Cruelty to horse ‘worst case’

Press, 12 July 1985, Page 3

Cruelty to horse ‘worst case’

PA Gisborne A Tolaga Bay veterinarian, Mr John Hewitt, described on Wednesday what he considered the worst case of cruelty he had seen in 13 years. He was giving evidence in the District Court of Gisborne at the trial of three men charged with aggravated cruelty to a horse. Judge Hole ruled that one of the men, Aperahama Haua, aged 25, unemployed, had no case to answer.

No witness could identify Haua as being among a group of men who towed a horse behind their car at Ruatoria on Friday in an attempt to break the horse in.

The Judge said the horse struggled throughout the incident and became so distressed and injured that it died the next day.

Mr Hewitt said he examined the horse. He des-

cribed it as the worst case of cruelty he had seen. The horse had gross tissue and muscle swelling round its head and neck, had its top lip torn away with blood throughout its mouth, and had its right eyeball forced out of its socket. He said the horse died of strangulation. The Judge decided that Hone Tamati Kaua te Rangi Heeney, aged 22, unemployed, and Cody Haua, aged 26, a P.E.P. labourer, had a case to answer and remanded them on $3OOO bail each to July 18, when defence witnesses will be called.