Attorneys/Judges
| Judge(s): | Richard Andronici |
Horse neglect
Springfield, NJ (US)Incident Date: Friday, Aug 8, 2008
County: Union
Disposition: Alleged
Alleged:
» Patrick Nelson
» Dennis Cameron
Case Updates: 1 update(s) available
Two North Jersey men will be facing charges filed by the SPCA in Springfield Municipal Court tomorrow [Aug 12, 2008] pertaining to supposed animal cruelty.
Patrick Nelson, of Lake Hiawatha and Dennis Cameron, of Piscataway are facing 24 different charges each involving the failure to provide a living creature with proper food at the DMS farm on Arney’s Mount Road in the Jobstown section of Springfield.
Case UpdatesA court hearing for two North Jersey men facing animal cruelty charges at a township horse farm was postponed yesterday to give the defendants time to obtain a lawyer.
Patrick Nelson, 60, of Lake Hiawatha and Dennis Cameron, 48, of Piscataway were granted three weeks by Municipal Court Judge Richard Andronici to hire a lawyer after originally indicating they would defend themselves.
The New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals filed 24 charges against the two men in May alleging the thoroughbreds kept at the DMS Farm on Arney's Mount Road were not being properly fed. A new trial date has not been announced.
“It's disappointing because we were ready to go,” SPCA officer Theresa Cooper said after the hearing. “Everything was prepared and we wanted to get started. But the judge granted them extra time and that's the law.”
Nelson, who owns more than 20 horses at the farm in Springfield as well as a dozen others at another farm in the county, denied the animals were being underfed.
“These people don't know anything about thoroughbreds,” Cameron said outside the court. “We raise these horses to make money off them. Why would we want to hurt them? These horses are fed three times what the government recommends.”
Neighbors who live near the DMS Farm have complained about how skinny and sick the horses appear to be.
Cameron, who helps manage the horses, blames their appearance on an outbreak of salmonella at the farm.
“If a horse isn't treated after getting salmonella, it can lose over 300 pounds in three days,” Cameron said. “We feed these horses plenty. When the (state) Department of Agriculture came out to see a horse that died at DMS, they split (the horse) open right in the middle of the farm. The other horses probably got sick from the salmonella spreading.”
No evidence of salmonella was discovered because veterinarians don't usually test for it when looking for other diseases, Cameron said.
Cooper said Nelson and Came-ron didn't do enough to keep the horses healthy.
“You can feed them all you want but they need to find the underlying problem,” she said. “For some reason, these breeders don't think they have to meet the standards and they need to be held responsible.” | Source: Burlington County Times - Aug 12, 2008
Update posted on Aug 13, 2008 - 11:43PM |
References« NJ State Animal Cruelty Map
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