£1,000 fine and 7 Year ban on Keeping Horses

Friday 13th was definitely not a lucky day for Carl Dicker, owner of a DIY Livery Yard at Mottram-St-Andrew near Wilmslow, Cheshire. Because on Friday 13th October at Macclesfield Magistrates Court he was fined £1,000 with £521 costs and banned for keeping horses for 7 years following the death through starvation of his 3 year old bay pony gelding.

If only Solo, and Kes could speak they would call it divine retribution - because he was not prosecuted following their discovery at his yard early last year. Both horses were rescued with others and taken to Glenda Spooner Farm, the International League for the Protection of Horses (ILPH) Recovery and Rehabilitation Centre, at Hoarwithy, Hereford, for treatment and rehabilitation.

Solo was in a pitiful state with deep, open, festering wounds caused by rain scald covering his back, belly and legs. Says Dee White, Centre Manager at Glenda Spooner Farm, “Solo was by far the sickest horse I’ve ever had in my care who has recovered. He was in slings for 19 days because he went down and was too weak to get up. He is still with us and is on our Adoption Scheme. Kes has been rehomed in the South West and is well on his way to becoming a dressage horse.”

Mr. Dicker was not prosecuted because it was deemed that because it was a DIY yard the welfare of the horses in his yard was not his concern.

He avoided conviction that time - But it is very sad that a pony had to die a very painful death before the law could do anything about it.

The irony is that Mr. Dicker can continue to run his livery yard as long as he does none of the work himself.

International League for the Protection of Horses, Anne Colvin House, Snetterton, Norwich, Norfolk NR16 2LR. Press Office tel: 01953 497212

Registered Charity No. 206658