CONVICTED (2023) | Claire Jones, born 28 September 1973, of Market Hill, Rothwell, Kettering NN14 6BW – kept horses in ‘cruel and degrading’ conditions.
Jones was prosecuted by the RSPCA after inspectors found two of her horses with lice, cracked hoofs and urine scalds. Both were so lean that bones were visible.
On April 14, 2022, an officer from World Horse Welfare attended the Rothwell yard where Jones was keeping her horses and found the stable to be very dirty with a strong smell.
Prosecuting, Janita Patel said: “Both [horses] were found to be in a very poor bodily condition.”
The officer gave Jones advice on the horses and cleaning up the stable.
On two occasions over the next 10 days the RSPCA attempted to visit but the gate was locked. They applied for a warrant, before returning with police and a vet on April 28.
They found 12-year-old mare Pixie and two-year-old colt Gary in conditions which were ‘unsuitable and unhygienic’ with no proper bedding.
Pixie was so thin that her ribs, hips and spine were clearly visible. She had patches of hair loss, obvious evidence of a lice infestation and her hoofs were overgrown, cracked and split.
Gary was excitable when he came out of the stable. His bones were clearly visible with hair loss and lice. He had hard matted faeces stuck to his hair because there was no bedding and he had to lie on the stable floor. Gary also had urine scalds on his leg and his hoofs were also overgrown, cracked and split.
The ground of the stable was saturated with urine .
Ms Patel said: “It’s shocking [that] they could be kept there 24/7.”
A vet said that they had suffered for several months. A farrier who examined the ponies in May was of the opinion that their hoofs hadn’t been trimmed for between six and eight months.
Ms Patel said warning notices had been sent to Jones but that she had failed to accept the advice.
She said: “They have fallen on deaf ears.”
When she was interviewed Jones said she had little equine experience and that she used to use straw but that Gary would eat it.
The court heard she thought the skin issues were caused by fleas and treated it with white vinegar but that she didn’t notice the sores.
Ms Patel said Jones agreed that the horses were a bit lean and that the stable was a ‘shit tip’.
She told the RSPCA that money wasn’t an issue and that she didn’t know why she hadn’t got a vet out.
She later signed the horses over and admitted three animal welfare offences, including two of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal.
District Judge Amar Mehta told Jones she was lucky the animals survived and that her offending crossed the custodial threshold – but that she had escaped going to prison by ‘a whisker’.
He said: “You kept these horses in a condition which, when one looks at the photographs, makes the court shudder.
“That is not how to keep animals. You kept them in cruel and degrading conditions.”
Sentencing | 26 weeks in prison, suspended for 18 months; 150 hours of unpaid work; costs and surcharge totalling of £654. Disqualified from keeping animals for 10 years.