CRUELTY TO ANIMALS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 383, 27 February 1908, Page 3

CRUELTY TO ANIMALS.

New Peymotth, February 24. The case of cruelty to waggon horses was again before the Magistrate’s Court, New Plymouth, on Tuesday last. Stanley Wooldridge, the driver of the team, pleaded guilty at a former sitting, whicU was adjourned to allow the defendant’s father (J. Wooldridge), the owner of the horses, also to appear. He admitted the charge, but said the horses were all right when they left Okato. He had no knowledge of their beitig in such a state as reported. The Magistrate said the best evidence in a case of this sort was the condition of the horses themselves. The wounds and sores must have been there for weeks, and were in a horrible state. Matter could be pressed from the sores, and one horse was particularly bad.' It was the worst case he had everseen. He considered cruelty to dumb animals the worst form of cruelty, for these poor brutes had no power of retaliation. He had power to inflict a term of several months imprisonment, and he intended to inflict a substantial penalty. The owner of the horses was finee £lO and costs, and the driver and costs, the costs in each case being 7 s.