Tiny pony in trouble

[bunn]

Yesterday evening when walking hounds I almost fell over a very young foal (maybe a few days?) who was on his own and in a very bad way, not able to stand, obviously distressed and covered in flies. 

I phoned the emergency number on the park gate, and got a confused lady in Truro, who (after a long delay where I hung about while the hounds whinged about how it surely must be teatime by now) passed me to Cornwall Council Animal control, who (after another long delay when the hounds appeared to have given up hope of ever going home and went to sleep on the grass)  passed me to the RSPCA, who said they would make it a priority case, leave it to them.

  I was rather expecting them to call me back for more directions, but they didn't - however, the foal was gone this morning, and I'm pretty sure he wasn't in a state to walk out of there, so someone must have taken him.  I hope he is OK.

Comments

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

It's good that there's an emergency number and that you do (eventually) get put through to someone who'll act... Fingers crossed they were able to help the poor creature.

Such patient hounds!

[the-marquis.livejournal.com]

Well done you hopefully the RSPCA got there and did what they should, did you get them on the kind of number you can ring back and follow up on? Or would it entail more hanging around with pointless conversations.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I hear so many bad things about the RSPCA that I'd investigated other options but was very relieved not to need them!

They are supposed to be keeping me informed of the situation via my mobile, but I've not heard anything back, and I don't want to call them just for an update because I know they are overwhelmed with calls.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I always think that *most* dogs would be quite happy to spend a while just mooching about in a big open space all smelling of rabbits, squirrels, deer and horse poo, but mine are such bossyboots, they get bored if I want to, say, sit down and read a book or pick blackberries. Az pokes me with his long pointy nose to make me walk on, and Mollydog yodels at me. Only in despair will they finally settle down, and then they lie on the ground looking mournfully at me rather than doing all the 10000 exciting dog things they *could* be doing.

[inzilbeth-liz.livejournal.com]

I hope it was OK and at least you got through to someone. I must admit I'm not a fan of the RSPCA [heard too many bad stories] but it would be nice to think they would come out to a call like that. I would definitely chase them though.

[demon-rum.livejournal.com]

I always thought the RSPCA was beyond awesome, but that's mostly gleaned from a childhood of reading Tintin and Enid Blyton books, and being in awe of anything with "Royal" in it.

Are these wild ponies just wandering around in parks? I'm rather fascinated by that.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I do have some sympathy for the RSPCA - people expect them to do so much, and theeir brief is so HUGE.

But I've heard a lot of bad stories too, and they do refer people to Oldies which is a bit... 'you are HUGE rich charity with pro staff & centres! We are tiny tiny poor charity run on shoestring by volunteers : you expect us to help when you can't???;

I will probably give them a ring this week to see if I can find out if they picked the pony up (I guess it is possible that someone else found him after me and just took him away unilaterally), but didn't want to do that at the weekend.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

LOL - the RSPCA do a fair job on the whole, but they aren't very Enid Blyton!

They aren't wild ponies, they will have an owner of a sort, but in a fairly loose kind of way. Various farmers have grazing rights and the ponies live on the moors and breed without much intervention beyond keeping a record of which is whose - in theory they are all tagged and microchipped, though I'm slightly dubious about exactly how that can be checked... If they are lucky, the owner feeds them in the winter. They round them up in the autumn to count them and some of the young ones get sold then.

It's a rather old fashioned approach to horse keeping!

[demon-rum.livejournal.com]

I was going to respond to this like 11 days ago. Because I am a girl, therefore I am interested in horses. I do not understand why this is the case, but it's weirdly common.

Those sound like almost-wild ponies, and I am totally fascinated by them. There are nearly-wild ponies on islands off the coast of South Carolina, and wild mustangs in various national parks here, and the government is always trying to get rid of them because they supposedly eat all the plants and run around destroying the land with their hooves. Or whatever. So I'm really impressed that people can just leave ponies out on the moors and they don't all get shot from a helicopter or something.

(also, it turns out that even Enid Blyton wasn't very Enid Blyton.)

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

That's horrific! Hope the poor wee chap got help from somewhere...

For a horse lover, that would have been a ghastly thing to witness.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

I love your description of the disgruntled hounds. I can picture the scene...