physical condition. I had never seen anything like it in my entire career. The pony was stood on top of deep rotting litter that had built up so much that it reached the top of the stable door. The pony was unable to fully stand up and its back protruded through a hole in the stable roof.
“In addition to that, I saw that the pony had severely overgrown feet beyond anything I had seen before. The hooves extended out and corkscrewed. Further rotting litter was piled up in front of the stable preventing the stable door from opening.
“The next stable I saw housed a chestnut and white pony and across from that were two further grey ponies. The two grey ponies’ behaviour was particularly disturbing. They seemed very stressed and erratic. I noticed that all the ponies had matting to their coats. They also had patches of sore skin, most likely from having no option but to lie in their own filth.
“To say the physical and environmental conditions of these ponies was shocking is a gross understatement. As with the first pony I had found, these were also stood on deep rotting litter piled as high as the stable doors inside and also in front of the doors preventing any possibility of the stable doors opening. They all had horrendously overgrown hooves that had started to corkscrew. There was very little room for them to move around or even stand normally. Again their backs reached the stable roofs.
“It was obvious that none of these ponies had been out of their stables or been seen by a farrier for a very considerable amount of time, if at all. It was my opinion that based on what I had seen it was highly possible that these ponies had been in these stables all their lives.”
The inspector called for an independent vet to attend the site and sadly the vet advised that all four ponies would need to be put to sleep to end their suffering.
The ponies couldn't get out of their stables due to their ill health and the build-up of filth meaning staff had to dig their way in and break down a wooden wall to get to them.
The equine veterinary surgeon said in her report that the horses were neglected in every aspect of basic requirements and stated the conditions they were kept in were “extremely barbaric”.
Inspector McDonald added: “The severe lack of care and level of suffering endured by these ponies was prolonged, wholly avoidable and totally inexcusable. It was heartbreaking to find them in such a neglectful state and for them, after such an awful life, to be beyond saving.
“These ponies were kept stabled within a few feet of the back door to the Carter’s home address. They would have seen them daily and their plight would have been ignored daily. The extreme level of neglect I witnessed, in this case, is unlikely to ever be surpassed and will remain with me.
“They were imprisoned in cramped, ramshackle and rotting conditions, forced to live and lie amongst their own faecal matter. They could not stand naturally, they could not behave naturally, graze, exercise or socialise amongst others of their kind, they were not provided with any of the necessary veterinary or farrier care they urgently required and they could not escape their confines or be accessed in an emergency.
"In my opinion, the neglect of these ponies was physically, environmentally and psychologically cruel and this had clearly been their existence for a considerable period of time.”
Jack Carter then told the RSPCA that they had two more ponies stabled a short walk away on Liverpool Road but another five ponies were found there.
They had access to food and water but they were also in a neglected state and had a range of health problems.
The horses found there were signed over to the RSPCA and were taken for an emergency veterinary examination. Four out of the five were found to be suffering to the point where the vets decided the kindest thing to do was put them to sleep.
The remaining pony was rehabilitated and will now be found a new home.
As well as the life ban on keeping all animals both defendants were imprisoned for 12 weeks suspended for two years and were both ordered to pay £500 in costs.
In sentencing, the magistrates heard how the Carters had been given the opportunity to work with the RSPCA on previous occasions but did not seek that help.
The presiding magistrate said the case was “extremely distressing” and added: “This crosses the custody threshold for the reason of prolonged ill-treatment and neglect which resulted in a high level of suffering. The only reason the sentence was suspended is to take into account the defendant’s medical needs and age. If it was not for these factors you would be going straight to prison.”
PC Sean Dalby, a wildlife officer for Lancashire police, said: ‘This was a shocking case of needless cruelty to several ponies that should not have happened. I am happy that the court took the matter so seriously and the South Rural Task Force will continue to investigate and target animal cruelty offenders. We would like to thank the RSPCA with this case and will continue to support them.”
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