Horse Sponsorship

After a rise in cruelty towards horses across the country in the last year, the RSPCA in Hillingdon, Slough, Windsor & District are appealing to local people to consider sponsoring one of the animals they have been caring for.

Sponsorships start from £5 a month and sponsors help with the essential medical and day-to-day welfare costs of the horses and ponies that have come into the care of the local RSCPA branch.

Paula Mathews, Branch Director of the Hillingdon branch, explained how essential financial support is in helping needy horses and ponies.

“In 2006, reports of equine cruelty to the RSPCA went up by around 30% and cruelty towards horses and ponies has definitely increased across our area.”

Those who are kind enough to sponsor the horses receive regular updates on the welfare of horses cared for by the Hillingdon area RSPCA and the work being done to help need animals locally.

Currently the local branch are looking after two horses, Patricia, a Shetland mare, and Willow, bay mare, who both came into their care following neglect and abuse from previous owners.

Mrs. Mathews said: “We really hope people will help us with sponsorship because there is no NHS for animals and often we are their last chance.”

Further information on how to sponsor a horse can be attained by visiting the RSPCA Hillingdon Clinic, 123 Uxbridge Road or by calling 01895 813267.

http://www.rspcahillingdonclinic.org.uk/

Self Reflective Essay

After being given a brief to produce an animal story, I went to local RSPCA rescue and treatment centre which I lived very close to. I asked about success stories or particular campaigns that they were looking to highlight in the local area and the branch director, Paula Mathews, gave me some literature.

After reading through the literature, I decided to focus on the scheme that the local branch were doing to sponsor one of the horses in their care. I arranged and conducted an interview with Paula at the RSPCA centre to get more information on the subject and she explained to me the nationwide statistics on equine cruelty.

The branch were promoting the scheme as an alternative to giving animals for Christmas but after filing the story, my tutor pointed out that statistics on equine cruelty were a much more newsworthy angle, so I rewrote the piece to accentuate that side of the story.

I felt that the piece could serve a social function in that it would aid a local charity to help animals in need. Also due to the fact the centre was in urban area, it though it would be interesting to raise awareness amongst local readers as it was possible that the local readership would not be aware of cruelty relating to horses in their area. I hoped that would be inspired to help the RSPCA in their campaign.