A mother-of-two says she cannot afford £350 to buy her five-year-old son's pony back after it was seized by Bradford Council.

The three-year-old Shetland stallion called Nasty was rounded up by the Council's Animal Warden Service during a dawn swoop on Bradford's Holme Wood estate.

Officers took away another stallion and four mares which are thought to have been left by travellers on a grazing area known as The Valley.

Dawn Chapman, 22, says Nasty was wrongly taken away from her five-year-old son Peter Turner.

But ward Councillor John Ruding (Lab, Tong) said the animal was illegally tethered on Bradford Council-owned land opposite Miss Chapman's home in Copgrove Road, Holme Wood.

He said: "I'm very sorry for this little boy but I would say to his parents that it is their responsibility to find somewhere legally to tether their pet before buying a horse.

"The problem of illegally tethered horses on the estate has been raised numerous times in neighbourhood forums and by individual members of the community.

"This is not the first and it won't be the last raid on the estate. We intend to keep these illegally tethered horses off our land for the benefit of the whole community."

The seized horses are being kept at a secret location and will be sold off at auction if their owners do not pay for their stabling costs within 14 days.

Mrs Chapman said she was given the pony when it was only two months old.

She and her partner, also called Peter Turner, 25, who also have a two-year-old son called Lewis, are both unemployed and cannot afford to pay the £350 to get Nasty back.

She said: "My little son Pete just keeps on asking me when Nasty is coming back, he devastated. I've always kept Nasty close to my home and I've had him in my garden before now.

"The Council never gave me any warning and I didn't know you couldn't tether them on their land, it's only a piece of wasteland anyway."

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