{"id":287126,"date":"2025-11-15T23:34:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T23:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/287126\/"},"modified":"2025-11-15T23:34:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T23:34:10","slug":"inspection-of-weona-park-horse-stud-found-several-serious-animal-welfare-issues-just-weeks-before-public-outcry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/287126\/","title":{"rendered":"Inspection of Weona Park horse stud found several serious animal welfare issues, just weeks before public outcry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just weeks before a firestorm of public outrage erupted over conditions at a Tasmanian horse breeder’s stud, an interdepartmental email was sent, revealing Biosecurity Tasmania feared it would become “our next significant animal\/welfare issue”.<\/p>\n

In late September, Weona Park Stud, which is located in Tasmania’s Southern Midlands and operates over two properties in Antill Ponds and Parattah, made headlines after photos of some of the horses were shared online.<\/p>\n

Under Right to Information laws, the ABC has obtained a copy of an email dated September 2, 2025 from Biosecurity Tasmania investigators to the Department of Natural Resources and Environment (NRE).<\/p>\n

It was sent after an inspection of Weona Park Stud.<\/p>\n

“This situation will continue and this property is likely to [be] the next welfare issue hitting the news, following on from harness racing horses with Yole <\/a>and the Labradoodle case,”<\/a> the email said.<\/p>\n

“The properties are so severely overstocked with horses, that its (sic) almost as if the horses are being feed lotted.”<\/p>\n

The ABC understands at that time there were up to 250 horses being kept on the properties, with many in foal.<\/p>\n

\"Horses<\/p>\n

A Biosecurity Tasmania inspector described the properties as “severely overstocked with horses”. (ABC News: Jess Moran)<\/p>\n

The Biosecurity Tasmania report found there were several serious animal welfare issues at the property, and some round hay bales were at least three-years-old.<\/p>\n

“I identified the major risk being welfare: overstocking, intensive yarding, horses exposed to high levels of manure, inadequate nutrition, no exercise, no shelter, no rugging, inadequate parasite treatment routine. There was not a single well-grown, well-presented strong yearling on the property,” the report said.<\/p>\n

“For such an untidy place, no overflowing bin with empty feed bags, no stack of feeding buckets near the feed supply area or in the yards.”<\/p>\n

Vet report raises serious concerns<\/p>\n

The documents have also revealed a vet in Tasmania’s north reported serious animal welfare concerns about the operation to the RSPCA and called for action to be taken.<\/p>\n

Breeder agrees to rehome horses<\/a><\/p>\n

A Tasmanian horse breeder has agreed to reduce the number of horses on her property and rehome them, after concerns were raised by members of the racing community.<\/p>\n

“The conditions at both properties fail to meet basic animal welfare standards \u2026 I am a veterinarian and have visited these sites professionally on multiple occasions,” the vet said.<\/p>\n

The vet, from the Meander Valley Veterinary Clinic, said on September 19, 2025, following two recent visits that month to the properties, they “observed a significant increase in the number of horses, despite already overstocked conditions”.<\/p>\n

“The excessive numbers and lack of space result in more frequent bullying, kicks, and bites,” the vet said.<\/p>\n

“This constant stress and physical conflict put the animals at a higher risk of injury and disease.”<\/p>\n

\"Weona<\/p>\n

A vet visited the stud twice in September and raised several concerns. (ABC News: Jess Moran)<\/p>\n

The vet said they had attempted to address these issues directly with the owners and employees and “believed they are trying to do the right thing with feed, veterinary care etc but simply do not think it can be done to an adequate standard [with] the sheer number of horses on the properties”.<\/p>\n

“My hope is that someone will conduct a formal and thorough assessment of these properties and work with the owners to improve the horses’ living conditions,” they said.<\/p>\n

Weona Park Stud manager Fiona Methorst said feed sources had been improved and all horses have adequate feed and fresh water.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people see no grass in the paddock and think that means no feed. This is far from the truth.<\/p>\n

“We source a large quantity of round bales of hay and hard feed each year,\u201d Ms Methorst said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes overcrowding is an issue but all horses have adequate feed and fresh water.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have since added exercise areas and equipment, along with the order of new shelters and stables back in July that are finally due for delivery this week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Years of complaints received<\/p>\n

Between July 2011 and September 2025, the RSPCA received numerous animal welfare complaints about the breeder, raising concerns about stocking, feed and shelter.<\/p>\n

