A man who left his horses for dead has been given a lifetime ban and prison sentence. Ben Neill, 38, was sentenced to 24 weeks in jail yesterday for causing unnecessary suffering to a horse and failing to meet the needs of three ponies.
He was found guilty of all three animal welfare offences and has now been disqualified from keeping equines for life - after being prosecuted by the RSPCA. A trial was heard at Barnstaple Magistrates Court in his absence in January after he failed to attend.
The charity's inspector Claire Ryder, launched their investigation after receiving a call in March last year from a member of the public who had seen a horse collapsed in a muddy field in Landkey, near Barnstaple, Devon. After sending a vet to the scene, they reported the chestnut gelding called Eddy, was in a "terrible state", unable to lift his head from the mud - let alone stand up.
