A 75-year-old man charged under Alberta's Animal Protection Act for permitting animals to be in distress said he feels the charge is ridiculous, and that the seven horses he left in a trailer on the side of the road were fine.

Abe Phillips of McBride, British Columbia, was delivering the horses from B.C. to a buyer in Manitoba, when his truck broke down in Edmonton, Alberta, at around 2 a.m. on November 8.

Phillips said he sought help, but because he was in an industrial section of the city, he couldn't find anyone. He returned to his truck and waited with the horses until between 7 and 8 a.m. when he flagged down a taxi and checked into a hotel.

"I couldn't call anybody to help on Sunday until I went to the hotel," he said. "I had a cell phone but no numbers