A MAN has been sent to prison and handed a lifetime ban from keeping animals.
Horse trader and breeder, Thomas Tony Price of Redway Road in Bonvilston, has been found guilty on 32 counts of failing to ensure a suitable environment for horses and sheep which caused unnecessary suffering to the animals.
Price was sentenced, at Merthyr Tydfil Magistrates Court, to six months in prison and banned for life from keeping any animals after a history of prosecutions for mistreatment that had previously seen him receive a five-year disqualification.
Before passing sentence, District Judge Neil Thomas told Price that the evidence against him had been compelling. He had failed to manage the animals competently and was hopelessly overstocked.