UPDATE: Runaway pony '˜nearly died' after falling in slurry pit

Police pursued the animal for more than an hour on Sunday (January 24) as it ran around the town after escaping from a field.

Kim Davies, of Langley Green, helped officers catch the pony and volunteered to look after it for 24 hours.

She told how it escaped again when she took it back to her home, broke through a fence, and ran into nearby woodland.

She said: “On Tuesday he escaped from the woodland and we didn’t find him until the Wednesday afternoon.

“He has no concept of fences. He is a stallion and has had no human contact.

“On Wednesday we spent all day in the rain looking for him.

“We phoned all the farms in the area and one phoned us back in the evening to say he was in a dairy farm.”

The pony was enclosed in another field but managed to break through the barbed wire this morning (Thursday January 28) and fell in a slurry pit.

Kim said: “He was in a dairy farm in Charlwood and was giving people the run around,

“He was up to his neck in a slurry pit and nearly died.”

She said a group of locals did a ‘fantastic job’ of digging him out of the 6ft-deep slurry.

She added: “He got himself in a right old state and could be put to sleep.”

Kim was told the pony would be collected on the Monday (January 25).

She said she had been speaking to the police and the RSPCA and was upset neither came to pick up the animal or help recapture him when he escaped again.

She said: “I said I would take him for 24 hours and they would come and pick him up. I had him for four days.

“If they had just done it on the Monday when they were meant to he would not have gone through this.”

Kim added she had been told the horse had been put to sleep.

In response a spokesman for the RSPCA said: “The RSPCA received calls about a Shetland pony loose in the Crawley area.

“As a charity with limited resources, we must prioritise sick and injured animals.

“Stray animals are a matter for the local authority, while the police are responsible for loose animals causing a potential hazard on the highways.

“However, our inspectors remained in touch with police.

“Anyone wishing to report a sick or injured animal can call the RSPCA advice and emergency line on 0300 1234 999.

“Sadly equine issues are not uncommon. The RSPCA is rescuing neglected and cruelly treated horses every week, and along with all the other charities, we have more horses in our care than available spaces. As soon as one lucky horse is adopted, we have another one immediately waiting to fill the space at the centre.”

A spokesman for Surrey Police said: “We had several reports of ponies being seen in the Newdigate area but, having checked with the Mole Valley Safer Neighbourhood Team, they did not receive any reports of any incidents or obstructions involving animals in the Charlwood area so would not have been deployed to.

“Incidents where animals are not causing a danger to the public but need to be taken to a place of safety would be for the local RSPCA to respond to but if anyone has any concerns they should call Surrey on 101 or online at https://my.surrey.police.uk/splonlinereportingweb.”

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