A woman has been given a suspended prison sentence and a lifelong animal ban after neglecting her horses over a prolonged period of time.
Shetland Sony’s hooves were severely overgrown. Photo: RSPCA
Helen Jane Medland, 39, of Launceston in Cornwall was sentenced after admitting two animal welfare offences after an RSPCA investigation showed she had failed to meet the needs of her three horses for a prolonged period of time, despite advice being given by animal charities and offers of help from neighbours.
One of the horses, a Shetland pony named Sony, suffered due to untreated laminitis for several months. When the horses were given a large bale of haylage, it was placed outside of the field and left wrapped, forcing the animals to bite through the plastic in order to eat it.
Alongside a sentence of 18 weeks custody, suspended for 12 months, Medland was banned from owning animals for life and will not be able to appeal against the ban to be lifted for 15 years.
She was also ordered to pay £500 costs and a £128 victim surcharge and deprived of ownership of her animals when she appeared before Bodmin Magistrates’ Court on June 4 this year.
Members of the public provided water
An RSPCA statement said concerns had been raised by members of the public who lived close-by and were aware that three horses kept in a field were not being attended to by Medland.
They noticed there was no supplementary feed being provided, the horses were in deep mud and they had to provide water themselves because it was not being provided by Medland. The members of the public also provided hay and the British Horse Society and World Horse Welfare also supplied food.
Occasionally large bales of haylage arrived and were placed outside of the field but accessible to the horses. These were wrapped in plastic and the horses had to bite through the plastic to access the haylage.
The statement added that following a bout of laminitis suffered by Sony in September 2020, Jon Phipps, a field officer for World Horse Welfare, repeatedly warned Medland of the necessity of regular and careful hoof trimming. Despite this, Sony’s hooves were not trimmed from July 2020 to February 2021, leading to a further episode of laminitis.
On 4 February 2020, RSPCA Inspector Claire Ryder attended the field alongside a World Horse Welfare equine officer and a veterinary surgeon. They examined three horses — Sony, Lola and Dream — and found the field to be very wet, muddy and waterlogged.
There was no feed in the field and hazards were present. There was hay outside of the field which the horses could see and smell but couldn’t reach. When this hay was examined the vet found it to be mouldy due to not being protected from the rain, which posed a health risk to the horses.
‘Chronic and painful laminitis’
“Sony was found to be debilitated with overgrown hooves, lameness due to chronic and painful laminitis and suffering unnecessarily as a result of the lack of care and treatment,” said the statement.
“All three horses experienced a failure to meet their needs in various ways, including the need for a suitable environment, the need to be housed with or away from other animals, their need to be protected from pain, suffering, injury and disease due to the failing to remove the plastic wrap from hay, lack of appropriate hay storage, lack of farriery care, lack of dental care, lack of appropriate worming, lack of lice control, lack of veterinary care as required, the use of leather headcollar on Sony whilst unsupervised, and their need for a suitable diet including an appropriate supply of fresh drinking water.”
RSPCA Inspector Claire Ryder said: “The veterinary surgeon who examined Sony concluded that he had undergone unnecessary suffering for several months because of the chronic laminitis and hoof overgrowth which had not been appropriately diagnosed and treated.”
