BROWN COUNTY — Brown County law enforcement officers continue to monitor farm animals involved in a case in which animal cruelty charges were filed last month.
Due to logistics and legal reasons, the animals have not been removed from property on Becks Grove Road.
Brown County Sheriff’s Department Animal Control officers first became aware of animals on property owned by Roy Fish, 65, and Penney Carey, 50, both of 8571 West 275 South, Columbus, a few years ago when pigs would get loose, said Brown County Sheriff’s Department Chief Deputy Brad Stogsdill.
“He (Fish) did the minimum, but the minimum as far as the law goes is good enough,” Animal Control Officer Bethany Heldman said.
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On Feb. 6, Fish and Carey were charged in Brown Circuit Court with two counts each of cruelty to an animal, both Class A misdemeanors.
A probable-cause affidavit filed in February by Animal Control Officer Amanda Sisson included descriptions of nearly 90 animals’ living conditions, including inadequate shelter, deep mud and muck, and no visible food or water.
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.
After news of their arrests hit the news last month, readers began asking why it took so long for charges to be filed and what would happen to the animals now.
Law enforcement has to work within legal rules, the officers said. Sisson said over the years, Fish would do a “Band-Aid fix” to problems when approached by Animal Control. “We would have complaints, then I’d go out and speak with him. He kind of fixes the issue to make you back off for a while,” she said.
Also, the animals are the property of Fish and Carey, and if law enforcement was to remove them, they’d have to go through a legal process, the officers said.
“You can’t decide one day, ‘I feel bad for these pigs and I’m just going to take them,’” Heldman said.
“It’s so hard, just because when you look at the animal, if it was not in the mud and the muck, if they were standing out in a grassy field, they do not look like they’re being neglected or abused,” Sisson said.
Goals for the case
Last week, Brown County Prosecutor Ted Adams said his office has two goals for this case. The first is dealing with the criminal charges. He reiterated that both Fish and Carey are innocent unless proven otherwise.
The second is finding an appropriate resolution for the animals. For that, Adams said he will work with experts, such as the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, to see what they recommend.
Indiana Code says that law enforcement officers may take custody of an animal if they have probable cause to believe that abandonment or neglect is taking place. If that happens, the owner must reimburse the sheltering organization for the animal’s care and keeping. The owner may also request a hearing to have the court determine whether or not probable cause does exist to take possession of an animal.
Whenever abandonment or neglect charges are filed, the law says that the state veterinarian must make a recommendation about whether or not confiscation is “necessary to protect the safety and well-being of the animal,” and if it is, how to handle it in a way that is in the best interest of the animal.
If the person is convicted of such charges, the court may impose additional penalties, such as terminating the person’s rights to the animal, the law says.
Animal Control officers will continue to check on the animals and monitor their well-being. “All sides are working towards what disposition, not only of the case, but of the animals would be best,” Adams said.
“We want to close this case quickly in order to get disposition for the animals. … The defendant has rights. That’s his property. That’s the crux of the issue,” Adams said.
Adams said he admires and appreciates the community members who have reached out to his office offering to house the animals.
“Unfortunately, it can’t work that way, but it’s touching to know we have a lot of folks who care about animals in the community. I appreciate that. We’re constrained by statute and by the Constitution, as well we should,” he said. “We have to follow the law and do our job.”
Lawyers for Fish and Carey did not respond to a request for comment.
What happened
On Dec. 28, 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. John Kennard, with the Brown County Health Department, had requested a follow-up inspection by Lovejoy after the health department found dead animals on the property, Sisson’s report said.
“It all stems from the pigs being loose and getting on other peoples’ properties,” Stogsdill said.
Large potbelly pigs and meat pigs were living on the farm, Heldman said — “not cute little pet potbelly pigs. They are big, not friendly.” Stogsdill estimated some of them weighed between 400 and 500 pounds.
Stogsdill said that Fish had been rescuing the potbelly pigs and putting them in small pens, where they began breeding at a high rate.
Neighbors would return the pigs to the property when they would get loose. “Then when they would run them back, they saw where they would try to burn them, and he wasn’t getting them completely burned. There would be 50 buzzards hanging in that area all the time or more,” Stogsdill said.
There are state guidelines related to dead livestock. “You have to dispose of that animal. It has to be cremated or buried at least 4 feet deep or somebody else comes to get it,” Stogsdill said.
When police would go to the property, they reported seeing pigs living in “very small pens,” he said.
“But that’s not the main thing. It was the fact they had no dry shelter,” Stogsdill said. “It was just a muck pit. It would be up to their bellies. … We saw no water dishes, but I think they were drinking that muddy water.”
Sisson estimated in the probable cause affidavit that there were 84 pigs on the property living in mud and feces with no shelter. All of the pigs were either standing, lying down or living in mud and water at least up to their bellies or higher, the report said.
From Dec. 28 to Feb. 15, Animal Control and Stogsdill visited the property at least four times. Each time they reported seeing deceased animals, no water containers, no food, animals standing in fecal matter and animals with other health issues, such as a horse that had foundered.
Despite officers not seeing any food when they would visit, Stogsdill said he does not believe the animals there were “starving.”
“With pigs, if you pour out 10 gallons, they will sit there and eat it until it’s gone. You’re not going to see food always being in a bowl. The way the pigs will do, they will just eat and eat until it’s gone,” Stogsdill said.
“He’s feeding them. It’s just their living conditions — even though they are pigs, they’re in muck all the time,” he said.
“There would be pigs dying, so there’s obviously something wrong. I understand everything dies at some point, but when you have something that looks it’s 6 months old and it dies, then he wasn’t getting them disposed of quickly enough.”
The pigs did not have access to clean water, the report said. Some pigs were found dead, possibly from drowning or being trampled in the mud that was filled with their feces and urine.
“Whether they are getting trampled into the mud where the others are trying to get out of the muck is a good possibility. They are getting suffocated or basically drowned in the muck, or just plain exposure from getting hypothermia or something, because they literally can’t get out. There’s not a good, dry area for them to get into,” Stogsdill said.
Because the animals were not being starved, they will remain on the property as the case works its way through the court system, officers said.
“They are being fed. If they weren’t being fed we wouldn’t be leaving them there,” Sisson said last week.
Other challenges
Over the years, the sheriff’s department had worked with Fish to correct issues with the pig pens, Stogsdill said. “He would try to make maybe a spot they could get under. They would just knock stuff over. It’s just not a properly-built structure of any kind to have that many animals.”
In addition to the legal issues involved in removing animals from a property, there’s also the question of where to put them — and even how to get them out.
“Give me a logistically good answer for taking 80 pigs,” Stogsdill said, “How to transport them and how to get them out of an area you can’t even get a trailer into, because it’s just muck. There are no runs anywhere to run them through. There’s no gate. You have to take the pens down to get in and out. You have to take panels out of the fence to open it up.”
The Brown County Humane Society only takes in cats and dogs. There is no shelter for livestock animals in Brown County.
Sisson said that Animal Control will continue to check in on the animals. Stogsdill and Sisson visited the property early last week.
“He (Fish) made some makeshift shelters. He’s moved some of the animals we were concerned about and trimmed some feet on the horses,” Sisson said.
“I’m not saying we’re going to back off, but we’re keeping an eye on the situation.”
