KEY POINTS:
A Kaikohe farmer has been fined and banned from farming animals for 10 years after being convicted of ill-treating a horse.
The SPCA charged Gordon Frederick Howarth, 74, after discovering a 14-month-old filly with a halter embedded into its face.
Howarth was sentenced in Kaikohe District Court on Tuesday after earlier pleading guilty to ill-treating the animal and failing to ensure the physical and health needs of the animal.
The court was told Howarth had put a nylon halter on the foal after it had been weaned from its mother, but he did not adjust it as the horse grew older.
As a result the halter became embedded 50mm into its face, forcing the flesh on the filly's nose to grow through the eyelets of the halter.
The filly was able to crop grass but could not open its jaws sufficiently to properly chew food.
The court was told that a veterinarian concluded the filly would have suffered pain and that the halter had dug into the foal's jaw bone.
Howarth said his son had told him the halter needed replacing, however he had been to ill to do so.
After an SPCA inspection Howarth removed the halter and treated the injury.
SPCA prosecutor James Boyd told the court he believed Howarth was no longer capable of looking after stock or large animals and asked that he be banned from farming.
Chief District Court Judge Russell Johnson fined Howarth $1500 and ordered him to pay $130 court costs and the SPCA expenses.
He also disqualified Howarth from owning or exercising authority over cattle, sheep, pigs or horses, for a period of 10 years.
Howarth has until December 9 to dispose of his animals.
- NORTHERN ADVOCATE
