Cambridgeshire Family Banned for Life for Pony Cruelty

Today, Wednesday 17 December, at Ely Magistrates Court, Sandra Rose Loveridge 38, her husband George Robert Loveridge 37, and his father John William Smith, 71 of Littleport, Cambridgeshire were found guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to 2 ponies in their possession.

Mr & Mrs Loveridge, of 31 Parsons Lane, Littleport, Ely, and Mr John William Smith, who all pleaded not guilty to the charges, were disqualified from keeping horses for life, and ordered to pay £400 costs each. The Court placed a confiscation order on the mare and foal that survived because the defendants showed a complete lack of awareness of the care and welfare that these ponies needed and no remorse that their negligence had led to the death of one of them.

At the end of February this year ILPH Field Officer, Jonathan (Jacko) Jackson was driving along the A10 at Littleport when he saw some ponies in a field beside the road that looked underweight.

"As they appeared to be rather thin," Jacko comments, "I went into the field for a closer look. I found that one of them, a chestnut mare, that was lying down could not get up. She was badly emaciated and distressed that she was unable to get up. From the marks in the grass, which extended over some distance, I came to the conclusion that she had been down for some considerable time."

Sadly the chestnut mare never got up and she was euthanased by a vet on the spot. A grey mare and her coloured foal, who were also emaciated, were taken to ILPH Hall Farm in Norfolk, where they made a full recovery.

Continues Jacko, "We couldn't be more pleased with the sentencing. People who neglect the welfare of their horses and ponies and cause them to suffer for such a long period, as was seen in this case, must suffer the consequences themselves. A life ban on keeping horses is the best we could have hoped for."

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