The Government vet accused of neglecting a group of starving horses has defended his decision not to seize the animals.

Although Dr. Jonathan Nisbett confirmed that he had inspected the six animals several weeks ago, he said that they were in no danger of starving to death, although three of them were undernourished.

And he added that he had no facilities to keep the horses if they had been seized and he also wanted to speak to the animals' owner before taking any action.

Yesterday, The Royal Gazette published allegations from a concerned carriage driver that the animals, kept in a field in St. George's, were being starved.

And Dee Charles said that Dr. Nisbett had already seen the animals two weeks earlier -- but failed to take any action because he could not contact owner John DeShields.

But following the publication of the story yesterday Mr. DeShields contacted Dr. Nisbett and a second inspection of the animals took place.

Following the inspection Dr. Nisbett confirmed that three of the six animals were undernourished.

But he added he was confident that the animals' condition would improve now that Mr. DeShields had been spoken to.

"We have come to an agreement that Mr. DeShields should get his house in order,'' Dr. Nisbett said.

"When we did see them a few weeks ago they weren't in as bad a condition as they are now.

"But we did have problems getting hold of Mr. DeShields that we didn't envisage.

"We weren't able to seize the animals because we have nowhere to put them and I was satisfied that they weren't in any immediate danger.'' Dr. Nisbett added that Mr. DeShields had always had a good track record with animals in the past and he was now fully cooperating with the authorities.

"He's under a lot of pressure,'' Dr. Nisbett said.

"He has a commercial horse licence riding on this and he has to get them back into condition.

"Mr. DeShields said that the reason for the weight loss was that he had switched their feed for the winter but they were losing weight and in my opinion they weren't getting enough.'' But yesterday Mr. DeShields denied that he had been neglecting the animals, claiming that only one horse was underweight because it was lame.

Stable condition : Mr. DeShields (centre) with three of his six horses yesterday. Also pictured are Kenniffe Reid, at left, and John Hensen.

GOVERNMENT GVT