WARNING – GRAPHIC CONTENT.
Who doesn’t love horses and ponies? They are beautiful, powerful creatures, but they are also extremely fragile. If they become even just a bit sick or injured, their lives could be in danger.
When Chloe Atkins was driving down the road one day, she spotted a pony that seemed to be struggling to just stand in a field. She could tell right away that he was in horrible shape, but she had no way of knowing just how bad the situation was in that moment.
Buggy, the piebald foal, was suffering, and his condition was painfully obvious. His flesh was being eaten by maggots.
Sarah Tucker, a World Horse Welfare Field Officer, stated:
“As I walked over to the pony, the smell was absolutely putrid even from six feet away,”
“I could hear the maggots making a ‘crackling’ sound as they burrowed through his skin. It was like his skin was moving as he was so covered in them and he understandably looked very uncomfortable and dejected.”
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The equine charity and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) have begun investigating to try and find out how Buggy had been left in such a terrible state in a field in the Hillam area of West Yorkshire in England.
Buggy was removed from the field so he could undergo urgent treatment to get rid of the maggots immediately.
“I would say this is one of the most horrific cases of neglect that I’ve seen in the years I’ve worked for World Horse Welfare.
It’s shocking to think that Buggy has been left in this terrible condition for and that if he’d been found just one or two days later it would have been too late.”
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“In addition to Buggy’s awful maggot-infested wounds, the whole field was full of ragwort (a plant poisonous to horses), all four of the horses’ hooves were in serious need of trimming and there was no fresh water supply for them to drink.”
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Buggy and his pony friends are now at Horse Welfare’s Penny Farm Rescue and Rehoming Centre in Lancashire, and they’re doing much better now!
Watch this video to find out more about Buggy and the people who are helping him recover: