VAN BUREN TWP. — Two people have been charged with animal cruelty after officers reported finding dead and decomposing animals, burned remains, and close to 90 live animals without access to food or clean water on their Becks Grove Road property.
Roy Fish, 65, and Penney Carey, 50, both of 8571 West 275 South, Columbus, were charged Feb. 6 in Brown Circuit Court with two counts each of cruelty to an animal, both Class A misdemeanors.
They were booked into the Brown County jail on Feb. 10 and were released about two hours later after posting $1,500 bonds, according to jail records.
On Dec. 28 last year, Brown County Animal Control Officer Amanda Sisson went to a property in the 6100 block of Becks Grove Road with Dr. Jodi Lovejoy and an assistant with the state board of animal health.
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John Kennard, with the Brown County Health Department, had requested a follow-up inspection by Dr. Lovejoy after the health department went to the home and found dead animals on the property, according to a probable cause affidavit which Sisson wrote.
Sisson had met with Fish and Carey several times over the past six years, and they had acknowledged ownership and responsibility for the animals on the property, her report said.
When the group arrived at the home Dec. 28, they reported seeing a burn pile with the remains of a dead adult horse, along with several deceased pigs on the property.
Sisson also reported a donkey whose hooves were curling up and twisting in upon themselves. This condition was caused by neglect and failure to keep the donkey’s hooves trimmed, she wrote. No food or water was present for the donkey.
Near the driveway were three horses and a small mule, standing in a quarter-acre lot filled with mud. They did not have hay or feed. One of the horses appeared to have foundered and was not moving around well, the report said.
Sisson estimated that there were 84 pigs on the property standing in mud and feces with no shelter from the weather. All of the pigs were either standing, lying down or living in mud and water at least up to their bellies or higher, she wrote.
The pigs did not have a water container either, and were forced to drink the muddy, feces-filled water they were standing in, Sisson reported. She also reported that the owners seemed to dump feed onto the muddy, wet ground for the pigs to eat.
Dr. Lovejoy had visited the property about two years ago, and she wrote that the property had not improved since then.
Two days later, Animal Control officer Bethany Heldman went back to the home and reported seeing the partially burned remains of one horse and two large deceased pigs. Two other pigs were in a trailer with no food or water and they were standing in four to six inches of fecal matter, she said.
Heldman also reported seeing the same remains of a large pig that Sisson had reported, with three to four vultures picking at it. Heldman also reported two other dead pigs in another pen.
Sisson wrote that the living pigs were climbing on the deceased pigs to get out of the mud, water and feces swill. She believed some of the pigs had died due to drowning, her report said.
Heldman also saw two pigs roaming at large and that none of the living pigs had access to food or water. There was also no shelter for the pigs or horses. The horses had a hay feeder, but it did not have hay in it, she wrote, and the donkey in a pole barn did not have water or hay.
On Jan. 24, Sisson and Brown County Chief Deputy Brad Stogsdill returned to the home. The conditions of the animals and the property had not changed. They found seven dead pigs that were not there during their last visit, the report said.
On Jan. 31, Sisson and Stogsdill returned to the property again where they found three more newly deceased pigs, along with more deceased swine in a burn pile. The rest of the animals did not have food or water, the report said.
On Feb. 14, Columbus lawyer Sean Thomasson filed an appearance in Carey’s case and entered a not-guilty plea on her behalf. A jury trial was requested, but a date had not yet been selected, according to online court documents. On Feb. 15, Columbus lawyer Michael DeArmitt filed an appearance in Fish’s case and waived his initial court hearing.
