AR-News: (SC - US) Care of 60 horses at issue

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Posted on Tue, Jun. 08, 2004 


ANIMAL ABUSE CASE
Care of 60 horses at issue

Treatment of 60 horses ‘was simply inhumane,’ prosecutor tells jury

By RICK BRUNDRETT

Staff Writer


ANIMAL ABUSE CASE

A Hopkins father and son who run a horse-trading business are on trial this 
week, accused of starving or not providing proper medical care to 60 horses 
last year.

Colie Blease Martin III, 34, and Colie Blease Martin Jr., 61, each faces 
several years in prison if convicted on all counts.

In her opening statement Monday, Senior Assistant Solicitor Luck Campbell 
said some of the horses were so malnourished their ribs or hip bones were 
exposed, while other horses had open sores with “oozing pus.”

“It was simply inhumane, and that is a crime,” she told the Richland County 
jury.

Defense lawyer William Watkins denied his clients abused the animals, 
explaining they often bought and sold older horses.

“Their history over the years ... was kind of a history of used horses,” he 
said in his opening statement. “They had some old horses. ... They don’t look 
good.”

The trial before Circuit Judge G. Thomas Cooper is expected to run through 
this week and possibly into next. Campbell and Assistant Solicitor Jill Andrews 
could call as many as 60 witnesses, including 11 veterinarians.

It was not immediately known how many witnesses Watkins and co-counsel Julian 
Sellers planned to call for the defense.

Martin III is charged with 60 counts of ill treatment of animals, second 
offense. The charge carries a maximum 90-day sentence on each count, which means 
he could receive a total sentence of almost 15 years if convicted on all 
counts.

His first conviction stemmed from a 1998 complaint involving two horses, 
Campbell told Cooper outside the jury’s presence.

Martin Jr. is charged with 60 counts of conspiracy to commit ill treatment of 
animals, and would likely face a lesser sentence if convicted of all counts.

Investigators from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and 
the Richland County Sheriff’s Department seized the horses last August after an 
investigation by a Columbia-based horse rescue organization known as South 
Carolina Awareness and Rescue of Equines (SCARE Inc.), Campbell said.

Many of the horses — mares — were kept at a Martin farm on Willow Wind Road 
in the Hopkins area, Campbell said. Some stallions were kept at a nearby barn 
on Lower Richland Boulevard.

One of the seized horses, a 10-to 15-year-old chestnut saddlebred mare — had 
to be euthanized after it was seized, the indictments said. The seized horses 
ranged in ages from several months to 28 years.

The animals are being cared for at farms throughout South Carolina, according 
to SCARE.

SCARE representatives last June first received a call about the problem at 
the Martin farms and saw malnourished horses or horses with open sores in the 
pastures when they went to investigate, Campbell said.

They didn’t immediately contact authorities, hoping the situation would get 
better, Campbell said. But they decided to call investigators last August after 
noticing a foal lying on the ground for 24 hours, she said.

Campbell told jurors they will see graphic pictures and hear expert testimony 
about the mistreatment of the horses. She noted that the teeth in some of the 
horses were so badly damaged they couldn’t chew, and skin was “peeling off” 
other horses.

“This case goes beyond neglect,” she said.

Watkins told jurors that although some horses “may not be pretty” to look at 
it, there was no evidence they were abused or in pain. He said he planned to 
call horse breeders to testify about industry standards.

“These animals were not pets,” he said. “It’s a farming operation.”

Watkins said investigators never gave his clients the chance to follow up on 
a veterinarian’s recommendation to feed the older horses higher-protein feed.

Reach Brundrett at (803) 771-8484 or rbrundrett at thestate.com.



  




 
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