Starving foal found collapsed near Cardiff recycling centre

Pony discovered on footpath near Lamby Way in Rumney

A TWO-MONTH-OLD foal was discovered starving, dehydrated and seriously neglected on a footpath in Rumney where it collapsed this afternoon.

A dog walker found the young animal, which had severe injuries to one eye, and called Welsh Pony Rescue, a charity which saves and rehomes horses.

It is the second time in just over a month that the charity has been called to the area to collect a neglected horse.

A few days after Christmas, they saved a horse nicknamed Mistletoe who had been abandoned at the roadside. She, too, was malnourished and suffered horrific mistreatment.

Paige Speed, a volunteer at Welsh Pony Rescue who rescued the foal, said it was emaciated and in a life-threatening condition.

“He’s starving and severely dehydrated. Fingers crossed he’ll make it through the night if the vet puts a drip in him. If he hadn’t been found when he was he would have been dead by tonight.”

She added that the animal was blind in one eye and that would have to be removed.

The foal, which was too weak to stand, was picked up by the volunteers and carried to the horse box with blankets which they used as a harness.

The lady who found the foal named him “Pebbles.”

• For updates on Pebbles, Mistletoe and the other horses at Welsh Pony Rescue, visit their Facebook page here.