Teacher cleared of animal cruelty after viral film of her hitting a horse, genuine question..

[nipersvest]

She's been cleared today, but after watching the footage, what was she actually doing to the horse? It does look pretty damning, am a bit confused as to how she's been vindicated. Link for anyone who hasn't seen the story Link for anyone who hasn't seen the story

I know people who smack animals. Sadly there is nothing to stop them sitting on juries.

She doesn't have a shred of fucking remorse, does she?

Revolting specimen.

I’m not sure, from what I’ve read, because the horse had no injuries 10 days after it was kicked and slapped it was seen as ok.

I’m wondering if the fact the jury was 11 men and 1 woman also helped her, I would be interested in knowing how many of those men also hunt.

This is deeply sad. Animal cruelty, if it was a dog/cat/house pet of another sort, wouldn’t she have been banned from having animals for a set amount of time? Horses scare me stiff (no idea why as they are bloody gorgeous animals!) but I darent ever lift my hands or feet to one, or any other animal for that matter. No remorse, no guilt from her it seems.

Given it’s a randomly selected jury, I’d guess not very many.

Unfortunately the law seems to consider that as long as you left no lasting damage, it's fine to chastise an animal in this way.
I wouldn't want her to be my child's teacher either.

I actually saw on Twitter that the jury voted Guilty by 11-1 but the judge insisted it had to be a unanimous verdict, but I can’t verify that. I am completely baffled how she could be found Not Guilty and hope she never works as a teacher again.

Awful woman, it was blatant abuse, you don't punish an animal that has allowed itself to be caught, and never with violence.
How she was found not guilty I have no idea.

Her 'defence' of her actions seemed to be that the horse had been left at the side of the road with a child holding its rope, and then the horse ran off into the road dangerously. She claimed she 'needed' to chastise the horse in the moment so that it wouldn't do it again.

Quite aside from the kicking and slapping, who in their right mind leaves an unpredictable horse at the side of a road with a kid? Clearly no regard for the safety of other road users. Typical sense of entitlement from her sort of people

I didn’t understand this either. She’s clearing snacking and booting the pony. I suppose if the law says if there is no visible injury when inspected then it doesn’t count as animal cruelty then they can’t convict her for that. It worries me that people who do belt their animals will see this as an indication that if they are ever caught doing so they’ll get away Scot free.

It was clear to see in the video. She’s a fucking hideous animal abuser and this is a travesty of justice.

The simple answer to your question is that a jury looked at all the evidence, not just the video, and decided that the case against her was not proved beyond reasonable doubt. There were different veterinary opinions as to how much pain and fear the horse would have suffered. The jury were told there was minimal contact and that there were no signs of internal or external injury following the incident. They probably also heard other evidence that has not been reported in the press.

Whilst she says she has been vindicated, I would not go that far. A jury does not find a defendant innocent. They find them not guilty. That can mean anything from the jury thinking the defendant was probably guilty but there was reasonable doubt, to the jury thinking the defendant definitely had not done anything wrong.