A horse was put down and 29 more seized from two sisters who “never intended to cause harm or suffering”.

Rosie Nelson, 67, and her 74-year-old sister Violet Nelson, both of Houghton Road, Houghton, have been banned from keeping horses for eight years. The pair pleaded guilty to four animal welfare charges relating to 12 horses, at Carlisle Crown Court on 28 November.

The court heard that World Horse Welfare had alerted the RSPCA to concerns about a large number of horses at Low Woodbank, Briscoe, Carlisle. Representatives of both charities went to the scene with police and a veterinary expert in September 2023, and were “welcomed on to the site by the landowners who were not the owners of the horses”.

RSPCA inspector Carl Larsson told the court there were 30 horses on the site, 14

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