A farm owner who neglected horse management was also sentenced to one year in prison on appeal in connection with a crash in which a horse that got out of a barn collided with a vehicle, killing a passenger.
The Daejeon District Court Criminal Division 3-1 (Presiding Judge Hong Eun-a) said on the 26th that it dismissed the appeal of farm owner A, 69, who had been sentenced to one year in prison at the first trial on charges of occupational negligence resulting in death and violating the Animal Protection Act.
A is accused of letting a horse escape on Dec. 19, 2022, by unloading it from a truck into the barn A operates without closing the door and without holding the reins properly. The escaped horse collided with a vehicle traveling on a nearby road, and a passenger in the vehicle was seriously injured, received treatment, and died about four months later.
In the first trial, the court sentenced A to one year in prison even while considering that the driver of the victim's vehicle exceeded the speed limit by 30 kph. Citing about six reports over roughly two years before the crash that horses had escaped from A's barn, the court found the degree of negligent management to be grave.
A also faced charges of discovering five horses that collapsed with paralysis symptoms at the farm in Sep.–Oct. 2024 but leaving them unattended for three to five days, causing them to die as other horses watched.
A appealed, arguing the sentence was too heavy, but the appellate court said, "The original sentence cannot be considered excessively heavy as it does not exceed the bounds of reasonable discretion," and rejected the appeal.