Case Details
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Case ID: 15481
Classification: Neglect / Abandonment
Animal: dog (non pit-bull), horse, pig
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Farmed animal neglect - horses, dogs, pig seized
Hampstead, NC (US)

Incident Date: Friday, May 8, 2009
County: Pender

Disposition: Alleged
Case Images: 1 files available

Alleged:
» Billy Joe Suttles
» Laura Louise Westbrock
» Larry Suttles

Case Updates: 1 update(s) available

Three people have been arrested and charged with animal cruelty in southeastern North Carolina after officials found 10 malnourished horses.

Pender County Sheriff's Sgt. Michael Lewis said authorities received four complaints about the horses.

The horses were taken along with eight dogs and a pig from a pasture in Hampstead to stables in Scots Hill on Thursday. Humane society workers said the horses were bony, with protruding spines, ribs and shoulders.

Two counts of animal cruelty were filed against 53-year-old Billy Joe Suttles of Hampstead. His wife, 48-year-old Laura Louise Westbrock, and his brother, Larry Suttles of Holly Ridge, were charged with four counts.

Sheriff's deputies said Billy Joe Suttles was visibly upset. Their phone numbers were unlisted. Their first court date is May 26.


Case Updates

At the Suttles farm near the Intracoastal Waterway and Onslow County border, fields of grass stretch across empty horse pastures like a green carpet. Along the side of a fenced pasture at the front of the farm and in the back of a neighboring pasture, white wooden horse stalls are filled with shavings, but no horses.

For Billy Joe "B.J." Suttles and his wife, Laura Louise Westbrock, looking across their 40 acres of pasture fills them with emptiness and sadness.

"It's hard every morning going to work and there's nothing out here," said Westbrock on Thursday after she and her husband agreed to show the StarNews their northern Pender County farm.

Suttles, Westbrock and Suttles' brother, Larry Suttles of Holly Ridge, were charged with animal cruelty May 7 after four people complained about 10 horses who looked malnourished because their ribs, back and hip bones were protruding.

The couple insists they fed and watered their animals, and claim their biggest crime was missing worming treatments.

Suttles and Westbrock said money is tight, but they were never unable to care for their horses.

B.J. Suttles, who has owned his farm with animals for nearly two decades, said he buys 75 rolls of hay a year for the horses, and this year, the couple said they ran out before the pasture came in. But they said they also bought feed for them and donated what they had to the stables where their horses are being sheltered.

"These horses were not abused," Westbrock said walking across her farm. "They were not starved."

But the regional director of a national horse rescue group who saw photographs of the horses published by the StarNews said their physical condition wasn't just due to worms. The expert was not involved in the seizure or the investigation.

"This is more than just, 'We ran out of hay a little early,'" said Jennifer Malpass, Triangle Region director of the United States Equine Rescue League based in Raleigh. It's an organization for abused, neglected and abandoned horses.

"I think this has been going on for longer than just a couple of months from the looks of the horses," she said, adding it would have been a simple fix to buy more hay. "Once you can see the skeletal structure on a horse, they're not at a healthy body weight. You should not be able to see backbone, hip bones, the shoulder bones jutting out -- even the vertebrae. They should be covered with muscle and fat."

Malpass said weight loss such as that experienced by the seized horses doesn't happen overnight unless a horse is sick. One of the horses, Profit, has cancer and is dying, but the rest have no other health problems besides worms. Internal parasites can also deplete their food supply, but in Malpass' opinion, the horses looked like they weren't getting enough food.

Malpass said because one of the mares, Bossie, was nursing, and another one, Bandit, was pregnant, the animals' immediate seizure made sense.

"That is really scary how thin they are having just given birth," Malpass said about the mare. "They need extra energy and calories to feed those babies. They have no extra reserves at all. That's going to be an uphill climb getting weight on those mares. Without getting fed adequately, the mares would have just died and so would the foals."

Typically, when a horse owner is struggling to provide for their horse, rescue groups try to work with them and educate them on proper care, and they'll be given time to improve the animal's condition. When an animal cruelty investigation finds that several horses are in trouble, investigators will seize all animals as a precaution, Malpass said. In this case, she said authorities "followed everything they should have."

Pender County Sheriff's Deputy Michael Lewis said four people called to complain about the condition of the horses, including an animal cruelty investigator who assists Columbus County Animal Control. Pender County Animal Control had received complaints, but didn't seize the animals.

Lewis investigated the complaints and charged the Suttles brothers and Westbrock with a total of 10 charges after finding the horses with protruding ribs, back and hip bones. As a result of the complaints, eight dogs also were seized and have since been fostered. Since the seizure, a foal was born last week at Scotts Hill Stables where they are living temporarily away from their owners.

The Topsail Humane Society aided in the horse rescue after the deputy contacted the non-profit rescue group, something he says violated protocol and led to his demotion from sergeant and a three-day suspension. Deputy Lewis said the owners have a 50-50 chance of getting the horses back.

B.J. Suttles, who is due in court June 16, said he hopes he gets his horses back.

"All we want is our animals back," he said, adding he plans to downsize and sell his stallions if they are returned because he suffers from chronic heart failure. "I want my animals back so I can prove to them I'm not a bad guy."
Source: Star News Online - May 31, 2009
Update posted on May 31, 2009 - 10:34PM 

References

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« More cases in Pender County, NC

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