15 horses seized
Murrieta, CA (US)Incident Date: Thursday, Sep 22, 2011
County: Riverside
Disposition: Alleged
Case Images: 2 files available
Alleged: Janice Deutsch
Animal control officers descended on a 5-acre property in a rural area west of Murrieta on Thursday, seizing 15 skinny horses from a woman they say had failed for months to heed their warnings.
"Some of the horses are actually skeletal, extremely emaciated," Sgt. Lesley Huennekens of the Riverside County Department of Animal Services said at the house in unincorporated La Cresta, a neighborhood of spacious homes that is known for horses.
The owner, Janice Deutsch, was not arrested or cited. Prosecutors will decide whether to charge her with animal cruelty, which could be a misdemeanor or felony.
The seizure took the better part of the day and required help from a team of trained volunteers from the Riverside Emergency Animal Rescue System, known as REARS. Animal control officers fed hay to the horses, whose bony rib cages were visible, while trailers queued up along nearby Avenida La Cresta. Officers also left with one well-fed horse.
Deutsch, 46, who said she has been licensed to train race horses, acknowledged that many of the animals are underweight but blamed the weight loss on illness. She said she has been working with a veterinarian to get the horses' weight back up and is furious about the way she was treated Thursday.
"It's a horror story what's happening today," she said, as the last few horses were loaded into trailers. "They have a home. They have people who want them."
Deutsch said over the past year or so several of the horses had been ill with "strangles," a type of bacterial infection.
"None of these horses are starving," she said.
Shortly after the department swarmed the property, Deutsch's friend Norman Lindsay arrived and denounced the officers.
"This is outrageous. This isn't a horse rescue. This is a horse rip-off," he said angrily. "These horses are not life endangered."
Lindsay, a Chino Hills resident who keeps a horse at the property, said that though the horses had lost too much weight, Deutsch had been doing her best to make things right.
"She devotes her life to these horses," he said.
Huennekens said animal control officials found no evidence of illness. She said authorities were notified almost a year ago that the horses were being neglected. Officers found multiple problems, including poorly maintained stalls, empty water barrels and inadequate hoof care. Despite repeated visits from animal control officers, Deutsch failed to remedy the situation, she said.
"She doesn't see a problem with these horses," Huennekens said.
Animal control spokesman John Welsh said the horses cannot be turned over to animal rescue groups or adopted without permission from a judge.
"They'll be put in protective custody because they don't belong to us," Welsh said.
NOT FINANCIAL ISSUE
Animal control officials have said financial pressures on horse owners because of a poor economy, combined with a ban on the slaughter of horses in the United States, has led to an increase in the number of horses abandoned by their owners. But financial problems do not appear to have played a role in this case.
"She does have money," Welsh said. "She's just not feeding them."
Deutsch's two-story home at the end of a narrow drive overlooks several acres of horse corrals and a barn.
Deutsch said she moved into the Hitt Lane home in summer 2009 and was recently joined by her mother. She said half of the horses are her own and half she boards for other people.
CHECKED MOTHER, TOO
Deutsch said she feels that she is being bullied by the authorities and added indignantly that officers also called adult protective services Thursday to inspect her home and check on the condition of her elderly mother.
"This is all we do with our lives is take care of these horses," she said. "I'll do whatever I have to do to get them back."
La Cresta resident Sandy Bike, herself a horse owner, said she was stunned to learn her neighbor's horses were malnourished. After years of problems with previous owners of the Hitt Lane property, Bike said she had been pleased when Deutsch moved in with her thoroughbreds.
"I thought, 'Oh, good. Horse people.' " Bike said. "That's why it shocks me. I can't believe this of her." References |
