The welfare of horses during transportation
Hi Alan,
I follow your website and also see you on face book, I am no longer in South Africa as we moved to Uk last year April so just to let you know you have fans all over the world!
The reason I am writing to you is partly as you are in touch with South Africa and its laws and welfare of the animals and partly out of sheer desperation as I feel something should be done, even if it doesn't help my horses it may help to prevent other horses and horse loving owners going through the same traumatic time that we have.
I started the process of choosing the transport agent as it did not seem possible to arrange the moving without one, I went with Candice Hobday who assured me that she got into this business for the welfare of the horse as she had battled previously to transport hers and had encountered similar correspondence issues as I had with other companies not returning calls etc, I was too worried to entrust my babies to someone who i could not contact at anytime!I paid her commissions, she charges R5000 per horse for the service of arranging transport and quarantine etc My horses were insured for R150 000 each (the one was worth more but we chose this figure on advise to cover flight bill etc as one can't really put a price on the loss of a child!) I was assured that in the highly unlikely event of a plane crash, travel complications such as travel sickness and pneumonia were my main threats so have the life cover for this, i extended the policy for the full year just to be safe. They were vet checked and passed for insurance and movement purposes and rushed through to beaufort west to start pre quarantine as ahs fears threatened a lockdown and I would've been without my horses for longer, then it was over to Candice. The events that happened in between were the disastrous ones, weight loss and over reach injuries whilst getting on the plane were minor problems, a week after Laudable (my jumper) went lame in their care, i was informed (as they couldn't fix it) and we had extensive nerve blocks etc but still not 100% finding out what was wrong with him, a few days before they were due to leave Moon, my young horse was reported to have been fresh bucked and slipped whilst being lead out sustaining a bruised shoulder, they said it is so unusual that any injuries occur and they can't believe it was to both my horses ( i later have heard of the shocking conditions from another lady who had horses there and of a horse dying of colic and the owner being told it was fine a week after it died?!!)
I have heard that the horses stand in at least 23 of the 24 hours and due to the weather they weren't getting out even then, this was not what i had envisaged not even a round pen for short term turn out.
My horses were shipped to me, i paid, when they stepped off the float I cried because of the state of them but thought ok, they are with me now I can fix them. On further inspection, top vets and specialists it was ascertained that Laudable's joint capsule had sustained irreparable trauma and he will never be sound and moon had broken 7 spinal processes off in her wither some in 2 places (confirming the story in my mind that had come through about her being difficult to temp so she was twitched, beaten and reared and flipped onto her back) she couldn't even touch the ground to graze.
Candice refused to help me, she said Kenilworth has no insurance for such incidences, they are a non profit making organisation, (i paid R30 000 per horse for a 40 day stay!) and she told me to stop stalking her secretary when i called her twice.
In Uk if you care for other peoples livestock you are required to have insurance for such incidences, it doesn't fix the horse but it makes keeping an unusable horse for the next 10 years plus more affordable, my insurance won't pay out unless horses are euthanased humanely which is not an option, so where do I go, I was looking at the angle that quarantine are responsible, Candice said I must prove gross negligence, surely the fact that both my horses are broken proves something towards that? Then I realised that actually had this happened in Uk the agent I paid and that arranged all this would be the one being sued and that is why she was so unhelpful, she doesn't want to cause problems for Kenilworth as she is in with them and they had something to do with closing down their only competition, the Mauritian quarantine. My mare is now defensively aggressive in her stable, they even considered giving both my horses anti psychotics to cope with the traumas and anxieties i am dealing with now but the side effects are to risky.
I have been told several stories of which I can relate to you at a later stage from a contact who was inside the facility with her own horses, when she asked for things to be changed she was kicked out and refused access only her daughter was allowed in to work her horses, I had no idea you could be in quarantine with your horses, i feel guilty for not being there, my mare has been with me for 4 years since birth and laudable for a couple of years, never out of my care, I gave them repeated instructions on how to handle my horses to avoid problems which were ignored, it is heart breaking to see such magnificent animals destroyed.
I have been told by hundreds of people that i should be able to do something, do i report her operations to SANEF or the SPCA HCU? I have no idea how to proceed here form Uk to sa, here pro bono lawyers take on the cases all the time, no win no fee. What regulations do agents have to follow, what insurances do they have to have? Here it is strictly regulated for the animals welfare, can any old Joe just take money for making a few calls and take no responsibility? I have tried to let it go but every day when I see my horses I feel something should have been done, can you help me?
