MORE HORSES TO BE SHOT

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29182, 18 April 1960, Page 12

MORE HORSES TO BE SHOT

City Inspector’s Comment

One or two more horses in the Christchurch City Council reserve at North New Brighton would be shot today Mr B. D. Williamson, proprietor of a pets’ food supply shop in the city, told “The Press” last evening. When this statement was referred to the City Council’s chief health inspector (Mr A. P. Millthorpe), he replied: “Oh, he is, is he? He has been warned not to shoot any more horses in the reserve.”

Mr Williamson, referring to a report in “The Press” of Saturday about the shooting and butchering of two horses in the 10-acre council reserve at the corner of Bower avenue and New Brighton road last Tuesday and Wednesday, said that Superintendent E. J. C. Hay of the Christchurch Police had given him permission to shoot the horses. When this statement was referred to Superintendent Hay, he replied: “Mr Williamson told me the horses were wild and he could not get a noose on them. He said the council was pressing him to get the horses out of the reserve. Council By-law “I told Mr Williamson the police would not object to the horses being shot provided all precautions were taken against .endangering the public. “I told Mr Williamson he had better make his peace with the City, Council before shooting any horses as he would be breaking a city by-law by firing a rifle in a built-up area. “Mr Williamson said he did not think the council would worry as they wanted him to co-operate in getting the horses away from the reserve.”

Mr Williamson said that a city health inspector, a Mr Atkinson, had told him he could shoot horses on the reserve and bleed them, but he was not to butcher the horses on “the reserve but to cart the carcases away. To further questions, Mr Williamson said that the council health inspector had told him this last Wednesday, after two horses had been shot and butchered in the reserve. Mr Millthorpe’s comment on this aspect of the shooting, when asked by a reporter, was: “The health inspector was sent to the reserve and caught Mr Williamson there. Mr Williamson was warned not to shoot any more horses there.” Mr Williamson told * The Press” that at 12.30 a.m. last Tuesday he was informed by the watchhouse keeper at the Central Poljce Station that horses from the reserve had broken out on to the road and one had been hit by a car. , “I was told I was being held responsible for getting the horses off the road back into the reserve. I saw Superintendent Hay at 9 a.m. the same day and he gave me permission to shoot the horses,” Mr Williamson claimed. He said the injured horse was shot the same afternoon and another one shot the next morning, Wednesday.