Horse is killed by kindness and Jaffa cakes

A horse has been killed by kindness after well-meaning passers-by on a public footpath kept feeding him treats including Jaffa cakes and dog biscuits. Kamal, an 18-year-old Arabian stallion, was found dead in his stable.

The horse, bought for £10,000, had been kept for more than a year in a field next to the path in West Malling, Kent, when his health suddenly deteriorated. Owner Simon North only discovered the cause after Kamal’s death.

Simon, 52, said: “A few weeks ago I noticed he was really unwell and I called out a vet. She was examining him when she pulled out a dog biscuit from his mouth. I would never feed him that sort of thing because I knew how sensitive his diet had to be.



“She also found he had been fed Jaffa cakes. She said all this wrong type of food was causing him colic. Then a couple of days later I met a man who had been walking his dog along the footpath and he told me he had been feeding Kamal dog biscuits.

“He did not realise the harm it was causing but I explained the problems and told him to stop. I did not blame it all on him because the vet said Kamal had been fed other treats. She said it had probably been going on for some time and had built up to such an extent that it killed him.

“The vet advised me to put up a sign warning passers-by not to feed him. I was in the process of doing this but it was too late. I went back to the paddock a couple of days later and he was lying on the floor of the stable and he was dead. I was absolutely devastated. The problem is that people who don’t know about horses think they are being kind but Kamal’s death shows how dangerous it can be to give food to horses.”