Pets

Man Charged With Rare Case Of Animal Cruelty

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ROCKVILLE, Md. (WJZ) ― Authorities are investigating a rare case of animal cruelty in Montgomery County.

Animal Control officers seized four neglected horses and found another one already dead.

Kelly McPherson has more on the case and the status of the animals.

Animal Control went to the Montgomery County property after someone saw a horse get loose.  They found a dead horse with signs of starvation and four others so malnourished they had to be taken away to rehab. 

It hurts too much for one horse to walk often.  Her hooves have only recently been treated for abscesses that exploded and left holes on her hooves. 

Robert Curry is the man who police say starved four horses and let another die.  He is now charged with four counts of failing to provide enough food and five counts for failing to provide veterinary care for some of the horses he kept in Montgomery County.

"It's rare.  That's why you're here because it's rare and they are horses.  Usually it's in a house where someone isn't able to take care of a certain number of cats or dogs," said Lt. Paul Stark.

The four horses deemed malnourished by a vet are at Day's End Farm in Howard County.  Caretakers say the horses are at least 400 pounds underweight.  Without this intervention, the animals certainly would have died by winter.

"On a scale of one to 10, a one.  Of course, there's little life sustenance left in them at this point when they're this thin," said Brooke Vrany with Day's End Farm.

This case brings the total number of horses brought to this facility to 32 since January.  All of them were seized by Animal Control and the majority of them are starvation cases.

Day's End specializes in horse rehabilitation.  This year, they're hearing more about struggling horse owners.

"They can't afford to keep them and they can't afford to discard them, if that makes any sense.  So the options are meek," Vrany said.

Curry gave no explanation to police this week for why he fed these horses so little.

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