Shallow grave

“These horses are again being starved by their owner,” insist activists, as more than 20 horses at Jenkins Farm of Death are in “extreme danger” of starvation

IT is a pathetic sight.

Lying in a field draped in a tarpaulin weighed down by rocks is the dead body of a young foal.

A thoroughbred Trakehner no more than two years of age, its prone shape lies just yards from yet another dead horse, its carcass already picked apart by vultures.

Nearby, clearly emaciated and suffering from a range of apparent injuries, are a dozen more horses.

Welcome to yet another sad chapter in the life of British horse trainer Suzanne Wynne Jenkins, a woman already allegedly responsible for the deaths of at least 16 other animals last year.

Despite a recent conviction in the UK for the starvation and mistreatment of horses, Jenkins, 34, is still apparently allowed to keep horses in Spain.

While the authorities stepped in last year to investigate the deaths and official veterinary body OCA has been helping on the ground, the killing fields remain.

While Jenkins completely denies that the dead horses are hers, animal activist groups Agaden and Cacma insist the photos were taken last month at a neighbouring farm Jenkins had been using.

“This is the body of one of her horses, Monique,” said Antonio Moreno, of Cacma. “We have pictures of her alive just a year ago.

“It is very very sad that this slaughter of innocent animals continues.”

Meanwhile Vanesa Ribera, of Agaden, who took the photos, estimates that up to 30 horses may have now died around the farm Rancho Fiscal, where Jenkins has lived for two years.

“These animals are dying little by little by inactivity and dehydration,” she said.

She confirmed that the pictures had been filed with police, and that both groups had now launched a prosecution against provincial vet OCA for failing to act to stop the killing.

Indeed, only a fortnight ago, there was another hearing at Chiclana´s court number one, in which Jenkins and OCA were asked to give statements.

Jenkins refused to comment on the case, but a press release from Agaden insisted that up to 20 horses are in “extreme danger”. “The situation is lamentable. These horses are literally being starved to death by their owner.”

It is tragically almost exactly a year since the Olive Press exclusively revealed that Jenkins’ property in Medina Sidonia, was the subject of an urgent rescue effort.

Dubbed the ‘Farm of Death’, we reported how 16 out of 52 horses had apparently died of starvation at the two hectare smallholding on the main road to Chiclana.

Deluded

While Jenkins, from Gloucestershire, claimed they had died due to eating contaminated hay and bad water, it soon emerged that she had a similar case pending against her for the mistreatment of horses in the UK.

In October she was fined 600 pounds and banned for keeping horses for two years at Forest of Dean magistrates court.

She was described by a judge as “deluded,” as the court convicted her of three counts of causing unnecessary suffering to horses.

The court heard how a quarter of her 49 horses kept at her stables in Kilcot, had fallen into “an extremely poor and distressing state.”

Judge David Parsons said that Jenkins was “overwhelmed” by the task of running such a large stables.

The overall picture was one of “chaos and mismanagement” in which, faced with mounting debts, Jenkins relied on her parents re-mortgaging their house and then cut down on feed.

Incredibly she was able to leave the UK though with the majority of her horses, where, within a year, 16 had died, according to local vets, due to starvation.

At the time she insisted it was not starvation, but in fact there was a “water problem” and a delivery of hay with tiny thorns.

Now, within days of the court case, activists confirmed that all the horses have finally been taken off the land, in a dramatic operation this weekend.

While “nobody knows who was involved and where they have gone”, local English horse lover Penny Wilde insists they have been taken to Portugal or Huelva.

“They were literally all taken away in two big horse boxes,” she confirmed. “It was done quickly in one fell swoop.”

This week Jenkins denied to the Olive Press that they had gone to Portugal, where they would be outside the Spanish legal jurisdiction.

“I am not telling you where the horses have gone, but it is not Portugal,” she said.

“You have printed a load of lies about me. My horses in the UK actually had redworm. I was even prosecuted for allowing a horse to drink out of a hose.

“I have no idea about these pictures and where they came from. I did not have a horse covered in tarpaulin at my farm. I am not saying anything else.”

A lawyer representing her was not answering her phone as we went to press, while OCA refused to confirm where the horses had gone.