A former Australian polo team captain has pleaded guilty to a series of charges related to the deaths of 16 polo ponies.
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The ponies died while crossing the Bass Strait on the Spirit of Tasmania in 2018.
Andrew Williams on Thursday afternoon pleaded guilty to using a method of management reasonably likely to result in unreasonable and unjustifiable pain and suffering to the animal or animals in the group, and 16 counts of transporting a horse across the Bass Strait and failing to ensure that the horse was individually stalled.
Those charges were laid three years ago after an investigation by Tasmania's Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment.
The horses had been in Barnbougle, Tasmania in January 2018 to compete in a polo event.
However, the horses were found dead on their arrival in Victoria on January 29.
"They are my lifeline, my income and my best friends," Williams was quoted as saying just days after the event.
"I have done this trip 11 times in the same truck, but I knew something was wrong as I drove through the city of Melbourne a short time after disembarking. So I rang my other truck and asked if his load was travelling well.
"My head groom said his horses couldn't wait to get off his truck. I knew then that something was potentially wrong, as mine was not indicating the usual activity. I then arrived in Yarra Glen at a friend's property. It was my worst nightmare. Within an hour of leaving the boat, I had 16 horses that were cold dead and two fighting to survive."
It is understood 10 of the ponies were owned by Williams, and six were owned by Williams' employer, Johnny Kahlbetzer, the son of German-born agribusiness baron John Dieter Kahlbetzer.
TT-Line previously entered pleas of not guilty to similar charges, including additional charges relating to unaffected horses transported during the same period. It has been alleged those horses were also not stalled.
Thomas Martin has also pleaded not guilty to similar charges.
The matter will return to the court July 20.