Remus Horse Sanctuary Dodgy? Ragwort Nonsense

The Remus Horse Sanctuary has been engaged in some rather dodgy behaviour on-line. At least that is my honest opinion. They have been passing around incorrect information about ragwort that sheds some light on why ragwort hysteria exists.

The Remus Horse Sanctuary has been passing on dodgy information about ragwort and this exchange from twitter confirms it.


Alison Page ‏@thealisonpage Jul 30

RT @RemusHorse: So many people seem to ignore the risk of ragwort. It is cumulative but the death is slow.. { link to dodgy newspaper article removed}

  Bill Ellson ‏@BillEllson Jul 30

@thealisonpage @RemusHorse Utter BS. Did you read the article? Gildor was put down after suffering kidney failure.

  RemusHorse Sanctuary ‏@RemusHorse Jul 31

@BillEllson clearly error in reporting but article's essentially about ragwort & horses still dying from poisoning. Our duty to help educate

  Neil Jones ‏@ragwortfacts Jul 31

@RemusHorse @BillEllson But by passing on false info you are MISeducating and breaking Charity Commission rules. Unacceptable for charity!

  RemusHorse Sanctuary ‏@RemusHorse Jul 31

@ragwortfacts @BillEllson merely passing on an article already in the public domain. Please take it up with the journalist.

The situation is a highly inaccurate article about Gildor the Horse which claims that a well known horse was killed by ragwort affecting his kidneys. Now as anyone knows it is the liver that is the prime problem with ragwort not the kidneys and you will notice that Remus Horse Sanctuary dismiss this as a mere "error in reporting". Well actually it isn't! At least  that is what the evidence says.

There are articles going back to February in a variety of newspapers saying kidney damage.

It is also rather suspicious that the horse died some time ago but the story is being resurrected six months later and given the spin that ragwort is to blame.

But of course that doesn't matter . It doesn't matter that people will be misled about  the nature of ragwort poisoning as long as they are fed a scary story that will lead them to believe what Remus Horse Sanctuary believes.

We have seen this all before with the British Horse Society who  have been putting out atrocious information about ragwort for years. Using false statistics that it kills 500 horses a year then 1000 and then an even dafter claim of 6500. All with no basis in truth which got people repeating it into trouble with the Advertising Standards Authority.

We have had them telling people ragwort, a native and ecologically valuable plant, is  "an environmental disaster" and a prominent officer of the BHS claimed it is a serious problem in South Africa and may be giving people cancer in that country when the experts there tell me that there is no record of the plant every being recorded there!  It all seems to me to be the same problem. It doesn't matter how accurate the stories are ,or how scientifically or otherwise literate you are  as long as you scare people because that nasty triffid, yellow peril, ragwort is killing the cuddly animals.

One story circulated by the BHS was an emotive account of a poor horse dying in agony  when a vet turning up pronouncing on the spot that it was ragwort and that the horse would have to be immediately put down.

Now the story my be true as even vets are reading the nonsense so often that they are assuming that every case is ragwort. In fact we know only a small minority of cases fit the diagnosis, that a microscopic examination of the liver is needed to progress the diagnosis and even then there are other things which can cause the same symptoms as Ragwort poisoning. Notably poisoning from toxins from mouldy hay and other feed stuffs which is indistinguishable,

The BHS should have known this and not circulated the story, but of course it would appear to be better campaign fodder than a more accurate story. It scares more people.

The  questions we have to ask is what is happening as a result of stories being circulated by people like the BHS and the Remus Horse Sanctuary. 

How many misdiagnoses are there?

How many horses are being unnecessarily put down?

How much money tax payers money is being wasted on unnecessary controls?

How many horses are dying of mouldy feed which is preventable when all the emphasis is on ragwort?

Now back to the Remus Horse Sanctuary.

Government Commission rules state:-

Many charities, by the nature of their work and the issues they deal with, will raise issues which some people find emotive. Such charities’ campaign materials will frequently have an emotive content, and this is perfectly acceptable so long as it has a well-founded evidence base and

is factually accurate. However, trustees will need to consider the particular risks of using emotive or controversial materials, which may be significant because of the risk to public perception of the charity.

 Now it is abundantly clear that the stuff circulated by the Remus Horse Sanctuary does not have a well-founded evidence base.

As for their perception . Well mine isn't a good one. I would say find a better charity to give your money to.,