Published: April 11, 2008 12:06 pm         

SPCA looking at starvation or illness in deaths

Longtime local sheriff Jack Carter and his office have been investigating this week’s discover of 31 dead horses on a Kegley Ridge farm in the eastern part of Rowan County. And the longtime lawman described “a terrible scene” in the barn where 11 of the dead animals were found.

“I can verify that we have been out there, to the farm,” Sheriff Carter told The Morehead News on a phone interview Tuesday while officials with the Department of Agriculture, SPCA and law enforcement agencies were in the process of burying the carcasses on the property. “We received a report from an animal activist group and we went out there to investigate.

“There were buzzards floating above the farm,” Carter said of the Tuesday search. “And we went into the barn and saw 11 dead horses.”

While Carter admitted to seeing some live horses in the structure, the scene was disturbing.

“It was terrible, some of those horses were decomposing – it was terrible,” he said. “There wasn’t any water for the horses and it was obvious they hadn’t had any water – they had literally eaten all the inside of that barn and all the wood. Inside that barn was unbearable and the stench was just awful.”

The sheriff described the surviving animals as “weak, and thin – lots of bones showing”.

According to the investigation, officials said the owner of the Kegley Ridge property, Don Miller, told them he was not aware of the condition of his livestock. In reports, Miller made statements family members had been taking care of the animals.

There was a constant humming of the bulldozers burying the horses in the distance while the media stood at the entrance gate of the farm Wednesday. A few of the remaining live animals could be seen in an adjacent pasture one obviously thin. Family members were observed walking from the house to the barn (a few hundreds yards away) while they were conducting their investigation.

Questions remain because authorities reporting finding hay and grain on the premises and neighbors interviewed by Carter’s office reported seeing trucks delivering hay.

“Neighbors told us they had seen several loads of hay being delivered constantly,” the sheriff said. “And I saw hay in the barn.”

The sheriff said to his knowledge no reports of neglect, abuse or cruelty had been made against Miller in the past. And he said that while his office does get calls concerning animal welfare in the area, this was “by far the worst case we’ve seen.”

Carter also said Miller denied ever selling his horses to slaughter and even stated that many of the animals on his property were worth thousands. As of press time the only charges filed against Miller were failure to properly dispose of the dead animals.

“He told us he wasn’t in the line of business of slaughtering horses, he even told us he was paying 3 to 400 dollars a week for grain – but obviously it wasn’t getting to these horses.”

Carter said the investigation will continue with results from testing from a veterinarian and information found by the Department of Agriculture and the SPCA.