The owner of 15 horses found on a Calverton farm Tuesday by the man who purchased the property in a foreclosure sale did not neglect the animals and was not issued any summonses, Suffolk County SPCA Chief Roy Gross said in a phone interview Thursday afternoon.
Suffolk SPCA officers conducted an investigation into the treatment of the horses and concluded there was no animal cruelty, Gross said.
“The person who owns the horses has had them for a while. He produced documentation that he’s been buying feed and taking care of them,” Gross said. The horse owner told officers he has been renting the property at the farm, according to Gross.
Gross said the SPCA officer who responded to Calverton farm when Riverhead Police called the agency Tuesday, Regina Benfante, is an equestrian expert. “Regina said the weight of the horses is normal for that type of horse,” Gross said. The horses are polo horses, he said.
The ribs of several of the horses were protruding through their coats. Benfante said Tuesday she thought the horses might have been living off the grass in the field all winter.
“I’ve never seen horses go after water like that,” Benfante said.
Gross said the SCPA would be “keeping an eye” on the horses.
The farm is the same location where Suffolk SPCA officers seized two dozen horses and other animals in May 2011, after being called by a court-appointed receiver in the foreclosure action. Those horses belonged to the former owner of the farm, Marie Tooker, Gross said. The SCSPCA issued a criminal summons to Tooker for alleged animal cruelty in violation of section 353 of the N.Y. agriculture and markets law. Her case was last on the Riverhead Justice Court calendar of March 11; it was adjourned to April 10.
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