“Too many horses for the size of the land,” one complaint said.<\/p>\n

Another said the horses were in “poor condition” in “overcrowded paddocks,” while another complaint said “all horses are well fed and in great body condition” but “the concern is in relation to the amount of room they have to move around”.<\/p>\n

“A lot of manure in the paddocks which hasn’t been removed, there is no shelter for these horses to get out of the weather,” another complaint said.<\/p>\n

The RSPCA said in a statement it triages calls that come through and forwards them to the agency with responsibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder our service agreement with NRE, the RSPCA operates a contact centre which houses the Animal Cruelty Helpline,\u201d RSPCA chief executive Andrea Dawkins said.<\/p>\n

“With the current complaints with Weona Park we are forwarding complaints to NRE as they are the lead investigators.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Andrea Dawkins says the RSPCA referred the case to NRE and the TasRacing Integrity Unit. (ABC News: Georgia Hogge)<\/p>\n

Inspection finds horses emaciated, partially blind<\/p>\n

The documents have also revealed the Antill Ponds property was the centre of an equine disease outbreak in 2023 with multiple horses experiencing “neurological clinical signs”.<\/p>\n

Equestrian Australia received controversial video weeks before probe<\/a><\/p>\n

Australia’s peak body for equestrian sports received a controversial video of Olympic rider Heath Ryan appearing to whip a horse weeks before an investigation was commenced.<\/p>\n

Inspection notes from July 2023 show several horses on the property were experiencing body and muscle weakness, one was emaciated, and another was found “down”, and remained down despite food being offered.<\/p>\n

Others had partial blindness, and deterioration in body condition.<\/p>\n

In the report, the property was found to have no pasture and only had small areas of grass between some pens, there were too many horses on the property, and all pen walkways were muddy.<\/p>\n

There was also a deficiency in vitamin E recorded. The report said this either demonstrated extreme malnutrition or a horse having two or more diseases or medical conditions at the same time.<\/p>\n

“This owner should be required to consult a veterinarian for feeding instructions, an auditable chart to observe feeding protocol between visits, and regular visits to determine if feeding\/husbandry requirements are being met,” the report said.<\/p>\n

“In addition, she should have licence removed as she is encouraged to buy more horses = profit, to cover costs of increased production (husbandry and feeding) costs.”<\/p>\n

\"Weona<\/p>\n

The RSPCA received numerous animal welfare complaints about the breeder over a period of 14 years. (ABC News: Jess Moran)<\/p>\n

The property was next inspected in November that year by officers from the Office of Racing Integrity and Biosecurity Tasmania.<\/p>\n

Some mares were found to have overgrown hooves, not all horses had access to areas where they could exercise, feed and water was not consistent, and there was a deep layer of manure in most yards.<\/p>\n

“Water troughs must be kept clean and contain clean water at all times, horses should be allowed to exercise in a large yard or paddock for at least an hour every day, shade and shelter from wind and rain should be available in every yard and spoilt feed and manure should be removed from yards every day,” the report said.<\/p>\n

Rehoming efforts underway, owner says<\/p>\n

In late September, following a multi-agency investigation sparked by the community outcry, stud manager Ms Methorst agreed the property was overstocked and said she would rehome around 100 horses, which she thought would take between three and six months.<\/p>\n

So far, more than 40 horses have been rehomed and several are on a permanent lease agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have had discussions with our vet team about the issue of concern which was overstocking,\u201d Ms Methorst said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have formulated a plan to downsize our stock and focus on our future goals.<\/p>\n

“But we [are] currently and have been addressing all aspects to ensure quality horse welfare moving forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am pleased with the homes we have managed to get for these horses so far.<\/p>\n

“There will be more available in the future for new homes but we are currently working on the younger horses in preparation for their next steps.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I said previously it will take time for this to happen and people need to understand that in the current market and economic climate it is hard to find so many suitable homes in a short timeframe.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just weeks before a firestorm of public outrage erupted over conditions at a Tasmanian horse breeder’s stud, an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287127,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[23792,64,63,9326,99,24695,64617,165645,28721,9701,8539,2801,165644],"class_list":["post-287126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-animal-welfare","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-biosecurity","tag-business","tag-emaciated","tag-horse","tag-nre","tag-rspca","tag-stud","tag-tas","tag-tasmania","tag-weona"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}