I AM involved with animal welfare in the Hampshire area. The pictures of the horses suffering such neglect and distress were appalling (Daily Echo, March 7). Yet these situations do not happen overnight. You do not keep sick horses in a muddy field without proper care.

There must have been many people who noticed the suffering. Why did it take so long to report such cruelty? No animal should have had to suffer like those horses did.

I hope there will be a ban on keeping animals in the future.

MRS J WILKINSON, Salisbury.