Hoarding - 67 seized
Mayfield, NY (US)Incident Date: Saturday, Jun 5, 2004
County: Fulton
Disposition: Convicted
Defendant/Suspect: Kelly Sue Fancher
Case Updates: 1 update(s) available
More than 60 animals are recovering at the Fulton County SPCA after being removed from a Mayfield home.
Sheriff's officials arrested and charged 42-year-old Kelly Sue Fancher with six counts of animal cruelty. The SPCA seized goats, rabbits, cats, dogs, and chickens from the Gray Road property.
Sharon Hayes, of the Fulton County SPCA, said, "We discovered 15 dead animals all in various stages of decomposition. And then, animals alive, we seized 67 ranging from emaciated to some are OK."
Case UpdatesKelly Sue Fancher pleaded guilty before Town Justice Sherrill Gallup to six counts each of "overdriving, torturing and injuring animals and failure to provide sustenance," all misdemeanors. Gallup delayed sentencing until May 10.
"We were insisting the plea agreement include jail time," District Attorney Louise K. Sira said today.
But since Fancher pleaded guilty to all the charges against her, she said it does not represent a plea bargain. She said Fancher's sentence is now completely up to the judge.
Sira said Gallup indicated she will "likely" receive some probation and no jail time.
But she said the judge indicated Fancher has probably forfeited her right to recover about 60 of her surviving animals.
The district attorney has said this was one of the worst cases of neglect and abuse involving animals and she had to recommend jail time in such cases involving animal "collection."
"In Kelly Fancher's case, there were many, many dead animals," Sira said.
Fancher faced the animal cruelty charges last June after her home was raided by the Fulton County sheriff's deputies. Over a dozen dead animals were found on her Gray Road farm.
A total of 32 goats, 27 fowl and seven rabbits were taken from the home by Fulton County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Director Sharon Hayes and her staff. Another nine goats, a dog, a cat, three rabbits and a goose were found dead on the property. The dog was still chained in its kennel, Hayes said.
Authorities said the dead and living animals were in pens together, standing in feces several inches deep.
Sheriff Thomas J. Lorey at the time of the raid called the situation "deplorable."
The abuse was discovered when a person who had recently purchased the Gray Road residence, Brandon Lehr, inspected the property, found the animals and called the sheriff's department.
Lehr bought the property for $28,000 through a bank foreclosure and thought he would just be gutting and remodeling the home and have to clean up the yard a bit, he said at the time.
He said he got more than he bargained for, and the barn at the center of the animal case was legally burned to the ground by the Mayfield Volunteer Fire Department.
From time to time, firefighters will set a vacant, dilapidated building on fire for training exercises, fire officials have said. In the Fancher case, no accelerants were used and the structure was already filled with piles of feces and hay. | Source: Leader Herald - March 11, 2005
Update posted on Mar 13, 2005 - 10:30PM |
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