Animal rights groups have called for a harsher sentence for prostitute-turned-police officer Kim Hollingsworth for mistreating her horses.
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Hollingsworth, 51, whose tumultuous journey from prostitute to the force was chronicled in the Underbelly series Golden Mile, was convicted of multiple animal cruelty charges in December and given a suspended jail sentence last week.
RSPCA inspectors, on multiple occasions in late 2015, visited a property in Mulgoa, in Sydney's west, where Hollingsworth had more than 40 horses, the animal welfare organisation said in a statement on Thursday.
Several were in poor condition, some suffering from rain scald, skin issues and cracked hooves, the RSPCA said.
An emaciated, pregnant mare named Tara was seized when an independent veterinarian noted all her ribs were visible. She had no muscle coverage and had lost hair.
Tara was humanely euthanised after her condition deteriorated further while other malnourished horses were seized and treated.
Other horses were found to be in poor condition, riddled with parasites and otherwise ill.
Hollingsworth was handed a 12 month suspended jail term and placed on a good behaviour bond that prevents her buying or taking custody of a horse for two years.
The RSPCA recovered the horses in her care and she was fined and ordered to pay almost $140,000 in vet and boarding bills.
The welfare organisation said it was Hollingsworth's 10th animal cruelty conviction - all of which related to horses - but her first prison term.
She was targeted in a social media campaign launched by animal rescue group the Pink Unicorn over the past 12 months. It shared images of emaciated horses reportedly on the Mulgoa property.
The group on Thursday said the sentence was inadequate and called for politicians to increase the penalties for animal abuse.
"We hope to see a majority of the horses up for adoption," it wrote on Facebook.
"However some may not be adoptable due to no fault of their own but will have a more dignified ending to their life rather than a slow and brutally painful death that they would have ended up with had RSPCA NSW not taken them."
