SPCA confiscates horses over ‘cruel and archaic’ training in Cape Town

The owner of a property where horses were trained using a “cruel and archaic” method was scheduled to appear in court on Thursday on charges of animal cruelty and assault after allegedly punching a Cape of Good Hope SPCA inspector.

SPCA inspectors, acting on a complaint about horses kept in poor living conditions in Grassy Park, were initially denied access to the property when the owner insisted they produce a court order.

Court order in hand, they returned on Wednesday accompanied by SAPS and the City of Cape Town’s animal control unit.

A woman initially insisted they wait at the front of the property but they followed her in and found a saddle horse being trained “using a cruel and archaic training method. The inspectors were horrified by their findings,” the SPCA said on Thursday.

“A saddle horse stallion was found restrained. His head had been forced down onto his chest and his neck was forced into a tight hyper-flexed arched bow and then tied into this unnatural position.

“Tight pieces of rope tied from his bridle through his bit and onto a roller ensured that the poor animal could neither lift nor lower his head at all or move it either side to get the smallest respite from this muscle torture or mouth pain.

“The horse had been subjected to this suffering for an extended period of time. He was drenched in sweat, veins and blood vessels swollen with exertion. The white foam that thickly covered his mouth and entire nose, as well as wide eyes and tightly tensed facial muscles, spoke volumes as to his extreme state of distress,” said SPCA chief inspector Jaco Pieterse.

Three other saddle horses were allegedly found in “unsuitable stables” with limited ventilation and dirty drinking water.

When inspectors confirmed the animals would be confiscated, the owner allegedly became violent and punched Pieterse. He was arrested by the police.

Pieterse said the training technique — ostensibly to improve the animal’s performance — and “almost similar to the Rollkur technique, involves the forced, aggressive, overflexion of the horse’s neck, with the effect of forcing the horse into an artificial outline demand for competing saddle horses and holding it in that position for long periods. This is beyond cruelty.”

The practice, he added, caused extreme mental and physical distress.

The owner will appear in the Wynberg magistrate’s court on charges in terms of the Animals Protection Act for alleged animal cruelty and assault.

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