#MostEvil | Jack Carter, born c. 1946, and wife Barbara Carter, born c . 1948 of Bank Bridge, Liverpool Road, Tarleton, Preston PR4 6HJ – for the prolonged mistreatment and neglect of nine horses, eight of which had to be put down.
Jack and Barbara Carter, who bred, showed and kept horses for 60 years, both pleaded guilty to three animal welfare offences when they appeared before Lancashire Magistrates in a prosecution brought by the RSPCA.
The charity said the pair neglected “every basic aspect” of care for the nine horses and kept them in a “barbaric” state.
RSPCA inspector Vicki McDonald and Lancashire Police officers went to the couple’s home on Bank Bridge in April 2021 after they had previously avoided inspections, “citing various reasons”.
Jack Carter denied there were any ponies or horses on site, but “reluctantly agreed” to show Inspector McDonald the stable behind the house.
She told the court of her shock from what she found in this stable and a further three ramshackle stables which she checked, and discovered a further three stabled ponies in a yard area directly behind the house.
Inspector McDonald said: “Inside the first stable I found a grey pony in horrendous environmental and physical condition. I had never seen anything like it in my entire career. The pony was stood on top of deep rotting litter that had built up so much that it reached the top of the stable door. The pony was unable to fully stand up and its back protruded through a hole in the stable roof.
“In addition to that, I saw that the pony had severely overgrown feet beyond anything I had seen before. The hooves extended out and corkscrewed. Further rotting litter was piled up in front of the stable preventing the stable door from opening.
“The next stable I saw housed a chestnut and white pony and across from that were two further grey ponies. The two grey ponies’ behaviour was particularly disturbing. They seemed very stressed and erratic. I noticed that all the ponies had matting to their coats. They also had patches of sore skin, most likely from having no option but to lie in their own filth.
“To say the physical and environmental conditions of these ponies was shocking is a gross understatement. As with the first pony I had found, these were also stood on deep rotting litter piled as high as the stable doors inside and also in front of the doors preventing any possibility of the stable doors opening. They all had horrendously overgrown hooves that had started to corkscrew. There was very little room for them to move around or even stand normally. Again their backs reached the stable roofs.
“It was obvious that none of these ponies had been out of their stables or been seen by a farrier for a very considerable amount of time, if at all. It was my opinion that based on what I had seen it was highly possible that these ponies had been in these stables all their lives.”
The inspector called for an independent vet to attend the site and sadly the vet advised that all four ponies would need to be put to sleep to end their suffering.
The ponies couldn’t get out of their stables due to their ill health and the build-up of filth meaning staff had to dig their way in and break down a wooden wall to get to them.
The equine veterinary surgeon said in her report that the horses were neglected in every aspect of basic requirements and stated the conditions they were kept in were “extremely barbaric”.
Inspector McDonald added: “The severe lack of care and level of suffering endured by these ponies was prolonged, wholly avoidable and totally inexcusable. It was heartbreaking to find them in such a neglectful state and for them, after such an awful life, to be beyond saving.
“These ponies were kept stabled within a few feet of the back door to the Carter’s home address. They would have seen them daily and their plight would have been ignored daily. The extreme level of neglect I witnessed, in this case, is unlikely to ever be surpassed and will remain with me.
“They were imprisoned in cramped, ramshackle and rotting conditions, forced to live and lie amongst their own faecal matter. They could not stand naturally, they could not behave naturally, graze, exercise or socialise amongst others of their kind, they were not provided with any of the necessary veterinary or farrier care they urgently required and they could not escape their confines or be accessed in an emergency.
“In my opinion, the neglect of these ponies was physically, environmentally and psychologically cruel and this had clearly been their existence for a considerable period of time.”
Jack Carter then told the RSPCA that they had two more ponies stabled a short walk away on Liverpool Road but another five ponies were found there.
They had access to food and water but they were also in a neglected state and had a range of health problems.
The horses found there were signed over to the RSPCA and were taken for an emergency veterinary examination. Four out of the five were found to be suffering to the point where the vets decided the kindest thing to do was put them to sleep.
The remaining pony was rehabilitated and will now be found a new home.
Sentencing: 12-week suspended sentences; £500 costs. Banned from keeping animals for life.
They Bred and Showed them for 60 years.
Now Both in their 70s.
Yet despite this they didn’t know when to call it a day and Retire, and this is exactly what has happened.
Leaving the Animals to Suffer when they can no longer care for them. Absolutely Heart Breaking.
3 months suspended and £500 quid fine is an absolutely disgraceful pathetic sentence for the poor ponies…. Is that all their sad lives were worth ….. no justice for them !!!!!!!!!