Horses, donkey need good homes
Hot Springs Animal Services wants to find good homes for the donkey and six horses it and Garland County have been caring for since September 2018.
The animals have been in their charge for almost two years, but a recent circuit court order formally forfeited them to the county. Those interested in adoption can call Animal Services at 262-2091.
“There’s no adoption fee for horses according to our ordinance, but we want to make sure they get a good home,” Sgt. Chris Lackey, Animal Services director, said. “We’d have to go out and inspect where the horses are going to go.”
According to charging documents filed in the criminal case
against the former owner, the animals were malnourished and living in unsanitary conditions when Animal Services and the Garland County Sheriff’s Department responded to an animal cruelty complaint in August 2018.
A search warrant authorizing a veterinarian to examine the animals at the Jessieville address where they were being kept was issued that September. The veterinarian recommended the animals be seized, telling law enforcement that they were “starving to death painfully and slowly.” Lackey said they didn’t have proper food or water. “There was green algae in the water, and they were eating bark off the trees,” he said. “They didn’t have any grass to eat at all.”
Lackey said the animals’ health has improved since then. The county has been paying for their care, as its interlocal agreement for Animal Services with the city of Hot Springs makes it responsible for large animals seized in the unincorporated area of the county. The county pays the city about $350,000 a year for Animal Services in the unincorporated area.
County Judge Darryl Mahoney said the county has spent about $33,000 caring for the horses, including trimming their feet.
The team of horses comprises five mares and a 2-to-3-year-old stallion. Lackey said the mares are sorrel with a white face, white and brown with blue eyes, white with brown spots, roan colored and buckskinned. The stallion is tan, and the Donkey is a jenny.