Yorkshire owner sentenced to prison and animal ban after neglected foal euthanised

Cricket, a neglected foal, has been put to sleep after his owner left him tethered, with no food, water or correct shelter.

50-year-old Carol Summers from Castleford has been prosecuted by the RSPCA and given a 16-week suspended prison sentence and banned from keeping animals for a decade after she caused unnecessary suffering to a foal.

In January, this year, Cricket, a six to eight-month-old piebald foal was found tethered in a field in Stansfield Road in Castleford, West Yorkshire.

Cricket was taken into the RSPCA after he was found “thin, lethargic and wobbly on his feet”, with no food, water or shelter for him.

RSPCA inspector Kris Walker said: “The rug he was wearing was too big for him and not on properly. He was scouring badly. There was no food, water or shelter readily available for him and he should not have been tethered due to his young age.”

When a vet was called out to see Cricket she gave him a body score of just one out of nine and said he was suffering from dehydration, hyperthermia and diarrhoea and needed urgent veterinary care.

A vet explained that Cricket was too young to be tethered and also not appropriately tethered as he was tethered connected to a fabric headcollar which poses a serious risk of injury - going against the Defra Code of Practice.

Another vet explained the extent of the condition Cricket was in. The colt was only around 85kg, however, a foal his age should be approximately 40 to 50 per cent of its adult weight - roughly 150kg.

Despite receiving extensive ongoing treatment and care, Cricket’s condition did not improve in the weeks that followed and a vet made the decision that it was in his best interest to put him to sleep to prevent further suffering.

Summers admitted she had failed to get the foal the care he needed and he had suffered unnecessarily as a result. Subsequently, she was given a 16-week suspended prison sentence and banned from keeping animals for a decade.

Magistrates heard Summers had various caring responsibilities and accepted she should never have become involved in looking after the foal.