ANIMAL cruelty campaigners PETA have stepped into the row over a former racehorse owner who wants a lifetime ban of owning the animals overturned.
Robert Layland, 71, of Newsholme, near Gisburn, was jailed for four months in 1976 after 16 emaciated horses were found at his farm.
Magistrates also imposed a lifetime ban on keeping animals - but he got the order partially overturned last month and now can keep dogs.
But PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has urged magistrates to resist Layland's bid to allow him to lift the ban on him keeping horses.
In a letter to the Blackburn court, PETA Europe director Poorva Joshipura, said: "Magistrates have a responsibility to protect animals as well as the community at large by ensuring that convicted animal abusers aren't able to negotiate their way out of criminal charges."
The appeal date is yet to be set.
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