MAN FINED £5 FOR CRUELTY TO HORSE

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6946, 27 June 1929, Page 6

MAN FINED £5 FOR CRUELTY TO HORSE

SHOCKING CHRISTCHURCH CASE. LEFT ALIVE AFTER BEING STRUCK WITH AXE. Per Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, Last Night. Gross cruelty to a horse was proved against George Watson, who was charged by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in the Magistrate's Court to-day. The inspector for the society, Mr. D. J. White, said he found a horse on Styx road in a poor condition, lying on" tho side of the road and unable to rise Further up the road was an express wagon, loaded with nearly a ton of wood—too heavy a load for even a lit horse to draw. When he returned later, ho found somcono had attempted to kill the horse, apparently with an axe but the stroke was too low down and although the head bore a terrible wound, the animal was still alivo and struggling. Witness destroyed the horse and subsequently found Watson was the owner. Mr. White pressed for imprisonment as a punishment, saying the case was one of the worst in his experience. Tho Magistrate (Mr. H. P. Lawry S.M.) said if defendant was a single man he would have gono to gaol. Ho was fined £5, with costs, in default seven days’ imprisonment.