A HORSE lover fears she may have to send her seven rescue animals to slaughter because she cannot afford to keep them.

Elizabeth Campin already faces losing her home near Bishop Auckland, County Durham, after failing to find work and being told she cannot claim benefits because she owns the horses' field.

In desperation, the 57-year-old highlighted her plight in a letter to Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

She says her elderly pets are too old to find new homes and she is at her wits' end.

Miss Campin's problems started when she sold her home in North Yorkshire to move in with her daughter and her daughter's partner.

When the couple split up two years later and the house was sold, she found her share of the proceeds was not enough to buy back into the property market. Instead she bought a piece of land at Escomb, County Durham, where she intended to live in a mobile home but could not get planning permission.

Six months ago she moved into a council bungalow in nearby High Etherley, but is now being evicted because she cannot pay the rent.

She said: "I intended to build a stables for the horses, but I have had to use the money to live.

"I've used the last of the money to pay two weeks' rent, but there is nothing left.

"They told me to get rid of the horses, but I can't bear to do that. It is awful."

She told Mr Brown: "I have applied for many jobs to no avail, filled in several application letters, put leaflets through doors asking for work and, although ageism is not supposed to count, in an area of high unemployment like the North-East, there are too few jobs being pursued by too many people, younger people.

"The final straw is that it seems I am not eligible for any allowance, not even a crisis loan, because of the field.

"Even if I were to put the land up for sale, I would still need to live until the sale and the horses would have to die."

He friend Delycia Quinn said: "I can't believe this is happening in Britain today. I am absolutely appalled.

"She has nothing else in the world. Asking her to get rid of the horses is like asking her to get rid of her family."