Care of Working Horses

Information film from the RSPCA teaching humane care of working donkeys and horses

Time to be put out to pasture? This early campaigning film from the RSPCA advocates the humane treatment of horses and donkeys after they've passed their prime working years, using appealing scenes of nags at work in town and country. Advocating having ageing horses "humanely destroyed" rather than selling them on - which will cause them to "suffer miserably" - the film also advertises the RSPCA's equine rest homes for retired horses.

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was founded in 1824, received patronage from Queen Victoria in 1837 and was allowed to add the R for 'royal' in 1940, becoming the RSPCA familiar today. This film is typical of the organisation's early campaigning days, as it originally focused on working animals like pit ponies and the millions of horses used in WWI and WWII.