The next couple of days will be big days for Joshua Rockwood. Tonight, he appears in the Glenville Town Court in Glenville, N.Y. (5 p.m.) hopefully for the last time. He is  hoping to put at rest the 13 charges of animal cruelty he was accused of last year. Our friend Ken Norman, in the above photo, will be there to stand with him. Ken brought Joshua five giant tractor tires to use as solar powered water receptacles for his animals.

Ken, along with thousands of farmers, friends, animal and horse lovers, have stood with Joshua as he fought for his reputation, his farm, his life with his family, the good and healthy food he raises for people in his community.

It has been a long and hard year for Joshua, he deserves better and hopefully, better days are just ahead. I think the outcome of tonight’s hearing will be good news for him and for those of us who believe in him. Tomorrow, another chapter in his ordeal comes to an end. The three horses the authorities inexplicably impounded last year will be returned. They were healthy when they left, they will be healthy when they return.

Ken, a lifelong farrier and rescuer of horses, calls the charges “bullshit misdemeanors,” and that has proven to be true. Joshua was charged with having an unheated barn, a frozen water tank in bitter cold weather. He has a lot of work to do rebuilding his farm and his reputation.

But I hope he is on the verge of a great victory, a blow against secret informers, feckless authorities who know little about animals, and the sometimes dubious practices of organizations that call themselves rescuers and claim to support the rights of animals. Not this time.

I have come to know Joshua and call him a friend. He is a loving father and husband, an ethical farmer and animal lover, an honest man. He is not an abuser of animals.

Joshua’s troubles began when one of the growing legions of secret informers recruited by the animal rights movement drove by his farm in the dark, reported something they didn’t like to the police. We will never know what it was, Joshua is not entitled to confront these accusers. This was a story out of Stalin’s time, the police soon arrived, raided his farm, took his horses. He has to pay nine thousand dollars to get them back, they wanted three times that much, at least.

Justice is not inexpensive in America. Farmers and animal lovers in America have raised over $76,000 to help Joshua pay for his legal fees, improvements to the farm, and to help him try and rebuild his shattered business of selling good food to local people. You can contribute here.

Without your help, Joshua would not have been able to fight this unjust prosecution and get his animals back. Now, he can work on getting his farm back on track. The animals there are all free-range, they are grass-fed and healthy.

Thanks to those many people who helped. You made a big difference in this good man’s life. The motto of this drama is this: it could have been any one of us.

Blue Star Equiculture, the draft horse sanctuary and rescue farm in Palmer, Mass, is sending a trailer in the morning to help bring Joshua’s three horses home. This was a promise Paul Moshimer, he co-director of Blue Star made shortly before his death last year. I am so glad to see Joshua and Blue Star coming together in this way.

They both speak for the rights of animals and the rights of the people who love them.

Thousands of people helped him raise the funds to get them back, they are due to return to West Wind Acres tomorrow morning. I hope to be there tonight and tomorrow, so will Ken Norman and a bunch of reporters I suspect.