Horse centre to the rescue
Local charity lends a hand after police drug raid
A MAJOR National Police drug operation in Almoradí on Wednesday had to wait for the Easy Horse Care Rescue Centre in Rojales to be able to take seven equines into their custody.
Co-founder Sue Weeding told Costa Blanca News that her husband Rod had just taken delivery of 10 tonnes of horse feed when the authorities called asking for their assistance. She explained that all these pallets of feed had to be moved by fork lift before they could come out otherwise it would spoil.
Once they had agreed, a court in Orihuela was on standby to grant authorisation for the horses being seized from the suspects to be looked after by the centre until the case is resolved.
With this all done, 71-yearold Rod set off to collect their new charges.
While the force had not released any details of their operation at the time of going to press, Costa Blanca News understands that 15 officers came from Madrid and raided a home and a huge industrial warehouse in Almoradí.
The owners of the warehouse were baffled by the incident, assuring they had no idea that there was anything untoward about their tenants or what they had been using the property for.
The said premises also contained dogs and birds, a schooling area for the horses, stables outside, saddles, a cart, and several high-end cars which were also seized by the police.
Mrs Weeding said the horses were a mother and baby and five stallions, including a blue-eyed, blondemaned nervous little pony.
“These really are beautiful, very expensive horses and very well cared for,” she noted.
Mrs Weeding said she did not know what the ultimate fate of these horses will be, noting that assets from drug dealing are often auctioned off after a conviction.
Nevertheless, she hoped they might be signed over to them permanently, suggesting that since they are healthy and trained they could be taken to the EHC Foundation’s new facilities in Switzerland and then rehomed.
She said they will ask the court for permission to castrate the stallions because these are powerful animals and have to be kept apart in stables otherwise they would fight each other and they become uncontrollable if they are near a mare.
For this reason their equine vet Dorothea is looking after three of the stallions and the rest are at the centre.
“We will do the best we can, as we always do,” she assured.
However, Mrs Weeding said it is ‘crazy’ that they still receive no funding, ‘and yet the police clearly need us, they were desperate for us to come and take these horses’.
“Is this the National Police’s answer to part of their operation? she asked.
“Call a 71-year-old pensioner pulling a horse box with a 25-year-old 4x4, which he keeps patching up because we can’t afford a replacement, to handle five stallions?”
“In the coronavirus crisis we’re very short on funds and using our own private money to buy horse feed and now we have seven more mouths to feed. That is the reality of the situation.
“It is absolutely brilliant that the police are going after these drug people but people like us who take these animals because they have nowhere else to place them, we need funding, it’s as simple as that.”