WORLD Horse Welfare is calling on members of the public to help support our charity as we have seen a huge rise in the number of horses in the UK urgently needing our help. Over the last five years we have seen a rise of almost 50% – placing a huge strain on our resources.
This week we are contacting all of our supporters through our Summer Appeal to urge them to continue helping us so we can carry on with our work of protecting horses in the UK. In 2011, we received 6,000 calls on our UK Welfare Hotline from concerned members of the public and our 16 UK Field Officers investigated more than 1,600 welfare concerns.
Recently, we have seen a big increase in the number of multi-horse cases in the UK – appalling situations where tens or even hundreds of horses are suffering because of negligent owners.
Currently we are caring for nine large groups of horses in our four UK Rescue and Rehoming Centres, and we are involved in another 10 cases where the numbers of horses range from 10 to more than 300. Cases like this come about due to factors such as overbreeding and the current economic climate and are difficult to resolve, taking up time and resource. We are determined to take action to help these horses and to stop their suffering but we can’t do it without people’s support.
Last year we had a total of 193 horses come into our centres and so far this year we have taken in 85 new horses into our care, with more pending. Deputy Chief Executive at World Horse Welfare, Tony Tyler said: “In our 85th year it is apt that we have taken in 85 horses since the beginning of January. We are seeing a greater demand placed on our resources as we are called to attend more welfare concerns. As a registered charity that receives no statutory or lottery funding, we rely completely on the support and donations from members of the public; any financial gift we receive will help us to make a difference by rescuing, rehabilitating and re-homing even more horses.”
For the last 85 years our supporters have made it possible for us to give new hope and a better life to thousands of horses. In our 85th year as we promote our achievements we are also seeing more and more challenges as we manage a greater number of large multiple cases than almost any other time in our history.
