AR-News: (NC - US) Stable owner faces 20 animal cruelty charges

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Stable owner faces 20 animal cruelty charges 

3-23-04

By Mark Brumley Staff Writer 
News & Record




ASHEBORO -- A stable owner whose 20 badly neglected horses were seized on Saturday was charged Monday with 20 counts of misdemeanor cruelty to animals, Randolph County officials said.

Timothy Larue Trotter of 5928 Poole Road in Archdale faces a maximum punishment of 120 days in jail for each charge if convicted, a magistrate said.

Authorities said they have not determined if any of the animals will have to be euthanized. 

On Saturday, investigators found the horses standing in stalls in 2 feet of manure, according to a search warrant. Some of their hooves were so overgrown they couldn't walk on them. The pastures were bare, with no hay or feed for the animals. And their water was filthy.

MiMi Cooper, Randolph County's health director, said the horses are malnourished. She said 13 have serious problems with their hooves. Thrush, a fungal infection, was diagnosed in one horse, she said.

Health officials said they first encountered Trotter after a complaint more than a year ago. Cooper said she can't explain why his horses apparently fell through the cracks of the animal welfare system since then.

"I don't really have a good answer," Cooper said. "Had we known what the conditions were, we would have taken action a lot sooner."

Peggy Gray Furguson, Randolph County's volunteer animal cruelty investigator who made several visits to the farm after a second complaint last fall, has left the post.

Commissioners appointed Furguson in March 2002, but did not renew her appointment this month, the county manager's office reported. Cooper declined to say why. 

A phone call to Furguson's home was not immediately returned Monday.

Before Furguson left March 12, she told health officials they might want to look into the Trotter case, Cooper said.

"As soon as we realized what the conditions were, we took action as fast as we could," Cooper said.

Trotter, the owner of the horses, offered no explanation on Saturday as authorities seized the animals, Cooper said. She said he was there Saturday with helpers to tend to the horses.

"It was a small effort way too late," Cooper said.

The horses were handed over to the N.C. Equine Rescue League, which helped confiscate them. The rescue league will try to nurse them back to health and find foster care for them. Cooper said a veterinarian caring for the horses will decide if any need to be euthanized.

Animal control got its first complaint about Trotter last year, according to an affidavit that Detective Brian Faircloth of the Randolph County Sheriff's Office filed to obtain the search warrant Friday from a magistrate.

The affidavit stated that health officials contacted Trotter on Feb. 6, 2003. They found about 17 horses, some with overgrown hooves. Six of the animals were in a barn in about 6 inches of manure. 

Cooper said she, Furguson and a horse educator met with Trotter, who told them he would take better care of the animals.

But the affidavit stated that there was another complaint on Sept. 24. An investigator again found signs of neglect and spoke to Trotter, then returned to the farm on Oct. 16, Nov. 8 and Feb. 1.

Cooper said Furguson apparently made the visits, but, in her case notes, she reported no conditions as "appalling" as those found last week.

"In that period of time, there could have been some improvements, but not substantial improvements," Cooper said. "It's hard for me to say what she saw."

Cooper said animals could have been hidden from Furguson. She said officials who seized the horses found four they didn't know about in stalls in the barn's cellar.

"Those were some of the worst conditions," Cooper said.

The next visits to the farm came after Furguson left, on March 16 and 17. Cooper and Robyn Allison, the animal control supervisor, got the sheriff involved in the case Thursday.

 


Contact Mark Brumley at 625-8452, Ext. 231, or mbrumley at news-record.com