SPCA seized 38 horses in N.B. after complaints

The SPCA seized 38 horses from a northwest New Brunswick farm in July 2010 after an animal protection officer received two complaints about the care of the animals, a Grand Falls, N.B.,court heard on Wednesday.

Lindsey Bishop, an animal protection officer in the upperWoodstock area, told the court she made three trips to the farm in Tilley,owned by sisters Beverley and Sandra Tomalin.

The sisters have been charged with failure to provide adequate food, shelter and veterinary care to the 38 horses.

The charges arose after the SPCA received two complaints over the health and welfare of the horses.

Bishop said during her first visit to the farm, the horses looked thin. There was also concern over whether they had sufficient food, water and shelter,she said.There were 23 adult horses and 15 foals on the farm.

James McCue, a defence lawyer, cross-examined Bishop on Wednesday.

He pointed out that the horses were eating from hay bales when the New Brunswick SPCA, RCMP, and veterinarians showed up at the Tomalin farm on July 13, 2010, the day the animals were seized. McCue said the Tomalins had started building a barn to shelter the horses.

McCue also asked Bishop why the SPCA or the veterinarian who only visited the farm once didn't take samples of the water or the grass where the horses were grazing, or fecal matter to be analyzed if there were concerns about the horses' health.

He questioned her on what written notification the veterinarian had actually left for Sandra Tomlin.

She agreed that, in writing, veterinarian Dr. Thomas Ogilviesaid only that a number of the horses needed their hooves trimmed.The conditionwas not life-threatening, Bishop said.

McCue also said there was a report fromthe Fredericton veterinarian that none of the 38 horses seized were dehydrated, and that their underweight condition was caused by intestinal parasites, not by starvation.

During a followup visit in June the SPCAfound two partially buried carcasses and one dead newborn horse.

By that time, Bishop testified, the horses had grown quite thin.

The SPCA returned on July 13 with the RCMP and a warrant to seize the animals. The 38 horses were packed into a trailer and were transported to Fredericton where they were examined by more veterinarians.

McCue questioned Bishop about how the horses were loaded onto the transport truck and trailer. Bishop said one horse had to be sedated, another ended up half on and half off the ramp, and that an electric prod had been used on the horses, which contravened, according to McCue, regulations on dealing with horses.

3 horses euthanized

Bishop testified that three horses needed to be euthanized and at least 20 had to be monitored in care for eight weeks before they were deemed healthy enough to leave. All of the horses are now on foster farms throughout the province.

Bishop also told the court the SPCA has given a $30,000 bill to the Tomalin sisters to cover the veterinary bills.

Sandra Tomalin said in an interview in July that the horses on their 12-hectare farm were treated well and that the seizure of the animals amounted to "theft."

Crown prosecutor Charles Courturier is expected to call more SPCA animal protection officers andthree veterinarians.

The trial is expected to last three days.