NEWS AND COMMENT – CHELTENHAM, UK: This is an unpleasant story of animal cruelty fortuitously caught on CCTV. Scott Manson was a farrier at the time. He attacked a gray Arab gelding known as Buddy in April 2022 while the horse was tied up and being shod. The screenshot from the CCTV camera below provides a clear indication of what the man did.
Scott Manson’s actions were described as “unprovoked and barbaric” at court. The man attacked the horse’s legs and Dr. Suzanne Greene, an expert in equine matters, said it would have been very painful for the horse as there is little tissue cover on the legs where he attacked him.
The prosecution at his trial said that Buddy was behaving out of character in his stables and the stables owner decided to take a look at the yard’s CCTV. “Manson was seen adopting an aggressive stance, striking out at the horse with his hammer, hitting its front legs at least nine times. The owner then carried out an examination of Buddy, and saw that his right leg had swollen along with various marks on both front legs and around the shin area. The hair had also been taken off and the shin exposed”. The owner then called a veterinarian and reported the incident to the RSPCA.
Fortunately, the court was told that Buddy has made a full recovery.
Manson, 34, was convicted of one charge of animal cruelty in March. He had pleaded guilty at Cheltenham magistrates court but he appealed his ban. He has been disqualified from keeping or working with animals for 10 years.
Manson appealed the ban because he keeps seven dogs and seven chickens at his home. He will now how to relinquish those animals to the requisite authorities as his ban appears to be total in terms of animals.
It appears that Manson lost his temper and it is not the first time that this has happened. The Times reports that the prosecuting barrister at the appeal of Manson’s ban said that Manson had lost his temper with an animal earlier. It had been reported that a dog, a family pet, had been thrown out of a car. The dog sustained a fractured pelvis and had to be euthanised.
And in the past, the court was told that Manson had been convicted of harassing a former partner in 2019 and was sentenced to a 24-week prison term suspended for 24 months according to a Times report. Manson was also suspended from the professional register of farriers for six months.
The judge at the trial, Ian Laurie KC, said that Manson had to curb his temper. In addition to the 10-year ban on keeping and working with animals, Manson was sentenced to a 12-week suspended prison term and ordered to do 150 hours of unpaid work and to pay £528 in costs and surcharges.
