HORSE ILL-TREATED

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 146, 17 March 1934, Page 9

HORSE ILL-TREATED

Man Convicted and Ordered to Pay Costs On a charge of working a horse when it was in an unfit condition, James Frederick Death, farmer, of Pahautanui, was convicted by Mr. E. Page, S.M., in the Police Court yesterday and ordered to pay the costs of the prosecution, £4/8/6. Defendant pleaded not guilty, and elected to have -the case dealt with summarily. Appearing for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Mr. S. C. Childs said the charge referred to a. grey mare and a bay half-draught gelding on defendant’s farm. These horses, he said, had been driven along hard roads until their hoofs had become worn right down. Evidence was given that the animals had sores on. some parts of their bodies, and that their hoofs were worn down to the tender sole. Mr. M. Luckie, for defendant, denied that the feet were in a painful condition, and said the horses were not •worked if they showed any signs of •lameness. Tlie magistrate said it was not clear •to him that the condition of the bay gelding was due to work, and there ■was no evidence that the horse had been worked while in that condition. •Different considerations, however, applied to the grey mare, which was being worked when the society’s inspector arrived .and had been on the road for some weeks before. Defendant had ■been warned to get the mare off the road or to get it shod, and the tracksmith had said, it was not in a fit condition to be shod. “On the facts,” Mr. Page continued, “it is clear that to work the horse In •that condition amounted to unnecessary cruelty. Ido not regard the case as one of gross cruelty, but rather carelessness in using the mare on bitumen and hard roads. Defendant will be convicted and ordered to pay costs.”