Pair convicted of inflicting unnecessary suffering on horse, each fined €8,000

Two men have been found guilty of causing a horse unnecessary suffering by not taking proper care of it after it was found in what was described by one witness as being in a “state between life and death,” and with wounds all over.

Felice Delia, 58 from Marsascala and Lucas Vassallo, 33 from Tarxien, were charged with causing the animal unnecessary pain, suffering or distress, failing to take reasonable steps to ensure that the needs of the animal in their care were met as required by good practices to ensure the health and wellbeing of the animal, and with failing to be responsible for the required treatment of the animal despite keeping it.

The charges against the accused came following a report about a horse that was kept in a field in the area of Bindi, in Marsascala, the court said.

The court noted that the horse in question belonged to Lucas Vassallo, but he entrusted it to Felice Delia to keep in his field and take care of.  Vassallo had said that he had bought the horse around four months before it was taken by Animal Welfare.

“The court has no doubt that Felice Delia, as he himself said during his interrogation, had accepted to keep and care for the horse belonging to Vassallo.”

Delia had said that when Vassallo bought the horse, it was already in a worse state than when it was later taken by Animal Welfare, and that Vassallo would bring medicine for the horse.

The court also noted that Vassallo said that he bought the horse and that he would care for it together with the other accused (Delia). “He (Vassallo) insists that three weeks before the horse was taken by Animal Welfare officials, he gave the horse to Delia and that they agreed that he would have nothing more to do with it.”

But the court noted that Vassallo still continued caring for the horse. “As he said, when the horse got sick, Delia called him and not someone else to tell him that the horse was in a bad health state and to help him. So much so that he admitted in his statement that he had gone to buy medicine for the horse, that he would help Delia inject it and help it up when it fell, as well as to caring for its wounds, and this over a period of at least a week.”

The court said it was satisfied that both accused used to help each other care for the horse, and as such are the persons who have accepted responsibility for the horse and to take care of it.

Lawyer Luke Vella Versin testified that the horse was kept in a room built of stone that did not look to be structurally safe, and when going on site on 23 June 2021 found the horse “in a terrible state,” “in a very grave state, meaning a state between life and death, he was full of maggots, fly larva, wounds all over his body, very thin… nearly in the last stage of life… he could barely walk,” the court judgement reads.

He also told the court that seeing a horse in that state is not something one sees every day. He told the court that there was no drinking water, although there were some cuttings of grass on the ground.

Corinne Farrugia, from RMJ Horse Rescue, confirmed the grave state that the horse was in when it was taken to her on 23 June 2021, and said that in her twelve years of saving horses, this was the worst case she had ever seen. Dr Steve Farrugia, a vet, also confirmed the bad state of the horse, and said it had serious wounds in the front knees which were infected and filled with maggots. He also said the horse had other wounds all over.

The court noted that the two accused, as the people who accepted responsibility to keep or care for the horse, failed to adopt good practices to ensure the health and wellbeing of the animal. “The critical state it was found in on 23 June 2021 (…) leaves little room for equivocation on this.”

The court understood that the situation was due to an absolute lack of not only food and ordinary care, but also medical care and treatment that the animal evidently needed. “A failing that is hard for one to understand when Delia himself said that he lives in a farm that is just a few metres away from the room in the field where the horse was kept.”

The court could infer since it was on the verge of death and had been left wanting of food and water that the horse had suffered unnecessary pain.

The court further said that although it didn't seem that this was deliberately caused by the co-accused, this absolutely does not mean that the horse did not suffer.

The court said that there was a total and absolute abdication by the co-accused from their care of the wellbeing and needs of the horse. It had to be more than evident to them after the health of the horse continued to worsen, that it needed urgent professional medical care and attention but, despite this, it does not result from the evidence that one of the accused had ever sent for a vet to examine and cure the horse, despite according to them it could not stay on its feet and would fall constantly.”

The court noted that the two said they procured medicine for the horse, “but there is nothing to show that this was the necessary medicine, much less that it was effective.” particularly when it did not result that this was prescribed by a vet or was based off a professional animal exam, the court said.

The court said that it could not conclude with certainty that when the horse was acquired by Vassallo and being kept in Delia’s paddock three months prior, that it was not already in the state it was found in on 23 June 2021. “But undoubtedly, it would have been obvious for the accused that the horse was suffering in the state it ended up in, where ex admisis it began falling on the floor and had wounds. As it should have been obvious that their inaction and passiveness constitutes cruelty. It is so evident that the accused caused it suffering, that the wounds the horse had gotten at least three weeks prior were not only not cured, but left to deteriorate and become infested with insects.”

Delia and Vassallo were found guilty of their crimes and fined €8,000 each to be paid within six months. In addition, both were ordered to pay RMJ Horse Rescue the sum of €2,098.25 each. In addition, the court ordered the revocation of all permits issued for the operation of any activity regulated by the Animal Welfare Act, and also ordered the suspension or revocation of every license for the keeping of animals under the Act for a period of three years.

The court abstained from deciding on the issue of Delia’s recidivism.