Neighbors complain about care of horses

By BRIDGET HALL

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 6, 2000

HOMOSASSA -- For more than a year, the neighbors along West Cardinal Street have worried about the horses up on the hill.

Several of the horses looked sickly and bony, their hips and shoulder bones jutting out from underneath their dull coats, neighbor Patricia Dukeman said. A chestnut yearling, she said, could barely walk.

Neighbors had been calling Citrus County Animal Control since last year, but said the department waited until last week to take definitive action.

That action was a 24-hour warning requiring that a veterinarian examine three of the horses immediately. Those horses were moved to a pasture outside the county, and the yearling was humanely destroyed because it was so malnourished and ridden with parasites.

Dukeman and the others are still worried. There are at least three more horses on that hill.

"I just don't understand how this was allowed to happen," she said. "Who knows (if the other horses) are being taken care of?"

Gerry Auermann, another neighbor who raises her own Morgans about a half-mile away, said the already thin horses began deteriorating three months ago.

"The last time I saw (the owners) put a roll of hay out there was in February," Auermann said. "I haven't seen any hay out there since then."

Early last week, a grayish-white mare gave birth to a foal. Auermann said the mare was so bony, she didn't realize it had been pregnant.

Auermann said she has made nine calls to Animal Control since last fall. Other complaints about horses being kept on Ronald and Barbara Renney's property, 3980 W Cardinal St., date to February 1999, according to Animal Control files.

"They (Animal Control officials) told me that these horses are a different breed than Morgans, and this breed is supposed to look that way," Auermann said. "I told them that I do know about nutrition, and those horses were starving."

The Renneys would not comment for this article. They do not own the horses; the owner is Burton Bellamy Sr., whose daughter is Barbara Renney. But Animal Control Director Hank Baggett said his office took the complaints seriously and sent someone to look at the horses on numerous occasions.

"With horses in a range situation, they're probably not going to appear in the prime of condition because it was a winter situation," Baggett said. "In the officer's estimation, this was not an emergency situation where we would go out and impound the animals.

"We would rather work with (the animal owners)," he continued. "We don't have a lot of room at the animal shelter, and we would rather educate them about how to care for the animals."

He said Animal Control officials told the Renneys in February to make sure the horses had enough feed and supplements, and that officials continued to check on the horses.

After the latest complaint on April 28, however, Animal Control took the most drastic measure to date, issuing a 24-hour warning that the yearling, the mare and her foal be seen by a veterinarian immediately.

Baggett said the Renneys took those three horses over to Sumter County -- outside of Citrus County Animal Control's jurisdiction -- to a pasture owned by Barbara Renney's brother.

After examining the horses, Dr. Wade Bullock wrote in his report that the horses could become healthy if they received the right nutrition and treatment for the worm parasites they had contracted.

But Baggett said Bellamy, the animal owner, decided to humanely destroy the chestnut yearling.

"The owners did not want to spend a great deal of money on the (yearling) and elected to have her euthanized to avoid future legal problems in the event she had internal problems," Bullock wrote in his report.

Baggett said his office was not considering bringing any animal neglect charges against the Renneys, saying the couple complied with the 24-hour warning by arranging the veterinarian's examination, and that it was the animal owner's choice to humanely destroy the yearling.

He said his office cannot follow up on the horses that are outside of the county, but that he had alerted Sumter County officials, and that his workers would continue to check on the other horses on the Renneys' property.

Joe Costa of Sumter County Animal Control said he had no knowledge of the horses.

In the meantime, photos of the emaciated horses have circulated on the Internet, going out to members of horse e-mail groups. Horse lovers from across the country have called Citrus County to complain.

"I called Animal Control several times and I called the County Commission four times out of frustration to find out what is going on down there," said Tammi Aldridge, a Palm Beach horse breeder. "Citrus County -- what a clown show. Why are there still animals on that property?"

Dr. Yolanda Geddie, a San Antonio, Texas, veterinarian, called Florida state officials about the photos, saying the horses were the worst she had ever seen.

"I guess one of them had to die for it to become an emergency situation," she said. "There's no need for this. If you can't take care of them, give them away."

Residents like Dukeman say Animal Control needs to do more because the Renneys still have horses on the property. Dukeman said she plans to go before the County Commission to ask for help.

"Something needs to be done so this doesn't happen again," she said.

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