Attorneys/Judges
| Defense(s): | Robert Cassar | | Judge(s): | Michael P. Hatty |
CONVICTED: Was justice served?
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Case #16490 Rating: 1.0 out of 5
Horse neglect, some found dead
Fowlerville, MI (US)Incident Date: Monday, Aug 23, 2010
County: Livingston
Charges: Felony CTA
Disposition: Convicted
Defendant/Suspect: Eric John Wenderski
A Redford Township man was sentenced to the Livingston County Jail last week for animal cruelty stemming from officials finding dead and malnourished horses at a home in rural northwestern Livingston County.
Eric John Wenderski, 36, was charged in Livingston County District Court with a four-year felony of cruelty to 10 or more animals after police found dead horses and an injured horse with wire wrapped around its left rear leg at his family’s former home about a mile north of Fowlerville in the 8000 block of West Allen Road.
However, he pleaded guilty to a two-year felony of the same charge alleging only four to 10 animals were involved.
Judge Michael P. Hatty also ordered Wenderski to serve two years of probation and ordered him not to possess animals.
Defense attorney Robert Cassar declined Monday to discuss the sentence, but he said in an earlier interview that his client just became “overwhelmed” when he tried to take care of his sister, who had recently had a leg amputated, and the horses. The sister was the sole caretaker of the animals prior to her illness, Cassar said.
Neither Wenderski’s sister nor his mother, who also owned the horses, have been charged.
Sheriff’s officials said the badly injured horse also had overgrown hooves. The wire was wrapped around the left leg and was cutting into the horse’s leg muscle, and it had been lying in feces and rotting hay.
The horse was euthanized while deputies attempted to find the homeowners. Police said they subsequently discovered two dead horses and eight malnourished horses, which were seized by Livingston County Animal Control officers.
The animals had no access to food, including ground vegetation, or water, and they had apparently been eating portions of a wooden building. Police said the manure was more than 4 inches deep in places and that the horses had been repeatedly injured by pieces of torn metal from a barn.
Authorities also said they found “several” turkey carcasses and seized seven dogs, which were running “aggressively” in a pen.
Inside the home, police said, they found deplorable conditions, including missing dry wall and walls with claw marks caused by the dogs. Police said the dogs appeared to have had free roam of two rooms, which were covered in feces at least 6 inches deep in spots.
The eight surviving horses were very thin with body sores considered “one step above death,” said Jennifer Lee, director of Horse North Rescue, which took custody of the surviving horses.
Today, six of the horses are doing well and have been adopted or are in foster homes waiting for adoption. Two of the horses are in Otisville, but their long-term status is not immediately known.
The Fife Lake-based nonprofit organization takes in abused, abandoned, neglected, rescued and donated horses and ponies and works to rehabilitate them.
To learn more about the surviving horses or to adopt one, visit Horse North’s Web site at www.horsenorthrescue.org. References |
