article_snippet.sent: Across the country, horses, ponies and donkeys — many of horses, ponies and donkeys once much-loved family pets — are being abandoned in record numbers and left to fend for horses, ponies and donkeys or tied up on busy roadsides in the hope that someone will rescue horses, ponies and donkeys.
article_snippet.sent: Animal welfare charities, meanwhile, are full to capacity, leaving Animal welfare charities increasingly helpless in the wake of the hundreds of calls Animal welfare charities receive every month about neglected or abandoned horses.
article_snippet.sent: Earlier this month, in desperation, the RSPCA launched an urgent appeal to rehome some of the hundreds of horses in the hundreds of horses care.
article_snippet.sent: the hundreds of horses three sanctuaries, with capacity for 640 horses, are full, with 500 other horses being kept at huge expense in private boarding stables while the hundreds of horses wait for a place.
article_snippet.sent: As Anna Hemmings, centre manager at Lockwood, one of Anna Hemmings, centre manager at Lockwood three animal centres, puts it, trying to provide care for the ever-growing numbers of needy equines is a ‘constant battle’.
article_snippet.sent: The moment we rehome a horse another one steps into The moment we rehome a horse place,’ she says.
article_snippet.sent: It’s hard to argue with the numbers, which all equine welfare organisations say have risen steadily in the recession, and continue to do so, despite the economy improving.
article_snippet.sent: Fiona Oakes, who runs Tower Hill Stables Animal Sanctuary in Tillingham, Essex, is overseeing 50 abandoned or neglected horses.
article_snippet.sent: We have had Fiona Oakes, who runs Tower Hill Stables Animal Sanctuary in Tillingham, Essex left tied up outside the Sanctuary gates,’ says Fiona, 48.