Failure to provide care for over 50 sick animals
Escondido, CA (US)Incident Date: Tuesday, Sep 30, 2003
County: San Diego
Disposition: Acquitted
Person of Interest: David Aguilar
An Escondido man was acquitted yesterday of charges that he failed to properly care for sick animals at his farm, including several pigs, goats and cattle he bought at auction.
A Superior Court jury found David Aguilar, 65, not guilty of felony and misdemeanor charges of animal abuse or neglect. If convicted, he could have been sent to prison for up to three years.
Prosecutor Katherine Flaherty argued during the trial that county Animal Control officials received complaints from residents about the way Aguilar was treating livestock on his property at an old dairy on Guejito Road, south of Lake Wohlford.
When authorities inspected Aguilar's farm in October, they found more than 50 animals in unsanitary pens filled with debris, manure and moldy feed. Some of the animals were sick with pneumonia and pox virus. Others had eye, hoof and joint injuries, according to the testimony.
Aguilar's attorney, William Wolfe, argued that the animals were sick when his client bought them and that he was in the process of nursing them back to heath when they were seized by Animal Control.
Wolfe said in an interview yesterday that Aguilar subsidizes his Social Security with the income he makes by buying the sick animals at a discount. He buys them for about 20 cents per pound, Wolfe said, treats them and resells them at auction for about 80 cents per pound.
Because of the criminal case, Aguilar has since stopped buying and selling sick livestock, Wolfe said. References« CA State Animal Cruelty Map
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