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A former police officer has lost his appeal against a conviction for a horse passport offence and two welfare charges.

Horse dealer Peter Kenneth Jones, of Plas Power Stables, Bersham near Wrexham had been convicted on 9 counts in a three-day trial at Mold Crown Court that ended on 30 March this year. He was found guilty of failing to treat a gelding which was suffering with strangles and had a jaw abscess and severely overgrown hooves. He was also found guilty of causing suffering to a mare that had open and infected wounds on her fetlock, and a passport offence. His failed appeal will now cost him an additional £5,344 on top of the £6,000 in costs and fines paid at his conviction.

The judgement made last week (Thursday 10 November) has important implications for how horse owners are expected to handle cases of the painful equine disease strangles, according to Graham Capper, a senior enforcement officer with Wrexham Trading Standards which brought the original charges.

“The appeal failed in part because we were able to prove that Mr Jones could have prevented his horse from enduring unnecessary suffering if he had brought in a vet to assess and treat the horse. Mr Jones had testified that veterinary help was not necessarily required for strangles, but Mark Andrews of the Wrexham Veterinary Centre explained very effectively that a simple course of anti-inflammatories would have reduced suffering. The message from this judgement is that owners have a responsibility to monitor their horses for strangles, call in a vet if symptoms arise and provide treatment. If suffering can be alleviated by getting a vet in, it should be done.”

World Horse Welfare Field Officer Tony Evans, who worked with Wrexham Trading Standards on the case, said he was pleased with the verdict: “Mr Jones did not protect two of his horses from unnecessary suffering, despite our advice to him that he should call a vet in January 2010. Had he done so, his horse would not have had to suffer for as long as he did.”

Mr Jones, who imports horses from the Irish Republic, had sold two horses with the wrong passports, bought a horse without a passport and failed to notify the passport issuing body within 30 days of a buying a horse.