Two dumped mares, one whose leg was “severed” by a metal gate, died in separate incidents in Ireland during the weekend.
My Lovely Horse Rescue, a sanctuary based in Dublin, was notified on social media about a mare who was stuck under a gate in County Meath, Ireland on Saturday (23 November).
Co-founder Martina Kenny told H&H volunteers spent two hours trying to find the 14.2hh mare, whom they named Francesca.
**Warning: very graphic image**
“We found her stuck in the mud under a steel gate. She was wearing a headcollar and tied to a post. We think she had slipped under the gate and got stuck,” she said.
“She was thrashing around so much she made a hole in the ground. The weight of the gate had severed her leg and gone through the bone and tendon, it was awful.”
Martina said a vet was contacted, but was unable to get to the scene immediately due to attending another emergency.
“We were able to lift the gate off its hinges to free Francesca,” she said. “We made the decision to get her on to a horsebox and take her to our farm where the vet met us and she was put down on the box – it was unbelievably sad.
“Someone must know who she belongs to, but no one will come forward. She was wearing shoes and it looked like she had recently had her feet done.”
Martina said the following day the sanctuary received a call about an injured 13.2hh one-eyed mare who had been stuck in a ditch, with a foal at foot, in Dublin at 8pm.
“We took her to the vet hospital but there was nothing that could be done for her and she was put down. We named her Amy; no matter what, we always give a horse a name, it doesn’t matter if they aren’t with us long, we want to give them that last bit of dignity. The foal, who we have named Aaron, is receiving treatment but it is expected that he is going to be ok. He’s very frightened of humans but he’s very sweet.”
‘Her whole life was abuse: filly battered, ‘burned’ and dumped to die *warning, upsetting images*
‘I asked if we needed to bring the horsebox and he said he didn’t think so – that’s when I
Pony with necrotic wound left to suffer ‘needlessly’ for weeks *Warning: graphic image*
The RSPCA inspector said the wounds indicated they had been left for at least a couple of weeks and suffering
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Martina said Francesca and Amy did not have microchips.
“Things like this will keep happening because no one enforces the legislation. We live-streamed the rescue of Francesca on Facebook because people need to see what is going on and how bad things are here,” she said.
“We have almost 80 volunteers working 24 hours a day to help horses all over Ireland. We get calls constantly, we do as much as we can but we rely on people supporting us.”
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