A small zoo near Pilsen is mourning the death of the pony Pepina, who died from acacia poisoning. The visitors apparently gave them to the animal in good faith, but they accidentally caused them great pain and serious health problems. The irresponsible visitors didn’t even apologize for their behavior, so the facility decided to file criminal charges.

Although this topic is often touched upon, there are still many people who feed strange animals in cages. This also happened a few days ago at Farmapark u Tom, which is located in Ledce in the Pilsen Region. Even the prohibition sign does not prevent irresponsible diners from feeding. According to the zoo owner, they were standing right next to him.

“For reasons completely incomprehensible, on Saturday around 5pm, an elderly couple with their granddaughter picked an acacia branch from the forest and gave it to our pony through the fence. Despite the timely intervention of the nurse, who really pulled the thorny acacia branch out of the necks of three ponies, clear action was required,” farmapark owner and founder Tomáš Urbanek wrote on Facebook.

One of the ponies, named Pepina, was very unwell. Within an hour, the mare was lethargic and suffering from severe colic pain. Another vet and nurse who was fighting for the pony’s life arrived on the scene. But Pepina died in the morning.

The leaves and roots of acacia are poisonous, according to the Brno Veterinary University, 70 grams of bark is enough for this plant to cause serious problems for a 500 kilogram horse. Only a few grams are enough for a pony.

​”Dear visitors, friends and colleagues, this was one of the worst experiences of our lives. Made the decision to euthanize Pepina, who was barely standing in excruciating pain, when you found out it was caused by a twig from a visitor’s hand, is something terrible,” she confided in the feelings of Urban women.

“Despite being filled with emotion, it must be said that Pepina’s death was not caused by an intention to harm the animal, but by ‘simply’ ignorance. Therefore, in memory of our Pepina, we want to inform the people around us that it is forbidden to feed any animals without the consent of their owners, because they may die!” stressed Urbanek.

On Friday, the facility announced that it had finally decided to file criminal charges. “Considering we received no apology, we submitted a criminal complaint to the District Attorney through our lawyers on suspicion of committing crimes of cruelty to animals,” said the owner of the ranch park.

TN. cz