Horror on Bonfire Night as horse is blinded by firework
A HORSE may have to be put down after being apparently blinded by a firework from a reveller’s display.
The 21-year-old rescue horse, named Dettori, was left in agony after his eye was smashed into its socket by a hurtling rogue rocket.
Police are now investigating after the animal suffered ‘irreversible damage’ and severe trauma in the incident on Thursday evening.
Distraught owner Charley Taylor said that she now faces the heartbreaking choice of whether to put Dettori through surgery to remove the eye or have him put to sleep.
A GoFundMe page has been set up after appalled animal lovers read of the incident and offered student Miss Taylor, 21, and her mother Debbie Walker financial help for Dettori’s treatment.
So far, more than £4,600 has been raised. Any money left over will be donated to charity.
Miss Taylor, from Aberdeen, said a man let off a 30-minute fireworks display next to Dettori’s field. She hit out on social media: ‘Your actions have meant that our horse only has two options. Dettori can be put to sleep, or he can go for an operation to get his eye removed.
‘In the words of our vet, “the damage is so severe it is irreversible”. This is the reality me and my mum are faced with after your horrific choice to set fireworks off next to a field full of horses.’
Miss Taylor claimed that they confronted the man, who showed ‘no remorse’, and they then contacted the police.
Last night, cleaning company owner Ms Walker, 55, said Dettori has been their horse for ten years and they would decide this week on what treatment was best.
She added: ‘We have to be patient with him, he is not moving in his stable to drink water and when he does move it is round in a circle. The vet has said the eye is totally irreparable and it just depends how he deals with it. The sickening thing is, we have had him ten years and he was a rescue horse and in a bad way when we got him.
‘We are still unsure as to the outcome – we are waiting to see how Dettori handles the trauma. As you can imagine he is very stressed.
‘Horses are hard work but we do it because it’s our passion and then someone takes that away through no fault of ours or his. They are our family.’
A Police Scotland spokesman said: ‘Around 9.45pm on Thursday, November 5, we received reports that a horse had been injured within a field in Countesswells.
‘Officers attended and inquiries are ongoing to establish whether any crime has been committed.’
Emergency crews experienced one of the most violent Bonfire Nights in years after official events were cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic, with Scots firefighters answering 511 callouts over an eight-hour period.
Some suffered attacks, including being pelted with rocks, while attending 13 incidents.
In one altercation, riot police were drafted in when a 200-strong gang at an illegal rave in Greenock, Renfrewshire, began throwing fireworks and bottles.
‘The damage is so severe that it’s irreversible’