The RSPCA in the North East is calling for greater legal protection for tethered horses.

The Society says it has received record numbers of calls from people who have spotted horses they feared were suffering.

Now the organisation is calling for greater legal protection for tethered horses, and a rigorous code of conduct for owners.

There have been more than 1,000 incidents reported to the RSPCA in each of the past three years by concerned members of the public.

Pony strangled

Tethering is legal, but the society opposes it because of the injuries it can cause.

At the launch of the campaign, at the RSPCA's Felledge equine centre near Chester Le Street, was Rocky, a pony found in excruciating pain in Gateshead after his rope tether bit into his neck.

In another incident a black colt was strangled by its chain, when it slipped down a steep embankment in Bishop Auckland, County Durham.

And a Shetland pony died when its tether tangled with another in Newcastle, and left it unable to breathe.

Maggie Eden, of the Felledge centre, said the problems were often caused by ill-fitting tethers or straps, which rub away the skin on the animals' ears and necks.

She said: "It is quite a significant problem, and we see the most severe cases where protection is necessary.

Close together

"There is also a problem with the places that are chosen to tether the animals.

"They can be tethered on the edge of roads, where they can wander, or on embankments, where they can fall down.

"Others are tethered around posts, and they get wrapped up so they cannot move, and others have been on riverbanks where they can fall into cold water."

She said on other occasions animals were tethered too closely together and ended up fighting.