Collaboration across the charity sector is continuing this week with seven animal welfare organisations coming together for a campaign around the protection of the UK’s “invisible horses”.

The RSPCA, Blue Cross, British Horse Society, Horseworld, Redwings, Bransby Horses and World Horse Welfare are organising the campaign following a surge in equine welfare cases.

This includes cases involving neglect, abandonment and over breeding.

“Equine welfare charities have been overstretched trying to help as many horses as possible, grappling with crisis management to the best of our ability over the past seven years, but Covid could push us over the edge,” said World Horse Welfare chief executive Roly Owers,

“With such a challenging winter ahead, now is the time to highlight to the public and government that we see a grim equine welfare storm brewing, and that we urgently need support to cope with it. It is as important as ever to better tackle the root causes of this systemic scourge and change the system to better protect horses and to truly hold owners to account.”

There are more than 7,000 horses currently known to animal welfare charities at risk of neglect or being abandoned. Currently charities take on more than 2,000 horse welfare cases a year.

This is the latest in an increasing number of charity sector partnerships to launch amid the Covid-19 pandemic to address issues such as rising demand and income losses.

In September a group of 20 cancer charities linked up for a fundraising campaign to help them support patients with rare forms of cancer.

In May a coalition of UK mental health charities teamed up to support people’s emotional wellbeing amid the health crisis.

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