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CLINTON

State seizes horses

D.A. says living conditions may lead to criminal charges

By Scott Monroe smonroe@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

CLINTON -- After several months of investigation into charges of animal cruelty, state animal welfare agents made their move Thursday morning at the Fair Play Farm on Tardiff Road.

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ROUNDUP: Officials with the state's Animal Welfare Program lead a horse from the Fair Play Farm onto a horse trailer Thursday morning. State animal welfare officials seized horses after executing a search warrant based on allegations of animal cruelty.

Staff photo by Scott Monroe

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Brett and Alexis Ingraham at their Clinton farm Thursday morning as two Maine State Police troopers serve a search warrant.

Staff photo by Scott Monroe

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The agents, equipped with a search warrant and accompanied by two Maine State Police troopers, arrived at the farm about 10 a.m. with trucks pulling horse trailers; and they and a state veterinarian began inspecting horses in the barns. Farm owners Brett and Alexis Ingraham, visibly and vocally frustrated, paced outside, made calls on their cell phones and said they hadn't done anything wrong. By the end of the day, 15 horses and two dogs had been seized from the farm. The horses were loaded onto the trailers by animal welfare agents and driven away.

District Attorney Everett Fowle said Thursday that the search warrant, authorized by Waterville Judge Charles Dow, was intended to gather evidence.

"One of the main concerns is whether the animals at this farm are being treated appropriately, whether they're being neglected and whether that rises to the level of criminal animal cruelty charges; and that's what we're looking for evidence of," Fowle said. "I think we've certainly found evidence thus far which may lead to criminal charges, but we want to review everything very carefully with animal welfare agents before a final decision is made."

Fowle declined to be more specific about the animal cruelty charges involving the horses, saying only that the charges involve "malnourishment, adequate sustenance and appropriate facilities for the horses and other animals."

As agents inspected his horses Thursday, Brett Ingraham continued to maintain that he and his wife had done nothing wrong.

Since the allegations of animal cruelty surfaced earlier this winter, the Ingrahams have said they take in injured or malnourished horses that otherwise would be euthanized -- such as racetrack horses -- and care for them properly at their farm. Ingraham has said he has about 50 horses on the farm.

Standing in his driveway, Brett Ingraham dismissed the allegations and the seizures, saying they had been cooperating with animal welfare agents.

"There's no problem here," Brett Ingraham said Thursday. "Now, they don't have a case, but they're here to push us more."

Ingraham said his wife was upset that agents also had seized their 4-year-old pit bull because it had a sprained ankle, which he said had happened by accident.

"It's all just bull----. Where's our rights?" Ingraham said.Animal welfare agents spent nearly all day inspecting the farm's horses and taking them away from the farm, which had a "for sale" sign posted in the front yard.

Occasionally, screams from a horse could be heard from inside a barn agents had entered.

Supervising the horse seizures Thursday was Norma Worley, director of the state Animal Welfare Program. She said the warrant reflected "the accumulation of almost four months of investigation," which was spearheaded by Assistant District Attorney Paul Rucha.

The horses, Worley said, would be placed in stables and cared for by the animal program.

The investigation that led to Thursday's seizures picked up steam after a complaint was filed by Meris Bickford, an attorney with the Maine State Society for the Protection of Animals, based in South Windham. Worley said her office had received complaints before Bickford's.

Bickford said Thursday she filed a complaint after she visited the farm Feb. 3 to buy a horse for personal use. Also with Bickford was Marilyn Goodreau, president of the society group, and another friend who's a "horse person."

While at Fair Play Farm for a couple of hours, "I was shocked by what I saw," Bickford said, adding that the horses appeared to be in poor health and shelter.

Christine Fraser, a veterinarian with the state's animal welfare program, said in April that animal-welfare agents had regularly been at the farm and were working on issues of "compliance" with the Ingrahams. If those efforts don't work out, she said, "it will go to the next step."

Even as Bickford praised animal welfare officials for seizing the horses, she was also concerned about "why it would take so long."

"I am somewhat dismayed at the length of time the animals suffered while this was going on," she said.

The way animal-welfare agents have handled the case also worries Maddy B. Gray, who thrust the allegations into the public Feb. 11 with a posting on her website NickerNews.net, of Brunswick, with articles and photos about "starving horses in desperate need."

"It's about time," Gray said Thursday, when informed of the horse seizures. She added, "I'm disappointed the animal welfare program didn't use the resources that were offered to them consistently by the horse community," which included assistance from area rescue agencies that state officials didn't contacted, she said.

In response to those concerns, Worley said, "What's important is this is a criminal case. We have to keep control of everything that will be happening from this day forward, so it has to go into a controlled situation."

Scott Monroe -- 861-9253

smonroe@centralmaine.com