Horse neglect - 80 seized
Middletown, CA (US)

Incident Date: Tuesday, Aug 1, 2006
County: Lake

Charges: Misdemeanor, Felony CTA
Disposition: Alleged

Alleged: Teresa Sanders

Case Updates: 3 update(s) available

A Middletown woman has been charged with two counts of animal abuse for allegedly neglecting her herd of 80 Arabian horses.

"It was a pretty horrendous situation. The horses were neglected, starving, emaciated," said Middletown veterinarian Jeff Smith, who evaluated the horses for Lake County Animal Care and Control.

The alleged abuser, Teresa Sanders, admits her horses were thin.

"They had lost weight," she said. "They were not starving. They were being fed every day."

But it was with poor, strawlike-quality hay, Smith said. Authorities also said they were laden with intestinal parasites.

The horses are now being fed and cared for by new and foster owners.

Sanders, publisher of the Middletown Times Star, will be arraigned in Lake County Superior Court next month on one felony and one misdemeanor count of animal abuse, said District Attorney-elect Jon Hopkins.

The felony count carries a penalty of up to three years in state prison and a $20,000 fine.

Sanders' is the largest animal abuse case in Lake County history, said Animal Care and Control Director Denise Johnson.

It surpasses Mendocino County's record case, which includes 36 horses seized by authorities in December.

But the Westport owner of those horses faces much harsher penalties than does Sanders.

Westport resident James Denier is scheduled for trial in October on 36 felony counts, one count for each horse.

Johnson said she can't recall anyone in Lake County being charged with separate counts for each animal potentially abused.

According to photos taken by Lake County Animal Control, Sanders' horses were skinny, but not as badly emaciated as the Mendocino County horses, some of which could barely walk.

In one photograph taken at Sanders' leased property, a mare with protruding ribs and a belly round from pregnancy stands next to her suckling foal.

"They (the foals) were just sucking the life out of them," said supervising Animal Care and Control Officer Morgan Nelson.

Many of the mares were both pregnant and still nursing foals because stallions were allowed to roam and breed freely with the mares, Nelson said.

Sanders said she had tried to keep the stallions separate from the mares, but they kept breaking loose and she eventually stopped trying.

"There were four stallions. All had their own band. They were just breeding away," said Sydney Locke Davenport, a Santa Rosa resident who helped Sanders sell or otherwise find new homes for her horses before the Aug. 1 deadline given by Animal Control officials.

The mares and stallions were separated at Sanders' former horse facility near Hidden Valley Lake, but she lost her lease and was forced to move to inadequate quarters about six years ago, Sanders said.

A divorce almost 10 years ago left her without the funds to keep up with the horses, she said.

She gradually lost control of the herd and it began expanding again, Davenport said.

Animal Control made the first of many visits to Sanders' horse ranch in 1998 when she was still located at the Hidden Valley facility, which included stalls and a riding arena.

At that time, Sanders said she had nearly 120 horses.

She said she realized she had too many horses to care for and made an effort to sell them.

The herd was down to 40 when she moved to the Middletown property six years ago. But the fencing was inadequate and the stallions and mares, some more than 20 years old, mingled and bred, causing the numbers to balloon to 80, Sanders said.

"It was never my intention to raise horses that way," she said. She said she began seeking help finding them new homes last year.

Some went to a horse rescue group in Humboldt County. The remainder were rounded up July 18 through the efforts of Davenport and her friend, Melissa Purcell, also of Santa Rosa.

With veterinary care and quality feed, they've put on weight and are thriving, said Nelson.

"They're beautiful now," she said.

Case Updates

References

• « CA State Animal Cruelty Map

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