Horse transport bombshell sends racing industry into tailspin

It is understood TT-Line made the unprecedented decision – which soon flowed through to the industry – following a court decision on Thursday.

In that decision, a magistrate in Burnie found the company guilty of 29 animal cruelty charges in relation to the death of 16 polo ponies on board in 2018.

The ponies were in a converted horse trailer being driven by former polo champion Andrew Williams and returning to Victoria after a tournament in Tasmania.

Just two of the 18 horses in that trailer survived.

Magistrate Leanne Topfer ruled TT-Line were partly responsible for the welfare of the horses on board.

“I make the finding in the context of a warm evening where there was a clearly inadequately ventilated transport unit, stationary for 10 hours on the Spirit of Tasmania 1, where there were too many horses in the unit and 16 horses were exposed to the risk of acute heat stress and asphyxiation and died from peracute respiratory failure,” she said when handing down her decision.

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by Helen Kempton, for Hobart Mercury, republished from Racenet