RSPCA Victoria is actively investigating a case of seven underweight horses and working with the owner to improve their health.
We appreciate the community's concern and can confirm we have an active investigation regarding this matter. Our Inspectors will continue to attend and investigate this matter to ensure any welfare concerns are rectified and all legal requirements are met.
It's important to note, moving horses who may be unwell can result in worse welfare outcomes, and rebuilding their weight must be done gradually to avoid adverse health outcomes. We ask for the community's patience as this work occurs behind the scenes.
As this is an active investigation, we urge the public not to take matters into their own hands as any interference could compromise the outcome of an investigation, so we ask people to please show restraint, and to respect all applicable laws.
RSPCA Victoria is aware of a number of social media posts regarding this matter, and as we receive new reports with any new information, we will continue to investigate them; however, it's vital animal cruelty reports are based off eye-witness accounts and not only from what is seen on social media.
While we understand how distressing it can be to see photos of injured and neglected animals on social media, particularly as they are shared multiple times across many interest groups and channels, it's incredibly challenging for our Inspectors to investigate matters when cruelty reports only contain details of what was seen on social media posts.
This type of 'social media' based cruelty report is unfortunately increasing, and while the intention behind the report is genuine, sadly they often contain incorrect, inaccurate, or out of date information making it difficult to investigate, causing unnecessary delays, and tying up our already extremely limited resources.
RSPCA Victoria's Inspectorate currently has only 28 Inspectors on the road to investigate more than 10,000 cruelty reports across the state. RSPCA Victoria Inspectors are the only authorised officers under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act who currently enforce and prosecute horse welfare in the state, and we have received more than 900 cruelty reports related to horses this financial year.
Anyone with concerns about the welfare of animals with first-hand information is urged to make a report to RSPCA Victoria at rspcavic.org/cruelty-report or by calling 03 9224 2222.
It's estimated it will cost RSPCA Victoria more than $10.7 million to operate the Inspectorate this financial year.
