Are they your horses?

I generally stay out of town politics but I went to a Town meeting about the dump on Thursday – always a highlight, the dump. A lady approached me and asked when was I going to feed my horses, another lady jumped in as well and then the local RSPCA Inspector got interested in the discussion. Anyway, the horses the lady was talking about don’t belong to our farm; they are being agisted on land owned by the Livestock Health and Protection Authority (LHPA).

We have complained in the past to the people concerned and to the LHPA with little effect, people just don’t seem interested. So I ramped up my efforts and attempted to get the horses looked at by whom ever I could find – that was Friday.

I was again approached by somebody at the dump on Sunday, for the same reason, the poor horses. This time I decided to escalate things and armed with a camera I went across and took photo’s of the horses, I checked their teeth and none of them were older the 14 at the most. They had good feet, which was something.

So I rang the RSPCA again and got permission to give the horses water, I hadn’t seen a trough or bucket in the paddock since Wednesday and it may have been longer. They drank every drop and were still thirsty but I didn’t want to give them too much in case they got sick. That afternoon one of the horses came down to our gate and laid on the grass in the corner of the paddock – it was still there in the morning.

Sunday night I emailed the pictures to the RSPCA and Monday morning I rang the head office of the LHPA and emailed them pictures as well. I received a phone call back some time later saying they may send a Ranger and the Vet out after the Cooma Sale if they have time. I haven’t heard anything from them since. The lady that called me told me that officially they couldn’t do anything under the RLPB Act, that wasn’t my concern, because under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act it is their problem.

I arrived home Monday afternoon and there was still no water for the horses but the worst looking horse had gone, it was the one I’d seen laying down in the corner. I half expected angry people waiting for me at the gate when I got home. Tuesday I went off to work, a I left I checked and still no water for the horses, I’d had enough so I waited till the afternoon – hoping the LHPA would ring and tell me they had solved the problem but nothing. So I contacted the RSPCA again sent in more photo’s, an hour later on the way home I received a call saying the Senior RSPCA Inspector in NSW was going to deal with the issue. Finally, the up side being the horses had water last night, unfortunately it was all gone this morning, but hopefully these people might start looking after their animals.

Last thing, I’ll share one of the excuses I heard when I asked around about what people thought about how the horses looked “But she has so many (horses), you can’t expect her to look after them all”

If you'd like to complain about the state of these horse send an email to rlpbsc@rlpb.org.au and tell them your not impressed, the horses are located on the Bredbo TSR - the more the better.

I think I need to take a break …………