The RSPCA hopes festival-goers may be able to help identify the person who abandoned a pony with a deep infected wound.
The mare, who has since been named Marble, was discovered in a field close to V Festival, on the same weekend that the popular Staffordshire event took place (18 August).
Marble had two serious leg wounds that required urgent treatment.
“The poor pony had a large puncture wound to her near hind leg, and a deep infected laceration to a fore leg which was so large that the vet was able to put his whole hand into it,” said RSPCA inspector Jackie Hickman, who was called out to the field and immediately called a vet.
“There was so much pus running down her leg. The vet believed she had been suffering like this for at least a week.
“It looked as though someone had tried treating the injury previously as there was purple iodine spray on it, but the wound was just so large that it had not healed.
“The mare had a headcollar on so it is clear she was once owned, but she wasn’t microchipped so we have no way of knowing where she came from.”
Marble is now recovering at a private livery yard.
“It was clear Marble was in pain and it is not acceptable to leave an animal to suffer in this way,” added inspector Hickman.
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“She was abandoned on the same weekend as the V Festival, which was happening just a few miles away in Weston Park, so it may be that festival-goers may have seen something which may help us in our investigation.”
Marble was dumped in an open ploughed field in Whitehouse Lane, in Codsall, South Staffordshire.
Anyone with information is urged to contact the RSPCA by calling 03001238018.
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