Starving pregnant Shetland pony chained up in Cottingham was forced to eat its own manure

UNITED KINGDOM -- A PREGNANT pony was forced to eat her own faeces after being left to starve by her owners. Coco, a Shetland pony, was found chained to a tree in the woods off Eppleworth Road, Cottingham. A second pony, Scarlet, was also found there.

Their owners, Earnest Smith, 62, and his partner, Kelly Smith, 25, both of Eppleworth Road Caravan Site, pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to animals at Beverley Crown Court.

The animals were in a terrible state when they were found, so thin that their bones were protruding.

 

There was little grass for them to graze on and they were so hungry that they had started to eat their own faeces.

Hannah Bryer, the RSPCA inspector who rescued the animals, said: "Sadly, cases like this are not uncommon. The RSPCA and other welfare charities are currently struggling with the amount of neglected, abandoned or unwanted horses and ponies in this country.

"Thankfully for Scarlet and Coco, we were alerted to their plight in time and they have both made a full recovery."

Mr Smith agreed to sign over ownership of the horses to the RSPCA prior to the court case. This meant that Scarlet could be rehomed almost immediately.

However, Coco, who gave birth at the end of May, has remained in private boarding in North Yorkshire as her foal is not yet ready to be weaned.

It is normally six months after the birth that the mother can be separated from the foal. Coco will reach this point at the end of the month.

Ms Bryer said: "The foal is doing well, so if a foster home came forward that was willing to take them both, they could go now.

"Sadly, it's not rare to find pregnant mares, although you sometimes don't realise straightaway because they are so thin.

"Coco's foal is healthy. Mares will sacrifice their own health for their foal, so it makes it even more important to care for the pony properly.

"Coco was so thin, so we needed to give her as much food as we possibly could before she gave birth to make sure her own condition didn't get any worse while she was feeding the foal.

"In the same way as with humans, once you have a baby, you lose a lot of the weight because you're feeding the child.

"If she had had the foal out there, it would have reached a point where she just wouldn't have had anything left to give, which would have meant the foal would not have been getting the right nutrition from the milk, so they both would have come a cropper."

Mr Smith was given a two-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay £505 in costs. Ms Smith was given a 12-month community order and ordered to pay £460 in costs.

Both were disqualified from keeping equines for five years.

(Hull Daily Mail - Nov 9, 2013)