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Judge expedites hearing on animal cruelty charges

Two former Clinton farm owners face total of 15 counts against 23 animals

By Betty Adams badams@centralmaine.com
Staff Writer

AUGUSTA — The state has paid $58,000 to date to care for horses, goats, pigs and dogs seized last summer from a Clinton farm amid allegations of animal cruelty, and the tab is increasing at a rate of $200 per day.

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Brett Ingraham, owner of Fair Play Farm in Clinton, watches June 3 as state animal welfare agents seize horses from his farm. Ingraham now faces charges of animal cruelty in connection with the horse farm.

Staff file photo by Scott Monroe

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The ongoing cost of caring for the animals — 23 in all — prompted a judge on Wednesday to hasten a court hearing to decide their ownership.

Justice Micheala Murphy set the hearing for the week of Jan. 24; the state will present evidence about the treatment of animals seized in June from Fair Play Farm, and the farm owners will say why they should have the animals back.

“It’s ridiculous for the state to be paying this bill in hopes — on a wing and a prayer —  that it’s going to be collected,” Murphy said during Wednesday’s hearing case in Kennebec County Superior Court. “The $200-a-day bill is for either these folks or for the state of Maine.”

The state’s Animal Welfare Program is seeking to gain ownership of the animals so they can be adopted, sold or disposed of.

The current owners object. Their attorney, David Van Dyke, said Wednesday he plans to call two dozen witnesses in the civil case.

Assistant District Attorney Paul Rucha sought to have the case continued until March or later because of trials and hearings scheduled in other cases.

Murphy, however, said she wanted a hearing as soon as possible.

Eight misdemeanor charges of cruelty to animals were filed by the state against Brett Ingraham, 34, formerly of Clinton and now of Burnham, after the animals were seized. His wife, Alexis Ingraham, 25, faces seven counts of cruelty to animals. The two ran Fair Play Farm.

Those charges are in criminal court, and likely will be adjudicated after the ownership of the animals is determined. Van Dyke represents the Ingrahams in the criminal case as well. They have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The Ingrahams are free on $1,000 cash bail each and conditions of bail ban them from acquiring new animals.

Two Winslow residents originally named as defendants in the civil case, Dr. Scott K. Curtis, a veterinarian, and Kathleen Chambers, both are no longer listed; Curtis said he had no ownership claim on any of the animals, and Chambers gave up ownership of her dog to the state.

Dr. Christine Fraser, veterinarian for the state’s Animal Welfare Program, said after the hearing that the animals are being cared for in Maine, but she declined to provide specific locations.

An affidavit filed by Fraser, forms the basis for the application for possession order, and lists the animals involved:

• nine stallions, two geldings, two draft horses including one mare, and two other mares, one of which had a filly on June 16;  
• two dogs;
• four goats, plus a kid born after the seizure; and
• two pigs.

“The state seized the animals because of diseased, dehydrated and malnourished conditions and the owner had cruelly abandoned them or cruelly treated them,” Fraser wrote in her affidavit.