A Topsham woman pleaded not guilty to charges of animal cruelty Wednesday stemming from allegations that she mistreated two horses that she was supposed to be caring for.
Heidi Wright, 26, is accused of neglecting two horses that were being boarded at her home, one of which was described by a veterinarian as “severely malnourished.”
Police were first notified of potential abuse at her property by an owner of a horse that had been boarded with Wright. Dawn Donohue alerted authorities after she went to Wright’s home when she had learned of her horse’s death. She found the animal partially buried in a shallow grave, with its head sticking out of the ground, according to an affidavit, clearly having been dead longer than the few days that Wright reported.
When police arrived at the property to investigate, they found four horses: Khaleesi and Rumble, belonging to Wright, and Flynn and Magic, which were being boarded at the residence. A fifth horse, Rose, was separated from the rest of the horses, and Wright told police the horse had cancer and was going to be put down the following week. The affidavit notes that police observed a fair amount of manure in the horses’ enclosure, and no clear way of mucking the area.
At that time, Wright showed police a shallow grave where she said three horses were recently buried, including the one belonging to Donahue. All three animals had been buried just the day before, though Wright said they had died over the last several months, when the ground was too cold to dig up. When the officer noted that the graves were poorly dug, Wright concurred, saying that a family member had done it, according to the affidavit.
Too much time had passed for an autopsy of the animals to be done, veterinarians told police.
Law enforcement returned to the property a few days later with a veterinarian, who recommended that Flynn and Magic, the boarded horses, be moved immediately as they were “severely underweight,” according to the affidavit. The next day, Wright had the horses moved to a nearby farm because of “the amount of threats and harassment by the public.”
At that farm, Dr. Alison Cornwall, a vet working on the case examined the horses. She noted that Flynn had equine bites and lice. Magic was “severely malnourished to the point of emaciation,” Cornwall told police, “with visible bony landmarks of the pelvis, visible short ribs, visually identifiable shoulder landmarks, and ribs that could easily be counted along the entire thoracic region, even through a thick, matted winter haircoat.”
Fecal samples from Flynn and Magic found worms, according to Cornwall, as well as considerable amounts of sand, indicating that the horses had been “nosing the ground for feed and eating inappropriate things because there was not enough feed.”
The veterinarian determined that the two horses suffered a “great insult” from starvation and parasites, though they were not in danger of imminent death. She recommended they be seized and taken to a more appropriate facility.
Wright agreed to relinquish control of the animals, and they were transferred to the Live and Let Live Farm in New Hampshire. She also agreed to find more suitable homes for her two horses, Khaleesi and Rumble. Wright’s horses were found to have lice infestations, though they scored higher on their body conditioning scores, and looked “generally healthier,” according to the affidavit.
Wright pleaded not guilty to the animal cruelty charges in criminal court in Orange County.
While at Wright’s house, police also observed 10 puppies which appeared to be healthy and well-fed.
William Porter, the state’s attorney on the case, said in Orange County, he sees “a handful” of animal cruelty cases a year, dealing with a wide variety of animals, though dogs and horses are most common. He said it’s hard to compare the abuse in Wright’s case with other mistreatment he’d seen.
Wright faces a maximum of one year in prison and a $1,000 fine for each of the two animal cruelty charges.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Topsham woman pleads not guilty to animal cruelty charges.