HORSE WITHOUT SHOES

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19373, 10 July 1937, Page 5

HORSE WITHOUT SHOES

WORK ON ROUGH ROAD DESTRUCTION NECESSARY FINE ON CRUELTY CHARGE (Special to the Herald.) AUCKLAND, this day. “This is a very distressing case and it is a pity that the defendant could not be made to suffer as much as his poor horse did before it was destroyed," said Mr. Wyvern Wilson, S.M., in the Police Court yesterday when imposing a fine of £5 and costs £4 19s on a farmer, Thomas Edlin, of Swanson, on a charge of cruelly treating a horse by driving it without shoes.

The defendant pleaded not guilty. Outlining the prosecution for the inspector of the Auckland Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Mr. Wallace said that the defendant harnessed a thoroughbred pacer in a gig and drove his wife and two young children 10 miles to Kumeu. For most of the distance the back roads used were roughly metalled, there being only a • short stretch - of -cloy road suitable for a horse without shoes;

"The horse was turned into a paddock at Kumeu,” counsel continued. “That night a farm labourer employed near by heard the horse screaming with pain when it attempted to stand on its feet. He went over to investigate the cause of the trouble and found that the horse’s hind hoofs were bleeding and that the protective covering had been worn down. “He made the horse comfortable for the night and tended it again next day, when he communicated with the defendant and asked him to obtain treatment for the horse. For several days the horse was unable to stand except for a few moments at a time. Its hoofs were treated. An inspector of the S.P.C.A. examined the horse, and, after consulting with a veterinary expert, a week later destroyed the animal.”

Representing the defendant, Mr. Jordan said that the horse was used on a farm for three months and then it was taken to the nearest blacksmith at Kumeu to be shod. It was fresh and keen to go, and showed no signs of pain on the journey. The blacicsmith said that the hoofs had been worn down too close to be shod ana arrangements were made to place the horse in a paddock until it could be shod.

After hearing the evidence, the magistrate said that the horse’s hoofs must have been in a disgraceful condition.

“I cannot possibly think that the defendant was unaware of the animal’s pain, and he must be convicted,” the magistrate added. He is farming in a small way and has a family to support, so I will give him the opportunity of paying the fine.”