Horse shelters in Belgium are overcrowded

More horses are ending up in Belgian shelters than ever before, reports Bit magazine. This year, 70 horses have been taken to the Old Horses Lodge in Laarne, an organisation that provides shelter to unwanted horses.

"We especially get a lot of confiscated horses," Marina Tondeleier told deredactie.be. "These are horses that have been neglected for a long time, often underfed or with untreated wounds."

Of the 300,000 horses in Belgium, there are currently around 2,000 in a shelter. "Just have a look online and you’ll see lots of free horses. They are simply giving them away," says Marina.

The high cost and maintenance of keeping a horse, in addition to the animal’s long life expectancy of 25 to 30 years, are reasons cited for the rising number of unwanted horses.