Five people have been found guilty of neglecting more than 100 horses, ponies and donkeys on a Buckinghamshire farm.
Horse trader James Gray, 45, and his son James Gray Junior, 16, were found guilty of 11 charges under the Animal Welfare Act 2006.
His wife Julie Gray, 41, and daughters Jodie, 26, and Cordelia, 20, were each found guilty of two charges.
A SENIOR vet told a court today horses found dead at a south Bucks farm could have died in “one of the largest recorded outbreaks” of a worm infestation.
John Parker, the former chairman of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, said the owner of Spindles Farm in Hyde Heath was “not aware of the gravity” of an infection affecting his livestock.
But he also told Bicester Magistrates’ Court he was unable to prove his theory as it was several months before the idea came to him.
Mr Parker said he believed the horses could have died from a condition called cyathostomiasis – an infestation of worms.
A HORSE trader accused of cruelty today said he “totally disagrees” with evidence animals on his farm were starved.
James Gray, who owns Spindles Farm, Chalk Lane, Hyde Heath, asked why prosecutors at Bicester Magistrates Court had not produced pictures of allegedly emaciated animals taken on the day they were seized.
Mr Gray, 44, is charged with 12 counts under the Animal Welfare Act along with four other people, after more than 100 horses were seized from his farm last January.
The horse trader facing charges of animal cruelty said his animals were not suffering and claims the trial has ruined his business.
James Gray gave evidence for the first time this week and said that although his relatives were also charged with animal cruelty, he was the sole owner and had responsibility for the horses and land.
Gray, 45, said a police statement he gave in April last year which indicated his wife and two daughters, plus another teenage boy, were involved in the care of the equines, was given when he was ‘on strong medication’.
He said: “I was not very well at all. I was confined to Harlow House in High Wycombe. They wanted to section me. My wife didn’t care for them, she is frightened of horses.
James Gray told a court yesterday that it was common for horses to “drop down dead”.
Gray, 45, of Spindle Farm, Hyde Heath, Buckinghamshire, said some of the animals found on his land had died without warning or displaying any sign of illness.
And he said some corpses, which were left lying on his property for several days, were “family pets” which he was waiting to bury.
The James Gray trial is being held at Bicester Magistrates’ Court, in Oxfordshire. He is being tried alongside his wife Julie Gray, 41, his daughters Jodie Gray, 26, and Cordelia Gray, 20, and another person who cannot be named.
