So Much For The ‘Horse Passport’ Scheme…

Five horses – including stallions, foals and mares – first appeared at the wildlife haven on Friday evening. It is believed the owners of the horses cut through the fence before letting the animals in.

Then, 24 hours later, on Saturday evening, five more horses appeared. They are in a poor state of health and are severely under-nourished.

Gosh! It’s a complete mystery who could do this sort of thing, isn’t it?

Dave Blackwell, leader of the Canvey Independent Party, said: “It’s just terrible for people to dump these horses.

“They have not only got no regard for the animals’ welfare, but also no regard for the people who walk their dogs in this area who will come across them.

“This site is also an area of scientific interest with lots of rare orchids and insects, and these horses will just be trampling all over them.”

Terrible, just terrible. Luckily, we have the DEFRA Horse Passport to save us from the scourge of ‘ownerless’ horses, or ensure that those who flout the law are brought to justice:

”You could be fined up to £5000 if you don’t have one.”

That’ll fix ‘em! Right? Oh. Maybe not:

A spokeswoman for Essex Police said they had received reports about the horses and were liaising with Castle Point council and the RSPCA.

Why not class ‘em as a H&S risk? It’s not totally out of bounds of possibility word here , I recall? 

Although as we learned the other day,  it takes you an aeon to deal with things even when you know there’s a H&S risk, when certain people are involved…

Sue Allery of the Pitsea-based Essex Horse and Pony Protection Society, said horses are often dumped by owners so they don’t have to pay for grazing.

She added: “Unfortunately we can’t just go and collect these horses.

“The police and RSPCA have to get seizure orders, which are very difficult to get.

“It’s very sad, but we see a lot of this.”

And once again, a small minority are free to ignore the law and flout their non-adherence daily in the face of the decent majority because the authorities are too scared to tackle them.

Hmmm. Where have I heard that before?