Mare and foal saved from slaughter
May 3 2008 by Chris Robinson, The Journal
MAGGY and her four-week-old foal were destined to be slaughtered for meat on the continent before animal lover Linda Cummings stepped in to save them.
The nine-year-old mare and her son Harry were due to be transported hundreds of miles across Europe in a packed lorry where heat can soar up to 40 degrees centigrade and animals can trample on each other in the crush.
But the lucky pair are now settling in to their new home in the North East after Linda forked out £740 each for them – the price their meat would have been worth to the French farmer who owned them.
Mother-of-two Linda decided to bring the horses home after reading about their plight and seeing their photographs on a website which works to rescue horses bound for the abattoir.
Linda of Pelton, County Durham, is now beginning to nurse the animals, originally from Spain, back to health in private stables and is now highlighting the need for a change in the way horses sold for meat are treated.
She said: “They are taken there in haulage trucks in terrible conditions and that is why I rescued them.”
The civil servant, who lives with partner Tom Moran, 51, and sons Jack, 17 and Luke, 10, has reared horses for almost 20 years.
The 47-year-old, who named the animals after her parents because they helped her with the funding to buy them, added: “It is absolute carnage when they are transported en masse.
“Mares stand on their own foals and they are mixed with donkeys too, there is no reason for them to go to slaughter.
“I have only had them for two days now and they are just fantastic. I am gaining a little bit of trust, but it just takes time.”
Although both animals are from Spain, they were transported to a farm in France.
Rescuers from the campaign website www.equinesection.com paid Linda’s cash to the farmer and arranged for a specialist driver to transport them to Southampton. They were able to rest there before being brought the rest of the way to the North East in safe horse boxes.
