Animal welfare officers say they can do nothing about the plight of horses facing their fourth week stranded in a flooded Northamptonshire field.

The horses, left on an embankment at Wellingborough without the landowner's permission, have no grazing, no water and have been left standing all day in mud sometimes knee-deep.

Hundreds of animal lovers campaigning for the animals to be moved have been ringing a BBC Radio Northampton hotline.

But the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals says it can do nothing about the horses because of a loophole in the law.

Owners' consent

Local people concerned about the horses have been feeding them - and that has left the RSPCA with a problem.

Its officers cannot move the horses without the owners' consent unless they are emaciated or injured.

The government is discussing creating a new bill on animal welfare.

The RSPCA wants a duty of care for animals to be made into a legal requirement.

That would mean the ponies could have been removed from the field without a long wait.