4 horses, colt seized - third time in one year
Stockton, CA (US)Incident Date: Friday, Nov 11, 2005
County: San Joaquin
Disposition: Alleged
Alleged: Jana Davis
On November 11, 2005, for the third time in a year, Calaveras County Animal Control authorities have seized horses they say were neglected from a woman who insists her animals � former racehorses that she rescued � are fine.
"My intention is to help retired racehorses and, instead of animal control helping me, they are harassing me and so are the neighbors," said horse owner Jana Davis of Stockton.
Animal control officers seized four adult horses and a colt that Davis kept at a Highway 49 ranch just north of Angels Camp. Animal Control Officer Michael Gillespie said the horses, all "thin to very thin," are now at an undisclosed location and an investigation is under way to determine if charges of animal neglect will be brought against Davis. Gillespie said he posted three notices at the property over the last month and each warned that the horses would be seized if their health did not improve. Also, animal control officers had fed the horses daily for the 10 days prior to the seizure, he said. The horses' owner was never seen during those feedings and officers also concluded no one else was feeding the animals during that time, Gillespie said.
Davis said her horses are fed twice a day and are healthy. "One of the horses is very bony because that's how he is," she said. "The rest were fine, furry and fat."
But Gillespie said concerns about the health of Davis' horses have been ongoing. He said he has made at least a dozen trips to the property during the past year and a half.
Calaveras County Sheriff's Lt. Eddie Ballard said each time Davis was contacted, the horses would be fed for a little while. Ballard further said numerous people who drove by the horses also stopped to feed them. Gillespie said one unhealthy horse was seized twice last year.
Davis said that mare was unhealthy and she had tended to it by taking the animal to a veterinarian several times. Davis said one neighbor repeatedly called animal control officers last year, which prompted the officers to seize the mare.
After the second seizure, Davis said she signed the horse over to animal control because she could not afford to pay the $300 fee to reclaim the animal again.
Davis said she rescued her horses from Golden Gate Fields Racetrack near San Francisco. She said she has saved 10 horses during the past five years working as a horse trainer. Davis said she only learned that her five horses had been seized on Friday evening, when she arrived at the 17-acre property she kept them on with five bails of hay, and discovered them missing. She said she then spoke the next day with a Calaveras County animal control officer � who read Davis her Miranda rights, informing her of her right to remain silent, but would not say where the horses are now kept.
Davis said she then drove around the county trying to find her horses and photograph them in an effort to prove they are healthy, but her search was unsuccessful. References |
