My action
plan for the D - Day (Donkey Day)
Demonstration outside Spindles Farm Yard
Friday 18th April 2008
On Friday 18th April 2008, a few days after my 10th
Birthday * 11 donkeys and
18 Shetland ponies will be returned to Spindles Farm, Chalk Lane, Hyde
Heath. This will be exactly 14 days after Deputy District Judge Sandeep
Kainth, made his calamitous decision to partially accepted the
application made by James John Gray, Julie Gray, Cordelia Gray and Jodie
Gray to have 29 of the 111 equines back, because they considered them to
be family pets, and according to a defence witness vet who saw the
animals 10 days after the RSPCA rescue, it was thought the donkeys and
ponies where in no danger. I am so upset about what happened in the
court
plea hearing on 4th April, that I am
not quite myself yet, but I will not give up without doing something to
demonstrate my disgust about what is going to happen.
I really can’t understand why Deputy District Judge Sandeep Kainth
allowed this, when James John Gray, Julie Gray, Cordelia Gray and Jodie
Gray, are yet to appear for a pre-trial hearing in at Oxford Magistrates
Court on Monday 28th April 2008, to answer 12 charges of animal cruelty
brought by the RSPCA relating to section 4 and section 9 of the
Animal
Welfare Act 2006, which covers causing unnecessary suffering to, and
failing to meet the welfare needs of a total of 125 equines, which were
removed from Spindles Farm between 4th and 12th January 2008, and Mr.
Gray himself is to appear in Aylesbury Magistrates Court on 9th May
2008, after pleading guilty to criminal damage to an RSPCA inspectors
vehicle, and not guilty to a charge of allegedly assaulting a Police
Officer.
Surely the return to the defendants of the 11 donkeys and 18 Shetland
ponies should have been deferred until after the animal cruelty case was
heard, and presumably only if Mr. Gray and all members of his family had
been found not guilty of any of the offences of animal cruelty and
neglect brought against them by the RSPCA.
Deputy District Judge Sandeep Kainth will go down in history as the JP
that messed up, when the new Animal Welfare Act 2006 was tested in his
court during one of the biggest equine cruelty cases this country has
ever known.
What I intend to do about it, (as someone who has lost
all faith in the due process of law, thanks to Deputy District Judge
Sandeep Kainth’s actions, but still has great faith in the British
people) from dawn until dusk on Friday 18th April 2008, I will be
outside the gates to Spindles Farm Yard where I held my silent protest,
over two days in January, demonstrating with my friends and my Dad, and
doing all within my power to prevent the 11 donkeys and 18 Shetland
ponies being returned to Mr. Gray. I don’t care if I have to lie down in
the road with my Dad, to prevent the return of these poor animals, if
that is what it takes to stop this injustice happening. I would like to
extend an invitation to all animal lovers to join with me in this
peaceful demonstration, so that we can show that we will not accept the
return of the donkeys and Shetland ponies before the animal cruelty case
has been heard.
Friday 18th April, is D-Day **
and is the day the RSPCA transport has been organised for the return the
animals to Spindles Farm, I think that if enough people are outside
Spindles Farm yard and Mr. Gray's house on that day, then the RSPCA will
not be able to return the rescued equines.
* When my Dad asked me what I
wanted for my birthday next week, I said, I wanted the donkeys and
Shetland ponies to stay at the sanctuaries.
** I am not at school that day as
I am still on holiday.
