THREE horses, including a foal, and a donkey have been rescued from alleged neglect after five months of complaints by neighbours.

The Cartagena City Council’s Health Department seized the four animals on the weekend.

The equines had been left in a muddy field near the Bahía Bella residential development, covered in faeces with their owners barely providing them with adequate food, water or shelter for months. 

Jacqueline Collins, alongside another concerned neighbour Lisa Jones, reported the ‘more than likely’ animal abuse to the authorities for the first time in December last year, corresponding with Animal Welfare officers from both the Los Alcázares and Cartagena City Councils.

They were increasingly frustrated by bureaucratic hurdles preventing the animals from being removed, filing several more complaints that the situation was not improving. 

Podemos Cartagena spokesperson Leli García visited the animals at the end of April after neighbours reached out to the political party. She said the whole situation has been an example of relevant authorities ‘washing their hands’ clean of the matter, by just passing the case along.

A vet was sent to check the animals on May 6 and they issued an official report confirming the animal’s state of abandonment. In response, Councilor Gonzalo López Pretel ordered their seizure and transport to a safe temporary shelter.

Collins and Jones said they are ‘thrilled’ the animals have finally been rescued. 

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