Megan Miller
Cumberland Times-News
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GORMAN — Animal welfare officials found the carcasses of at least 10 horses and several cattle scattered across a barren pasture on a King Wildesen Road farm Thursday afternoon.
Another 25 horses and 18 cattle, many thin and weak from starvation, were rescued from the farm the same day.
It was the largest number of animals ever seized by the Garrett County Humane Society in a single incident, said Dee Dee Lohr, a volunteer officer with the agency.
Skulls and other large animal remains were found in at least 17 locations across the property. Some had been thrown on a garbage pile and recently burned, according to Deb Clatterbuck, a volunteer investigator with the Humane Society.
Lohr said officials will conduct an investigation that will almost certainly result in animal neglect charges against the property owner, who was not present when the animals were removed. The owner was not named, but was described as a Garrett County resident who lives on a neighboring property.
As part of the investigation, a forensic pathologist specializing in animal neglect cases will examine the remains of the dead animals to determine exactly what caused their deaths, Clatterbuck explained. Officials could also seek a warrant to excavate areas of the property, searching for more carcasses underground.
She said county officials received an anonymous tip about the situation last Friday, and began investigating the farm the same day.
“We realized we were way out of our league,” she said. “At the county’s animal shelter we can only deal with small animals, cats and dogs.”
So they called in some experts, including The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the staff and volunteers of Days End Farm Horse Rescue.
Days End is a horse rescue that works to rehabilitate neglected and abused horses, with the goal of adopting them out to suitable homes when they are healthy.
The horses were loaded into stock trailers and transported to Days End’s Woodbine facility, where they will go through an intake process and be individually examined by a veterinarian, said Brooke Vrany, assistant director of the horse rescue and trained equine EMT. Each horse will be put on a personalized recovery and training regimen to work toward adoption.
The cattle, too, were transported to Woodbine for recovery, on a farm located beside Days End.
Vrany said the Garrett rescue isn’t the largest she’s ever seen — she spoke of a rescue of 75 horses in New York and another of nearly 200 horses in Tennessee — but said it’s a drastic situation for other reasons.
“What makes this so significant is the number of animals that have apparently died here over a period of time,” she said. “It’s kind of like, what’s enough? How many is enough?”
Contact Megan Miller at mmiller@times-news.com.
