Minimun detention time for horses before "put to sleep"

time lord · 06-07-2011 11:44AM #1

Does the minimum detention time for impounded horses change from county to county or is there a given number of days common to all Local Authorities before the horses can be put down.

Tom Young · 06-07-2011 01:21PM

Equine/Farming Law is not something that I am particularly well versed in. That said, I am not sure of many who are. You might get a solicitor onto this instead.

Discodog · 06-07-2011 01:38PM

If the detention is under the terms of the Control of Horses Act 1996 then the LA's can pretty much do as they like. The Act allows authorised persons to detain a horse for a long as is necessary. The Act also allows LA's to make local bye-laws. Any solicitor, that you instruct, might find his hands tied.

If you are concerned about the welfare of a specific horse then it might be worth posting in the Animals & Pets section here.

Was the horse seized in a Controlled Area ?

time lord · 06-07-2011 02:06PM

Thanks for the replies. Its about no horse in particular. I seize and organise the disposal of many horses for a couple of Local Authorities along with others performing the same and other tasks.
We used hold on to them for a couple of weeks and now its down to about half that. I say "about" as the line manager changed the length of period more than once.
Six were put down the other day in the pound and some may have been impounded for differant lengths of time. I was just curious about the impound lengths for the whole country and I have that answered now thanks. The mandatory five days detention for a dog was clouding the issue too.

Discodog · 06-07-2011 02:14PM

Their is some confusion because of the use of the word "Pound" for both dog Pounds & Horse Pounds. The law relating to each is totally different so the dog Pound 5 days does not apply. For your own protection you should obviously only dispose of a horse when you have the appropriate authority.

I suspect that you are going to get busier when the summer grazing is no longer available.

time lord · 06-07-2011 02:57PM

Discodog wrote: »

Their is some confusion because of the use of the word "Pound" for both dog Pounds & Horse Pounds. The law relating to each is totally different so the dog Pound 5 days does not apply. For your own protection you should obviously only dispose of a horse when you have the appropriate authority.

I suspect that you are going to get busier when the summer grazing is no longer available.

True, very busy compared to last year literally herds put down. Our other "pound" is properly called a "dog shelter" but we use pound as its a hard habit to break and shelter implies we carry out dog welfare issues.
Appropriate authority is fine (so far), we have been to district, circut and high court with horse issues and touch wood all t's crossed and i's dotted so far.
We used have a very colourful judge who had little time for local authorities so our level of court prep. is quite high. ps we still loose a few:(

Minimun detention time for horses before "put to sleep"

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