Order to forfeit animals

Anne Power.

A prolific animal hoarder has been ordered to forfeit some of her animals to the SPCA.

Anne Power was sentenced in the Auckland District Court on Thursday following a two-year battle with the society in a case involving a horse that was found starved to death.

The decision is the fifth time the SPCA has prosecuted Power, who now lives in Whatatiri, in Whangarei, with a number of animals.

The case began when an inspector found the dead horse on Power's 4.5ha property in Riverhead, northwest Auckland. A post-mortem examination determined the horse had suffered a slow death from starvation. It also had an untreated skin infection and was found partially covered in its own faeces due to diarrhoea.

Power was initially convicted last June in relation to the horse's death, but appealed against the decision and had been allowed to keep her animals until now.

The court has allowed her to keep up to four horses, 11 cattle, 18 sheep, four llamas, four dogs, 40 birds and four cats on compassionate grounds. She is banned from owning any other animals for eight years and has been ordered to pay reparation of $4710 and legal costs of $1412 to the SPCA in Auckland.

In the past 13 years, the SPCA has received more than 70 complaints about Power. The former nurse was convicted in 1998 of omitting to supply dozens of cows and horses with proper and sufficient food. She was then banned from owning dogs for five years after being convicted of owning two dogs that attacked a person.

In 2003, the SPCA seized dozens of animals from Power's rural property over concerns about the animals' welfare. NZME