Edmonton lawyer guilty in horse abandonment case

An Edmonton lawyer has pleaded guilty to a charge of animal cruelty for leaving two horses on a snowy mountain near McBride, B.C., last year.

On Friday, Frank McKay pleaded guilty to a charge under B.C.'s Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of permitting an animal to be in distress. He was fined $1,000 and placed on 12 months probation.  Two criminal charges of animal cruelty were stayed.

McKay was also ordered to pay $5,910 in restitution to the B.C. SPCA. He is banned from owning an animal in B.C. for two years.

The ban does not apply to Alberta, since the conviction was under B.C.'s animal cruelty act, the B.C. SPCA said. However, a copy of the court orders will be given to the SPCA in Alberta.

As part of the decision, McKay will publish a statement he read in court in the Robson Valley Sentinel newspaper.

In December 2008, snowmobilers found two starving horses trapped at the side of Mount Renshaw in B.C.

Volunteers spent more than a week digging a one-kilometre trench in the snow to get the horses out. They were rescued on Dec. 23.

McKay told CBC News he tried twice to rescue the horses on his own, but during his final attempt in December 2008, he found the snow too deep to get them out.

The horses were adopted by new owners in Kamloops and Prince George last year.