A Manawatū man has been sentenced to six months in prison after one of his horses died from starvation and two others were found severely malnourished and without adequate shelter.
He was sentenced today in the Palmerston North District Court on five animal welfare charges relating to the three horses he kept on his Ohakune property.
SPCA said it began investigating after receiving a photograph of a horse lying dead in a paddock, along with a claim that two others were thin and without feed in August 2021.
Inspectors visited the property and found a six-year-old bay thoroughbred mare, Mad About You, and a five-year-old chestnut thoroughbred gelding, Angeca, in extremely poor condition.
Both horses were thin, suffering from rain scald, and confined to a paddock with very short pasture contaminated with faeces.
Inspectors also discovered a freshly dug area of land were a third horse, a thoroughbread filly named Ginger Jane, was buried.
The man acknowledged Ginger Jane had died and said he had ordered a tonne of carrots and 800kg of silage afterwards. He insisted the remaining horses "didn't need covers" and would improve in a few weeks and told the inspector to "back off".
Veterinary examinations later confirmed Angeca was underweight with painful skin infections and festering scabs. Mad About You was also thin, with both horses showing signs of prolonged food deprivation.
Both animal were without proper shelter and were exposed to freezing Ohakune temperatures, as well as frequent rain and snow.
A vet estimated it would have taken 8-12 weeks for the horses to deteriorate to the state they were found in.
The man told inspectors he believed the feed and nearby trees were sufficient and said he didn’t realise the horses were developing rain scald.
Mad About You and Angeca were seized by the SPCA and have since been rehabilitated and rehomed.
SPCA chief executive Todd Westwood said this was a failure to meet even the most basic standards of animal care.
"Horses, like all animals, need food and shelter — they’re the bare minimum a responsible owner should provide," he said.
"These horses were left exposed to harsh elements with very little provision for feed. It’s simply not good enough."
Alongside the prison term, the man was ordered to pay $1500 in reparations and disqualified from owning horses for five years.
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