HORSE-CRUELTY CHARGES FALSE, MAN SAYS.Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer LANCASTER - A Lake Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. couple is facing felony animal-cruelty charges that they failed to take proper care of their horses, including one that prosecutors say starved to death. But Bryan Eichholtz and his wife, Susan, have pleaded not guilty to the charges, and he said that the horses were cared for and the one that died was on medication but not responding. He said he buys old horses - some of them ailing - and tries to bring them back to good health. ``The charges are wrong. ... Me starve starve v. 1. To suffer or die from extreme or prolonged lack of food. 2. To deprive of food so as to cause suffering or death. an animal? I'd go hungry first. I'd never starve an animal,'' Bryan Eichholtz said. He was critical of animal-control officials. ``They need to get people in that dog pound who know what they are doing, not a bunch of book people who think they know what they are doing,'' he said. Susan Eichholtz's attorney, Deputy Public Defender public defender, governmental official who represents indigent persons accused of crime. U.S. Supreme Court decisions expanding the right to counsel to pretrial proceedings and holding that a person cannot be sentenced to even one day in jail unless a lawyer was Alvin Thomas, declined to comment. Charged with two felony counts of cruelty to an animal and a misdemeanor count of failure to care for animals, the Eichholtzes are free on bond. They are scheduled to appear Jan. 16 for a preliminary hearing in which a judge will decide whether there is sufficient evidence to order them to stand trial. Charges were filed Dec. 8. Weeks earlier, county animal-control officers went to the couple's home and found two horses lying dead in a corral corral a small fenced-in enclosure with high, wooden fences, suitable for holding cattle or horses. corral system a management system in which range cattle are put into corrals and fed hay for a period when the environment is most , Deputy District Attorney Kelly Cromer said. A third horse, more than 23 years old, had to be euthanized because it was so weak from starvation, Cromer said. One of the dead horses had cancer and injuries, apparently bites from a dog or coyote coyote (kī`ōt, kīō`tē) or prairie wolf, small, swift wolf, Canis latrans, native to W North America. It is found in deserts, prairies, open woodlands, and brush country; it is also called brush wolf. , and one ``plain starved to death,'' Cromer said. ``They did a necropsy necropsy /nec·rop·sy/ (nek´rop-se) examination of a body after death; autopsy. nec·rop·sy n. See autopsy. necropsy examination of a body after death. See also autopsy. and didn't find anything wrong with the horse except that it starved,'' Cromer said. The misdemeanor count refers to the horse that appeared to have bite injuries and did not appear to have been properly cared for before it died, he said. ``The horse probably starved to death. ... We don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. if it starved to death as a result of having cancer. It possibly got so sick it refused to eat,'' Cromer said. The couple had five or six horses, and the remaining horses did not appear to be neglected, Cromer said. A veterinarian veterinarian /vet·er·i·nar·i·an/ (vet?er-i-nar´e-an) a person trained and authorized to practice veterinary medicine and surgery; a doctor of veterinary medicine. vet·er·i·nar·i·an n. had advised the couple in June that the old horse had to be separated from the other horses because it couldn't compete for food, Cromer said. Animal control officers found that horse with another horse that appeared to be well-fed, Cromer said. Karen Maeshiro, (661) 267-5744 karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com |
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