A federal judge in Chattanooga, Tennessee has sentenced Jackie McConnell, the horse trainer who was caught abusing horses in an undercover video, to three years’ probation and fined him $75,000. He could have been fined up to $250,000.
Typical Tennessee Walking Horse
Jackie McConnell has been fined $75,000 and placed on three years probation for horse soring along with being banned for life from Tennessee Walker Celebration and events.
The video, which put the industry under heightened public scrutiny shows, Jackie McConnell and others applying caustic substances to horses’ legs and hooves and beating the horses to make them stand in a process known as "soring" which is used to force the horses to lift their feet in a high-stepping gait.
Stable hands Jeff Dockery and Joseph Abernathy were sentenced to one year probation and ordered to write an article about soring at the hearing on Tuesday. The three men pleaded guilty in May to conspiring to violate the Horse Protection Act.
Representatives from the Humane Society were in the Chattanooga Courtroom where Jackie McConnell sentenced to probation and fined. U.S. Sen. Joe Tydings, a Democrat from Maryland and the author of the original Horse Protection Act in 1970 was also present.
Prosecutors had recommended five years' probation for McConnell, who pleaded guilty in May to conspiring to violate the Horse Protection Act, and a lifetime ban on participating in the horse industry.
Responding to public calls for stricter punishment, the prosecution filed a 16-page report that outlined how the federal law on horse abuse and sentencing guidelines made it impossible to seek a prison sentence for McConnell, a first-time offender.
McConnell had trained winners at the top show, the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration. The Celebration banned him for life and removed him from its hall of fame.
The Tennessee Walking Show Horse Organization said reforms are being implemented. "Those who abuse horses should be held accountable, and we hope that today's sentencing sends a message to those who hurt horses that this type of activity will not be tolerated," TWSHO spokesman Jane Lynch Crain said in a statement.