Sunday morning, Fannin County deputies and a rescue team from Habitat for Horses discovered a gruesome scene.
Deanne Murillo with Habitat for Horses explains, " We came out here and rode the property, it appears there's 23 dead mini-donkeys, and 2 dead horses. At this time we have 8 surviving mini donkeys and 7 horses."
Murillo evaluated the animals health using a numeric scale. A 9 would indicate a horse that's obese, 5 would be ideal and a 1 refers to an animal that's completely emaciated.
"We have ones here, and two's maybe a two and a half," she said.
At the time of the interview, the owner of the property, Lee Epperson, didn't want to appear on camera, he had this to say about the situation.
"I live out here kind of off the beaten path, and I only know a few people that live in town and that's about it, everybody kind of keeps to themselves,. I'm not a true country person, so I maybe didn't fit in too well out here. I apologize for my stupidity."
Epperson says he's been out of work for sometime and didn't have money to pay for the animals. Photos on his MySpace page show the horses and donkeys when they appeared to be healthier and when Epperson himself seemed to be much happier.
Because of his alleged neglect, Epperson was taken into custody by the Fannin County Sheriff's Department.
"Each animal that we found out there, you know that's a separate count, so it could be very significant, he could spend a lot of time in jail for that. It could be enhanced to a felony level, based on the severity, and like I said with this many animals, it could get up that high, in fact i believe it will."
Although the recent cold weather didn't help the conditions of some of the animals, Murillo said it was starvation that killed them.
"The recent cold snap that we've had, although it's tough on everybody, animals are able to withstand it. If they're a healthy weight to begin with, if they have access to food and water, they will survive. The pond there, that is the only water source on this property, is frozen even now, and it's probably been frozen for at least four days.
Habitat for Horses will rehabilitate the animals and attempt to have them adopted. But it could take several months for them to fully recover.
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