Humane officers in Maryland are now investigating the caretaker of 21 horses seized from an Adams County farm last week.
According to a search warrant in the case, James Houseman has approximately 30 counts pending against him on the other side of the state line. Officials in Frederick County, Maryland confirmed they are investigating.
The warrant also indicates that Houseman, who leased a property at 135 Fesser Road in Littlestown, PA, had been moving horses from different locations. Investigators say they found a dead horse on the property last week, and two seized horses were too weak to survive.
Humane Society investigators in Adams County have said they are pursuing animal cruelty charges.
The Dutterers, who own the Littlestown property Houseman had been leasing, said they reported the suspected animal abuse. They said Houseman started renting from them in mid-October, but they got suspicious a few weeks later when they hadn't been able to communicate with him.
Denis Dutterer says when she checked on the horses, she was shocked.
"They had white puss coming out of their eyes, their bones were showing," she said, "They would come over to you and kind of looked at you like 'help me.'"
The surviving horses are being nursed back to health at the Adams County SPCA chapter, but horse lovers across the Maryland border are hoping another set of horses will get help.
Houseman is also in charge of about 35 horses on a property near Thurmont. His lawyer told abc27 News that Houseman plans to "vigorously contest allegations of animal cruelty."
However, the veterinarian who treated the horses seized in Adams County has also looked at the horses that were under Houseman's care in Thurmont. He said they are showing similar symptoms of neglect.
Because Houseman allegedly did not register any of the foals residing on the property, Avery is seeking owners of animals brought to Houseman for boarding. Owners should call Avery at 717-334-8876, ext 26 to claim their animals.
Case Updates
An Adams County man who pleaded guilty to animal cruelty charges following the November 2011 seizure of malnourished and neglected horses from a Littlestown farm is facing additional charges in Frederick County, Maryland. Read More
A Littlestown man was found guilty Tuesday of 14 counts of cruelty to animals in connection with weanling horses that were under his care last fall before being confiscated by the Adams County SPCA.
Magisterial District Justice Mark Beauchat found James W. Houseman III guilty of neglecting 14 of the 21 horses that were confiscated from a property he was renting on Feeser Road in Germany Township last October and November.
Houseman, 45, of Basehoar School Road, faced 22 summary counts of cruelty to animals in connection with the thoroughbred weanlings and a dead mare found at the property. He was accused of depriving the horses of "necessary sustenance."
Beauchat determined that seven of the confiscated horses had a health score indicating that they did not require a veterinarian's care. He also determined that there was no evidence presented to indicate how long the dead mare was on the property or how it got there.
But Beauchat found that Houseman should have provided veterinary care for 14 of the horses that were malnourished and had rain rot, a skin infection.
"The others were all in need of veterinary care and that wasn't provided," Beauchat said. "I don't think shelter was adequate."
Adams County Humane Officer Abby Avery, along with state police and SPCA staff confiscated the 21 weanling horses, those from 5 to 9 months old, in various stages of poor health and malnutrition after serving a search warrant Nov. 16 on property Houseman had been renting since late October.
Two of those weanlings died days after being confiscated and another died two weeks later. The SPCA has been caring for some of those horses at its Gettysburg shelter, while others are being cared for at farms owned by SPCA board members.
Houseman indicated he would appeal the judge's decision to Adams County Court of Common Pleas. He had no comment after the summary hearing.
Beauchat said he would set a hearing date to determine how much restitution Houseman owes for the care of the animals, pending the filing of an appeal.
The SPCA is seeking restitution to cover the cost of caring for the horses, which is about $56,000 overall at this point.
Denise Dutterer testified Tuesday that Houseman agreed Oct. 22 to rent a five-stall barn and four acres of fenced property she and her husband own on Feeser Road. Dutterer said Houseman never paid the rental fee that was expected Nov. 1 and that efforts to reach him were unsuccessful.
She testified she visited the property with her husband and went into the barn on Nov. 7.
"There was no hay inside the barn," she said. "There was no water inside for the horses."
Buckets and troughs were empty, as were three trashcans, Dutterer said. Another trashcan contained about three inches of what she believed was horse feed.
Dutterer said she visited the property every day after that and found conditions had not changed. She said the horses gathered around her and her husband when they came to the barn. Two horses, she said, could barely stand up.
"You could tell they weren't happy. They needed something," Dutterer said. "Their ribs were showing."
Dutterer said she contacted the SPCA on Nov. 9 and then again on Nov. 16. That evening, Avery and police showed up with a search warrant and confiscated the horses. Dutterer said at that time they first noticed a dead mare in a closed stall that was covered with straw.
Littlestown veterinarian Gary Kubala, of Mason-Dixon Equine Associates, testified that he observed the horses when they were brought to the SPCA shelter after being seized.
"Their heads were down. They were just absolutely lifeless," he said. "There was one foal that was carried off the trailer and one that was helped to walk off the trailer."
Kubala, who continues to treat the animals, said he determined that all 21 of the weanlings were suffering from rain rot, a condition that develops when horses are not groomed and exposed to the elements over the course of several weeks.
He said some had crust and scabs on their skin and pus running from their eyes.
Kubala said he rated all of the horses based on a body score to determine their condition, with a 5 being perfect. He said scores of 4 or 4.5 were acceptable for thoroughbreds.
The seized horses had scores ranging from 2.0 to 4.5, with seven horses having a 4.0 or 4.5 rating. Both horses with a 2.0 score died within a few days of being confiscated, he said.
Acting as his own legal counsel, Houseman presented a choppy defense. He brought in a metal trashcan similar to ones at the property and was often instructed by the judge on what he could present.
Houseman at one point asked that the charges be dismissed, saying the state hadn't proven he was responsible for the condition of the horses and whether the confiscated horses were the ones originally brought to the property.
But Beauchat denied that request.
"You're the leasee of the property. It's your responsibility," the judge said. "Nobody's testified they weren't the same horses."
During his testimony, Houseman said some of the confiscated horses were ones he had accepted already in poor health from a farm in Lebanon County and some he had been treating for malnutrition and diarrhea at another property he was renting. He said seven of the horses came into his possession the day before they were seized.
Under cross-examination by Adams County Assistant District Attorney Fawn Smith, Houseman said he could not provide receipts for horse medicine or veterinarian testimony as to what measures were taken to assist the animals.
Smith said she thought the judge's decision did not go far enough.
"It's mixed feelings. I still feel there was evidence that even though they had 4.0 or 4.5 (scores) they were still denied access to shelter and food and water," she said. "Our argument is based on failure to provide for all 22 horses."
Humane officers from the Adams County SPCA have filed 22 counts of animal cruelty charges against the caretaker of 21 horses seized from a Littlestown area farm last month.
James Houseman, 44, has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Houseman leased a property at 135 Fesser Road and was paid by owners to board the animals, according to investigators.
Authorities have said they found a dead horse crudely covered in hay and 21 seriously malnourished horses at the farm Nov. 16.
One of the horses later died from malnourishment and another was euthanized.
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