Gray trial judge must decide if welfare standards apply to low cost animals
| Gray trial judge must decide if welfare standards apply to low cost animals Report by Charlotte White, H&H deputy news editor The verdict in the James Gray trial - to be given tomorrow at Bicester Magistrates Court - is by no means a foregone conclusion in the minds of the British horseworld. James Gray, of Spindle Farm, Chalk Lane, Hyde Heath, is one of five defendants facing 12 cruelty charges under the Animal Welfare Act. |  |
He, three family members - Julie Gray, 41, Cordelia Gray, 20, both of Spindle Farm, Jodie Gray, 26, of Park Road, Ashford, Middlesex - and a teenager who cannot be named for legal reasons, deny all the charges.
RSPCA officers found 31 dead horses, ponies and donkeys at the farm when they attended in January 2008. A further 115 were removed alive but in poor condition.
Six months on from the opening submissions the question district judge Andrew Vickers must address tomorrow is whether the level of welfare shown to an animal should be in relation to its monetary worth.
James Gray and the defence's expert witnesses, vets John Parker and Madeleine Forsyth, say that normal welfare standards do not apply to people who deal in a high number of low value horses.
Gray claimed more than 2,000 horses, ponies and donkeys passed through his farm each year and said in court that he gave them a realistic level of care.
The defence also claims that Gray wormed his animals with ivermectin when they arrived at his farm but the horses were suffering from drug resistant small redworms and died very quickly.
But the nine vets called by the prosecution claim the animals were suffering from a combination of malnutrition, worms and neglect.
They contend welfare standards should be the same whether your animal is a pleasure horse or a low value pony and Gray's care fell far below that expected.
The judge must also decide whether Gray's family and the youth were aware of what was going in the farmyard and fields at Spindle Farm. And if so should they have done something to stop it?
Added on: 07/05/09.
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