Ina Casburn: Wollondilly River Station owner guilty of animal cruelty
RSPCA officers found a grey horse in such a state of distress it was ‘cruel to keep it alive’ after visiting the Wollondilly River Station campground. WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
The Bowral News
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The owner of the Wollondilly River Station campground in Goodmans Ford has blamed bushfires and floods for neglecting her horse until it was “cruel to keep it alive”.
Ina Casburn, 53, faced Moss Vale Local Court on Monday after pleading guilty to committing an act of aggravated animal cruelty and failing to provide veterinary treatment.
The Goodmans Ford resident was visited by a local vet on January 15 last year as part of the recovery from the Black Summer bushfires, who was offering assistance to those with livestock affected by the fires.
The vet checked out the two horses on the property and found one in good condition while the other was in pain. According to court documents, he could see a large ulcerated mass on the horse’s nose which was around 15cm wide and 4cm high.
The court heard the mass was so advanced he recommended the horse be euthanised at no cost to Casburn, but she refused the offer. Her lawyer Jane Button said Casburn had refused the offer because the vet had said her horse could be saved with surgery.
The RSPCA received a complaint about the grey horse in March but couldn’t get to the campground because the roads were closed due to the fires and floods. They were eventually able to get to the site a year after the vet’s visit, on January 20 this year, and found the horse in bad shape.
Court documents reveal the horse was in “very poor condition, with hips, ribs, and vertebrae prominent.”
The large mass identified by the vet a year earlier was bloody and covered in flies, and the horse kept rubbing it on its front legs, covering them in blood. The mass looked and smelled awful, according to court documents.
“A putrid, rotten smell came from the mass,” the report said.
Although Casburn wasn’t at home, she called the RSPCA later that evening and court documents reveal she acknowledged the severity of the horse’s condition.
“Oh I know it’s bad,” she said.
“I’ve already had the talk about putting him down. I’m really busy.”
Although she told the RSPCA she wouldn’t have time to arrange for a euthanisation until February, they told her to either get a vet to see the horse or arrange for it to be put down before January 27.
When they didn’t hear from Casburn, the RSPCA arrived at the property with a vet and found the horse in “great distress” according to court documents. The vet found a second mass underneath the horse’s jaw and said the animal was in such a state it would be “cruel to keep it alive”.
Casburn arrived and told the RSPCA she’d arranged to have the horse put down the next day, but didn’t explain why she hadn’t informed the RSPCA. Court documents reveal she gave the vet permission to sedate and euthanise the horse.
“Well, you’re here now, may as well do what you need to do,” she told them.
“I should have done something sooner. It is what it is.”
Ms Button told the court her client had been unable to do anything about the horse due to the effects of the bushfires and floods on the main access points to the property.
“The roads were closed for months and months,” she said.
She told the court Casburn was very busy dealing with the aftermath of these events and running her campsite, but had still tried to organise to put down her horse.
However Magistrate Walker said the horse’s ill health was clear in the very graphic images of the oozing mass on its nose.
“One would have thought the horse would have been put down very quickly,” he said.
The magistrate recognised Casburn’s difficulty in accessing vet treatment and accepted she had not meant to extend the horse’s suffering.
“I understand the defendant is an animal lover and would not have intentionally caused harm,” he said.
He imposed a 12-month Conditional Release Order without recording a conviction for the “unusual case”.
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