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Ken Waixel
Senior Inspector
RSPCA (Victoria)
July 2, 2006
Dear Ken,
RE: Tolmie Horses - Clarification
Thank you for your phone conversations to date regarding ALV's serious welfare concerns for what appears to be around 35 horses in poor condition on a property in Tolmie outside Mansfield. As you will be aware I was first contacted to help these horses by a concerned local, Kay Sundborn and horse expert Barry Tapp in late May. On Saturday, June 3rd I spent most of the afternoon on the property (and adjoining property). The horses were in poor condition. The RSPCA attended the following Wednesday and put a compliance order on the person responsible for their poor condition, Heide. Kay continues to contact me with what I believe are her very real concerns for the horses and what she believes are still unsatisfactory conditions for their well-being.
There appears to be several varying versions of the exact situation at Tolmie, so in a joint effort to make sure the horses are all being looked after, it would be appreciated if you could please let me know the current state of play with these horses.
A brief overview of the situation as described to ALV by the complainant follows, your comments on any of it are welcomed:
* Late February 2006 - Kay contacts RSPCA concerning some 35 horses she believes are starving on a property outside Mansfield in Tolmie
* March 2006 RSPCA Inspector Guy Gorman attends at the property and sees the horses are not in good condition. He returns with a vet who said the horses were too debilitated to be wormed as it would damage their stomach linings. The owner named Heide was sent a compliance letter by the RSPCA.
* April - May 2005 Repeated calls are made by Kay to Guy Gorman to see what is happening. She is good friends with the neighbor and witnesses that their condition is still deteriorating. Guy Gorman tells her to put together a petition as the more people complaining the better. He told Kay that Heide had been sent a compliance notice and they would "have to wait for her to dig her own grave". Some horses (four or five were seen by neighbor) die. Guy supposedly photographed some of the dead horses. The bodies had been left to rot in the paddock for weeks. In the last week of May in desperation Kay visited the property with a reporter and photographer from the Sunday Herald Sun. They photographed a 'funeral pyre' with large horse bones still sticking out of it. Apparently the bodies (and evidence) were all burned. [I also saw this prye in the paddock with the horses on June 3, it was mostly covered with dirt but ash and bones littered the area.]
* May 30, 2006 Hugh Wirth, President RSPCA rings Kay, very upset with her. He yelled at her asking why she hadn't rung the RSPCA?! Apparently he had been contacted for comment from the Herald Sun reporter. Kay explained to him that she had rung the RSPCA three months ago and not much was changing.
* June 1, 2006 Guy Gorman rings Kay asking her about the current condition of the horses. He tells her he will be attending again the following week.
* Saturday June 3, 2006 Myself and Dave Bell from ALV travel to Tolmie to inspect the horses. We are accompanied by Kay and Tiffany (another local very concerned for the horses). At different times a film crew and reporter from ACA and a reporter and photographer from the Sunday Age also witness and document the conditions of the horses. We saw approximately 15 horses in a back paddock who were in poor condition and while I was there a very emaciated clydesdale mare collapsed and was too frail to stand up. A vet was called to put her out of her misery, which indeed it was, as she was groaning in pain It was very distressing and pitiful. (further details of my inspection on June 3 follows at the end of this email)
* June 8 or 9, 2006 I spoke with you on the phone to get an update about the situation. You told me a blood sample taken by the vet from the clydesdale mare showed she was infested with little red worm and it was very hard to eradicate, usually 90% of horses with it die. All the horses needed to be wormed and fed hard feed ( ie food other than just hay). It was also stated a compliance order (I assume this is the second one?) was placed on Heide to bring the horses up to form asap or they would be seized.
* Mid June, 2006 Kay informs me that some of the horses have been put into other paddocks/properties around the area. She is worried how they will be monitored and assessed. She was also told 'off the record' by the local vet that he put down a further seven horses after the RSPCA inspection on June 7, due to their deteriorated condition. (The RSPCA should know if this is the case?)
* June 24, 2006 Kay was contacted by another neighbor named Penny who lives on the other side of Heide concerning four horses down a ravine at the back of her property. She said they had wandered there from Heide's property. One of them, another Clydesdale, was very thin, she was very worried about them, especially the Clydesdale. Kay then rang the RSPCA and spoke to a "Graeme". She said he was very rude to her and said something like, "I'm sick of you people in Mansfield ringing up about those horses, they are all brumbies, I wish you would just mind your own business." Graeme told Kay the horses were being fed 4 kilos of feed a day. She asked how they were being wormed? He replied, It's none of my business. Kay persisted and the RSPCA sent Guy up there the next morning to inspect these four horses. Penny's husband said the inspector couldn't get to the horses in the ravine. Guy told them it would be a good idea if he and Kay could sit down and have a chat about it all. Kay is still waiting for Guy to ring her.
* June 26, 2006 I spoke to you again on the phone about this situation and asking for immediate help for this Clydesdale, so he/she didn't have to die the same death as the one I witnessed on June 3. You told me the RSPCA were taking faecal samples to check on the nutritional food contents they were receiving and also keeping an eye on how much feed was being used from the sacks she purchased. And that worming granules were being put into their hard feed. I expressed concern about how accurate this could be checked when several of the horses were roaming all over the place including the four in the ravine. You also then expressed concern about this and said you would look into it.
* July 1, 2006 Kay rang me again. She said she had been in contact with her local MP Graeme Stoney and asked him to please look into this matter. Kay spoke to his secretary and she told him that the RSPCA reported to Mr. Stoney that things were under control, that they would get the horses up in condition, remove them, then sell them and never let her have horses again. Of course this sounds like it really got mixed up in the translation, as surely this is not correct legal procedure (to my knowledge)?
Which brings me to a few questions:
1) How many horses are there actually involved in this matter and how many have died or been put down since late February?
2) How often is the RSPCA checking Heide's horses and what procedures are in place to see that all of them, wherever they may be, are being fed and wormed, especially if they are infested with red worm?
3) What worming protocols are in place for each horse?
4) Has Heide had two compliance notices since March? And if it's accurate that she has had these horses since last August, why isn't she being prosecuted for failing to properly care for them, instead letting them deteriorate into such dreadful conditions to the point of death?
5) How did it happen that the RSPCA didn't put proper worming and feeding procedures in place last March?
I know you are not the inspector in charge of this case Ken, and I acknowledge your true concern for these animals as well, so I look forward to your help in this matter. Thank you so much.
For animals, Patty
President, Animal Liberation Victoria
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