A woman caught footage on her phone camera of a horse collapsing from exhaustion in the bank holiday heat in the streets of Cardiff after being overworked pulling carts around the city centre.
The horse, according to eye witnesses, had been utilised over the busy national holiday weekend. It is understood the horse was pulling tourists around the Welsh capital in carts before falling to the ground on Westgate Street on Saturday evening.
You can watch the horrifying footage below:
Shirley Wilson, who filmed the incident, said she was ‘so very sad’ to witness the cruelty unfold right in front of the popular thoroughfare outside the Cardiff city centre arena.
After sharing the video to Twitter, others chimed in decrying the cruelty.
Sandra Kvaerneng Stolp from Swansea-based Whispering Willows Sanctuary was called out to collect the exhausted animal and transport it to safety in her horse box.
Speaking on a video documenting the rescue on Facebook, she said:
We were called by the police. A horse had been down on Westgate Street for a couple of hours. It had collapsed on the road.
We did what we could and we got her up and she’s now in the back. She’s munching on her hay, it was the hay that got her in the box.
We don’t know how old she is. We’re now going to go home and call the vet out.
RSPCA officer Simon Evans, who was at the scene, said two people had been arrested on suspicion of offences under the Animal Welfare Act.
In one photo shared to social media, a horse-drawn buggy can be seen next to the stricken mare, with a handwritten note reading ‘free to a… home.’
He added the horse was due to be seen by a vet on Saturday night. South Wales Police said they were unable to provide any more information this evening, per Wales Online.
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A former emo kid who talks too much about 8Chan meme culture, the Kardashian Klan, and how her smartphone is probably killing her. Francesca is a Cardiff University Journalism Masters grad who has done words for BBC, ELLE, The Debrief, DAZED, an art magazine you’ve never heard of and a feminist zine which never went to print.