A Shropshire farmer responsible for “barbaric cruelty” to three foals has been fined £15,000 and banned from keeping horses and donkeys for seven years.

Charles Davies, of Woodend Farm, Highley, near Bridgnorth, was also ordered to pay £38,559 costs at Telford Magistrates Court yesterday. The court had heard how RSPCA officers found the nine-month-old foals in a “terrible state”.

The animals were emaciated and riddled with worms when they were discovered on the farm in February last year.

Davies had denied six charges of causing unnecessary suffering to the animals by failing to provide an adequately wholesome and nutritious diet and failing to provide a routine parasite control programme.

The 57-year-old, who runs a commercial game shoot on his land, claimed the foals were not his but belonged to a friend to whom he rented the field but he was found guilty after a trial.

District Judge Bruce Morgan, sentencing Davies yesterday, said: “It is crystal clear, having heard the expert evidence, that these horses were in a terrible state. The fact that they didn’t die or have to be put down is more by luck than judgement.”

Judge Morgan said the foals must have suffered prolonged agony and it was a deliberate act of cruelty.

The foals have since been rehomed by the RSPCA.

Davies claimed that feeding and looking after the foals was not his responsibility but that of a man called Jonny Francis to whom he rented the field.

Mr Paul Taylor, prosecuting on behalf of the RSPCA, said, however: “To keep them in a controlled field to starve to death is barbaric cruelty.”

The court had heard that David Martin, a vet called in by the society to examine the foals, gave them a body score of zero.

The animals were anaemic, suffering from worms and their bones could be felt through their coats.

Mr Nigel Weller, for Davies, said: “This is a man who has worked in the country and worked with horses all his life.”

He said Davies no longer had any horses of his own although his daughter had one on his land.

By Simon Hardy