RUMFORD – After 6 hours of testimony on Monday, the second day of an animal cruelty case involving a Bethel rancher, time again expired before the matter could be settled in Rumford District Court.

But, unlike Aug. 2, when the criminal trial case started against Larry G. Smith, 62, of 46 Vernon St., his lawyer, John Jenness, got to present witnesses. The case will be continued on either Wednesday or Friday.

Smith is charged with several counts of animal abuse involving his horses and cows last summer and in December.

Christine Fraser, state veterinarian for Maine’s Animal Welfare Program, testified for four hours. She was the last witness for prosecutors Richard Beauchesne and co-counsel Meris Bickford of the Maine State Society for the Protection of Animals in Windham.

Then, from 1:30 to 3:50 p.m., Jenness, called five of his planned eight to 11 witnesses.

Fraser testified about conditions of horse hooves, lack of food and water for the animals, conditions and types of shelters on two of Smith’s three properties, a water trough, manure depths in shelters, past livestock deaths and horses that died or were shot last summer by Smith, and the Dec. 8 birth of a foal in a pasture during a snowstorm and subsequent seizure by the state of the baby and its mother.

After lunch, Jenness called on Jeanene Wilson of Buxton, saying he’d subpoenaed her to appear. She is a humane agent employed by Norma Worley of the Animal Welfare Program.

Wilson detailed her investigations into several complaints lodged against Smith in past years regarding livestock shelters, manure problems, and conditions of animals.

Bickford then grilled Wilson on her equine abuse training, which Wilson said she hasn’t updated since 1987, because she won’t fly out of state to attend classes recommended by Worley.

With two other witnesses, Jenness attempted to discredit previous testimony on Dec. 8 weather conditions and Smith’s alleged inhumane killing of a downed horse on Aug. 4, 2006.

Witness Gordon Crockett of Bethel said he knew Smith for 40 years and helped with his livestock. Crockett said the animals were fed and watered adequately and could access all shelters, none of which had floors covered 6 inches deep in manure.

When questioned by Beauchesne about Smith’s whereabouts on Dec. 8, Crockett said they went to southern Maine to buy a horse cart and returned to find Bethel Patrolman Donald McCormick seizing the mare and colt.

Monday’s last witness was Fay Johnson, who said she lived at Smith’s Songo Road property and cared for his horses and cows daily until she left in October 2006. Johnson said the animals had clean shelters and adequate protection from the elements. She also recalled the Aug. 4 shooting.

Like Jenness witness Gordon Crockett of Albany Township, Johnson said the horse twitched a few minutes after being shot and then was still. Smith, she added, didn’t shoot the horse a second time until Bethel police Chief Alan Carr, who testified on Aug. 2, claimed the horse was still moving. Johnson said it wasn’t.

Both Smith and Jenness declined comment at day’s end.

However, during a brief recess in Fraser’s testimony while Judge John McElwee conferred with the lawyers, Smith said he believes he will be vindicated.

He said he’d been a farmer for 62 years and blamed Bethel Town Manager Scott Cole and McCormick for acting improperly in getting him charged. Smith also said the state has no right to tell him how to run his farm.