Five horses found dead, 10 more malnourished
Oppenheim, NY (US)Incident Date: Thursday, Mar 8, 2007
County: Fulton
Charges: Misdemeanor
Disposition: Alleged
Alleged: Robert L. Bowe
Case Updates: 1 update(s) available
Five horses are dead and their 73-year-old caretaker is facing charges. Officials say the horses were discovered last week in a snow covered field in the Fulton County Town of Oppenheim. They also discovered nine other malnourished horses.
Their caretaker, Robert Bowe, is charged with failure to provide proper sustenance to animals under his care.
Bowe spoke to local news on March 8 and denies the horses were malnourished. He says because of a snow storm, he was not able to get to the animals which were in a far away field.
Bowe faces a year in prison if convicted.
Case UpdatesLast Friday, a 73-year-old Oppenheim man was indicted by a Fulton County grand jury on 15 misdemeanor counts of failure to provide proper sustenance to 15 horses in his care, stemming back to March 1, when five horses were found dead on his property and 10 others were found malnourished.
Robert L. Bowe, of 758 County Highway 108, was originally charged with violating the New York State Agriculture and Markets law.
Fulton County District Attorney Louise Sira said that the charges came about after a woman called 911 to alert authorities that she had observed dead horses on Bowe's property. The case, after going through the Fulton County Sheriff's Department, was referred to the Fulton County Chapter of the ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), and together, with the state police, both agencies looked into the complaint.
"At the time they went to the property," Sira said, "the agencies observed no water or food of any kind near the animals or the property. They found five horses dead and 10 alive but severely malnourished. Nine of the horses that were seized were put into foster care, however, they were unable to capture the last one, because of his wild nature and aggressive tendencies. The one horse that was not apprehended remains on the property under an impound order, which is a court application that allows the ASPCA to check on the care of the animal with Bowe under investigation and indictment."
Through veterinary examination, Sira said, the horses were aged 12 and under. Although the defendant's lawyer, Terence L. Kindlon of Albany, contested that his client was looking after horses in the latter stages of their lives, Sira said, "Those horses were not old."
"The horses are in their late 20s, which is pretty old for horses," Kindlon told The Leader-Herald Monday. "This guy was running a nursing home for horses. He didn't take care of the horses from infancy, he was taking care of them as older horses."
Kindlon also cited Bowe as an honorable man and a retired military servant trying to care for the animals.
"As part of any investigation," Sira rebutted, "the horses were examined by a veterinarian, and a post-mortem examination was given to each of the dead ones as well."
Theodora S. Vallone was the veterinarian who examined the animals, and told Sira that the horses were in advanced stages of starvation.
"They had no food and no water for a very long time," Sira said. "This is not a situation that happened over days. The amount of weight loss and malnutrition these horses suffered happened over a long period of time and neglect. Horses just don't drop that degree of weight that quickly."
Many of the horses were in such bad condition that Sira wondered if they would live.
According to the indictment, one of the Bay Roan Appaloosa horses suffered from "extreme emaciation with a body condition score of one, dermatitis on the lower legs, overgrown hooves, severe dehydration and a respiratory infection and overall debilitation to an extent that it was necessary to euthanize the said horse on March 11, 2007, to end its suffering."
Two of the horses were euthanized shortly after Bowe's arrest.
The indictment further stated that in the cases of all 15 animals, the defendant deprived them of necessary sustenance, food and drink, and also failed to provide them with proper veterinary care.
Other points of neglect mentioned included balding spots all over the bodies of many of the horses, which were "clearly underweight," and in some cases, where the horses starved to death, there was an absence of necessary fat in the legs. Some reportedly had protruding hipbones and ribs with no visible body fat surrounding them.
Bowe's defense lawyer said that animal rights groups tend to exaggerate and blow cases of animal abuse and neglect out of proportion, however, Sira still begged to differ, stating that Bowe's case represented clear negligence on his part to the 15 animals.
The maximum penalty Bowe faces for violating the state agriculture and market law is up to one year per count in the Fulton County Correctional Facility, state police told The Leader-Herald. The 15 counts of failure to provide proper sustenance are unclassified misdemeanors. ADA Matt Trainor is handling the case of the People of the State of New York versus Robert L. Bowe alongside Sira. | Source: Little Falls Tribune - June 21, 2007
Update posted on Jun 24, 2007 - 3:28PM |
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