RSPCA employs extra staff to tackle equine crisis

The RSPCA has almost doubled the amount of specialist equine inspectors that it employs. The charity has now taken on an extra nine inspectors, adding to the 10 it already had.

The RSPCA’s team of specialist equine officers has been expanded as the charity continues to tackle ongoing rescue, rehabilitation and rehoming of equines.

“The equine inspectors are normal inspectors with a speciality in equines, so this is a way of building up their specialist knowledge in this area,” an RSPCA spokesman told H&H.

“The RSPCA and other welfare organisations have been quite open for some time now about the fact that we are facing an equine crisis, with more neglected and abused horses than ever before. It is therefore becoming more and more important that we have frontline officers with specialist skills, knowledge and experience of horses, to deal with these issues as best we can.”

The inspectors gathered together for specialist training, run by Redwings, last week (20-21 October).

RSPCA chief inspector and leading equine officer Cathy Hyde said: “The Redwings training days provided a fantastic opportunity for our now 19-strong team to better their knowledge and skills. We are dealing with more and more equine incidents all the time so this specialist course was extremely beneficial.”

Ref: H&H 4/11/15

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