REVOLTING CRUELTY

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1048, 12 August 1930, Page 1

REVOLTING CRUELTY

DROVER STARVED HORSES COMMENT FROM BENCH A particularly revolting case of cruelty to animals was heard in the Onehunga Police Court yesterday afternooh when a drover, George Thompson, was fined £5 for having kept four horses in a paddock where, according to a constable’s evidence, there was not enough grass to feed a rabbit. Inspector J. J. Hollingwortli, who prosecuted Thompson on behalf of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said that the horses were in good condition when Thompson became possessed of them 10 months ago, but they had been losing condition ever since. Accused had been in the habit of going away for several days together and witness had warned him on more than one occasion. He had seen the animals starving in a bare paddock and without food of any kind. There was no evidence that they had been supplied with corn feed, although Thompson had promised to provide it. Apparently, said witness, accused had no work for the horses.

“NOT SUFFICIENT FOR RABBIT” Constable W. E. C. Poll said that he had never seen horses in such poor condition and the paddock at Penrose where they were running did not grow sufficient grass to feed a rabbit. Thompson, in his defence, explained that he had left tlie animals in charge of a youth who had apparently neglected them while witness was engaged at the recent Auckland Winter Show. He had since discharged the youth and had grazed the beasts on a blind road nearby, but had given them no hard food.

Messrs. J. Laking and T. H. Geraghty, J.P.,’s, adjourned the court while they inspected the horses and the paddock, where they wero enclosed. On resuming they described what they had seen as one of the worst cases of cruelty to animals that had ever come under their notice. FINANCIAL POSITION

Despite the evidence of J. E. Wilson, a waterside worker, and his wife, who deposed to having seen the horses grazing on the roadside in Thompson’s charge, the accused was fined £5, or in default 14 days’ imprisonment, the Bench remarking that the penalty would have been made more severe but for accused’s financial position. One of the horses which was appar enfly exhausted by starvation was ordered to be destroyed.