The owner of a foal found with “horrific” injuries sustained in a suspected dog attack is offering a reward for any relevant information.
Jacqueline Bantock found her six-month-old cob Denby badly wounded in the field he shares with her four-year-old gelding Devon in Derby yesterday evening (16 September).
Jacqueline told H&H the landowner said he had seen both horses grazing at about 5.30pm but by the time she and her partner arrived some 25 minutes later, Denby was down.
“He likes lying down to sunbathe, and at first I thought that’s what he was doing,” Jacqueline said.
“Then my partner noticed some hair on the ground – then we saw some more hair with blood on it. My partner walked over to him and said: ‘Oh god’.”
Jacqueline said the colt had about 18 puncture wounds and a “horrific” open wound high on his left foreleg.
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“The vet said it was definitely a dog,” she said. “It had rained in the field and we could see paw prints, as well as deep hoofprints where the horses had been running around, obviously trying to get away.
“The four-year-old hadn’t been touched but because Denby’s so little, the dog went for him.”
Jacqueline called her vet and Denby spent last night in hospital, but the extent of the damage is not known.
“He’s unbelievably lame and they don’t know how bad it is yet – they can’t stretch the skin over the wound as there’s such a chunk missing, it looks like something out of a horror film,” she said.
“There’s no way the owner doesn’t know what happened, and there’s a yard with garages next to the field; they could have let them know but they just left him lying there to die.
“I’m offering a £100 reward for information – the dog must have had blood on it and someone must know the owner.”
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Eleanor is an experienced journalist who spent over eight years working for local and national newspapers before joining H&H as news editor in March 2016. Passionate about equine welfare and exposing the truth, Eleanor has reported on all aspects of the industry, from Brexit to anti-bullying campaigns, and from dressage rules to mules. Her sport of choice is showjumping, in which she competes her own horses, and she also enjoys reporting at local jumping shows through to international championships.
