Animal cruelty case pretrial held

A pretrial for a woman facing numerous animal cruelty charges was held Tuesday.

Sandra Reed-Byers was charged by the OSPCA in June with 33 counts of animal cruelty. An investigation led to the removal of a horse, goat, three dogs and 22 sheep — all were emaciated.

Several courts dates have been previously held on the matter but Reed-Byers (formerly Reed) hasn’t attended.

Local lawyer Dave McFadden is representing Reed-Byers and appears on her behalf.

The pretrial was held behind closed doors Tuesday and a follow-up date of Dec. 20 is set to discuss the outcome of the pretrial.

Reed-Byers, 56, has been investigated by the OSPCA on at least two other occasions, but an OSPCA spokesperson wouldn’t comment if there had been more than that in the past.

In 2016, Reed-Byers was investigated after accusations that she was starving her horses to death. At the time, she was operating Whisper Ridge Ranch, which she called a horse sanctuary.

Reed-Byers is also currently facing criminal charges. She’s been charged with mischief and fail to comply.

Reed-Byers returns to court for her criminal charges on Wednesday.

McFadden is representing her on those charges as well.