CRUELTY TO HORSE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 17 December 1936, Page 13

CRUELTY TO HORSE

TREATMENT BY MAORI FINE IMPOSED (United Press Association' HASTINGS, 16th December. That there is an old Maori belief that broken limbs could be cured by treatment with leaves of trees such as kowhai. and gums was a fact mentioned in the Hastings Magistrate’s Court this morning by two Maoris concerned in a case in which Thompson Hokianga, aged 66, of Te Hauke, was charged with causing unnecessary suffering to a horse by driving it while is was suffering from a broken foreleg. The information was laid by Mr W. A. Stephens, S.P.C.A. inspector. Defendant pleaded not guilty and was fined £2 and costs £6 15s. It was stated that the horse had got out of a paddock on to the road and had been struck by a car, breaking a leg. Defendant removed the horse from an adjacent paddock into which it had been put after the accident to his own farm three miles away. It was contended that this had caused the animal extreme pain. No treatment had been given to the horse when the S.P.C.A. inspector came on the scene and ordered the horse’s destruction.

“This is a difficult case,” remarked the Magistrate, Mr J. Miller. “Natives of his age have peculiar beliefs and we must get the psychology of natives of this man’s age. The cruelty was mostly in the method adopted in conveying the horse from the scene of the accident to its home. If this had been a European it would have been a question of gaol, as it is a case of grave cruelty. I am not satisfied with defendant’s statement. The treatment given was not proper to the horse, and he must be found guilty. I have no difficulty in finding this, but what is difficult is in the determination of the degree of cruelty. There is not sufficient proof as to the extent of this. He might have had some belief that he could have cured the horse, but there is no excuse for leading the horse in the manner in which it was done.”