St David’s man banned from keeping horses for five years after neglect case
Defendant handed suspended prison sentence for worst case of overgrown hooves RSPCA inspector has dealt with.
A man from St David’s has been banned from keeping horses for five years after he failed to provide proper care for five equines, in what an RSPCA inspector has described as the “worst case of overgrown hooves” he has had to deal with in more than 18 years as an RSPCA inspector.
Ian Morgan Bert Griffiths (d.o.b 04/04/1963) of Berea, St Davids, appeared at Haverfordwest Magistrates’ Court yesterday (Monday, 25 September) and pleaded guilty to one offence.
Griffiths admitted to causing unnecessary suffering to three mini Shetland ponies known as Tango, Titch and Tex and two Welsh mountain ponies known as Tiggy and Pedro by failing to provide them with adequate hoof care.
Warning: You may find the below video distressing.
RSPCA inspector Nic De Celis, who attended Griffiths’s home address with RSPCA inspector Keith Hogben said: “This was the worst case of overgrown hooves I’ve taken action on.
“What we were confronted with was five ponies with such overgrown and deformed hooves that two of them were reluctant to even stand, let alone walk.
“It is really sad that things had got to such an awful state and hadn’t been dealt with before things got so bad. It was revealed in court that it had been 10 months since the ponies were seen by a farrier.”
The young Shetland stallion, Tex, has made a rapid recovery and the two Welsh Mountain ponies, Tiggy and Pedro, will be made available for rehoming soon. The other two Shetland ponies, Tango and Titch, have received further specialist farrier and vet treatment; Tango will hopefully soon be looking for their forever home however Titch is making slow progress and is still not fully recovered.
Magistrates gave Griffiths an 18 week imprisonment sentence, suspended for two years and ordered him to undertake 200 hours community service, pay costs of £300 and a victim surcharge of £150.
Griffiths was also banned from keeping horses for five years, with four weeks to rehome the two remaining horses left on his farm.
For more information on this Welsh branch of the RSPCA please use the below links:
@RSPCAcymru
Suzanne Ashton, Founder of Everything Horse (Est, 2012), has a BA Hons in Marketing Management and a Diploma in Equine Science. Suzanne has ridden and owned horses all her life and has twelve years of experience in marketing, writing, design, SEO, and website creation.
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