A HORRIFIED horse lover is appealing for information after the body of a ‘starved’ foal was found dumped by the side of a road.
Rachel Ward was alerted to the male horse’s plight after another woman saw the animal lying on the ground, with blue rope tied around its neck and front legs.
Mum Rachel, a trustee at the Thornberry Animal Sanctuary in North Anston, said: “The horse was in an absolutely appalling condition.
“All his bones were poking up, he’d starved to death and was definitely malnutritioned.
“He’d got a rope around his neck really tight and rope around his front legs but I think that had been used to drag him from a lorry.
“I have worked in animal cruelty for 30 years and you never get used to it. The animal was less than a year old, he was only a baby.
“But the most horrifying thing for me was that he had been starved and left there when it is a place where people will walk their dogs.”
The foal’s body was first seen last Friday morning, lying on a slope leading into a field off Bolsover Road, Shuttlewood, near Bolsover.
Police are conducting enquiries to try to trace the owner after Rachel reported the death to officers.
Rachel, of Rhodesia, near Worksop, said: “It was a definite act of cruelty. It hadn’t just died, it had been starved.”
A spokeswoman for Derbyshire Police said they had been informed of the incident on Sunday morning.
Chesterfield Council had been told and environmental health officers said they would remove the body.
She added: “Enquiries are ongoing to find out who owned the horse and from there on we can take appropriate action if needed.”
n Anybody with information about the owner of the foal can contact Derbyshire Police on 101.
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