New Jersey: malnourished horse case.

Retired thoroughbreds are allegedly neglected.

Farm owners face cruelty charges [link]
Stephanie Prokop | Aug 13, 2008

Two North Jersey men are facing charges of animal cruelty in Jobstown after allegedly maintaining poor conditions for horses on their farm on Arney’s Mount Road. Dennis Cameron, of Piscataway, and Patrick Nelson, of Lake Hiawatha, are each facing 24 counts of failure to provide a living creature with proper food, said Springfield Township Municipal Court Administrator Ruth Ann Bice on Tuesday. The two men were scheduled to appear Judge Richard Andronici in Municipal Court Tuesday, but Ms. Bice said the hearing was delayed so that the defendant could obtain a lawyer. The new hearing date has not been set.

Retired thoroughbreds are boarded at the property, DMS Farm, said neighbor Maggie Payne. According to Ms. Payne, the horses appear to be very skinny and have noticeable blisters and open wounds on them. This has been a source of outrage for the neighbors, said Ms. Payne, who said she had approached the farm’s owners about a dilapidated fence. Ms. Payne said that because the fence was broken, the horses would escape out onto Arney’s Mount Road and she was fearful that they would get hit by a car at night. “We just didn’t want to see any of these horses getting killed out on the road,” she said.

According to the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals spokesperson Matt Stanton, charges were originally filed in February. The ASPCA would normally allow only a 24 or, at most, a 48-hour window before they would write a ticket, but the state Department of Agriculture granted a three-month grace period to let the owners take care of the horses’ conditions. “We were back there in May, and in June, and wrote a total of eight tickets,” said Stanton. He said that the horses remain at the farm while the legal process continues. Stanton said that during the NJSPCA’s last visit in June, the horses’ hips, shoulders, and ribs were still visible. In the meantime, Ms. Payne said that she has made consistent effort to bring the inhumane treatment that the animals are receiving to light. “We’re just trying to do the right thing, and see these horses being treated fairly,” she added.

Another article on this case:

Judge gives defendants in animal abuse case time to hire lawyer [link]
MARK ZIMMARO | Aug 13, 2008

A court hearing for two North Jersey men facing animal cruelty charges at a township horse farm was postponed yesterday to give the defendants time to obtain a lawyer. Patrick Nelson, 60, of Lake Hiawatha and Dennis Cameron, 48, of Piscataway were granted three weeks by Municipal Court Judge Richard Andronici to hire a lawyer after originally indicating they would defend themselves. The New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals filed 24 charges against the two men in May alleging the thoroughbreds kept at the DMS Farm on Arney's Mount Road were not being properly fed. A new trial date has not been announced. “It's disappointing because we were ready to go,” SPCA officer Theresa Cooper said after the hearing. “Everything was prepared and we wanted to get started. But the judge granted them extra time and that's the law.”

Nelson, who owns more than 20 horses at the farm in Springfield as well as a dozen others at another farm in the county, denied the animals were being underfed. “These people don't know anything about thoroughbreds,” Cameron said outside the court. “We raise these horses to make money off them. Why would we want to hurt them? These horses are fed three times what the government recommends.” Neighbors who live near the DMS Farm have complained about how skinny and sick the horses appear to be. Cameron, who helps manage the horses, blames their appearance on an outbreak of salmonella at the farm. “If a horse isn't treated after getting salmonella, it can lose over 300 pounds in three days,” Cameron said. “We feed these horses plenty. When the (state) Department of Agriculture came out to see a horse that died at DMS, they split (the horse) open right in the middle of the farm. The other horses probably got sick from the salmonella spreading.” Cooper said Nelson and Cameron didn't do enough to keep the horses healthy. “You can feed them all you want but they need to find the underlying problem,” she said. “For some reason, these breeders don't think they have to meet the standards and they need to be held responsible.”

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