AUTHORITIES SEIZE EMACIATED HORSES

Law enforcement seized two severely emaciated horses Wednesday from a rural El Paso County property as part of an ongoing investigation into animal cruelty.

Deputies with the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office arrived about 9:45 a.m. at the property near the 3400 block of Meridian Road, about 16 miles east of Colorado Springs, to serve a search warrant. At the property, they found the two horses as well as two dead chickens.

The horses were transported to a boarding facility approved by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the chickens’ bodies will undergo autopsies to determine the cause of their deaths.

The owners of the animals have not been charged in the investigation, said Natalie Sosa, an El Paso County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman, but charges against them are pending.

Sosa did not know if there were other animals left at the property. — Elise Schmelzer,