Sallisaw Police Chief Shaloa Edwards said Kristi Lynn Hamilton was arrested on suspicion of animal cruelty, and unlawful disposal of an animal. He said the Sallisaw Police Department received a call that a property owner was drowning sheep in her pond.
Sallisaw Police Officer Billy Oliver drove to the home and spoke with Hamilton about the accusations. Hamilton told Oliver that she was training her dog and that the dog drowned the sheep in the pond. Oliver reported Hamilton wanted to show him the sheep and the two walked over to the location of the dead sheep.
Hamilton told Oliver she had other dead sheep on her property because she “bought a bad batch of sheep and the sheep were just dying.”
“The sheep were located in a small fenced area on the north side of her home. Hamilton took us to the fence line and showed us a row of leaves and to where the other dead sheep were located,” Oliver reported.
Oliver said when he moved the leaves he could see multiple dead sheep and some of the sheep were rotting. Oliver said officers discovered 36 dead sheep. He said 27 decayed carcasses were located at the base of trees on top of the ground, nine decaying carcasses were near a fencerow, and they also discovered two dead dogs.
During the search, officers found three vaccination papers for three dogs and an e-mail regarding the sheep. He said the e-mail indicated 90 sheep were purchased for $6,475.
Oliver also found registration papers from the American Paint Horse Association for a horse at the residence. Officers spent most of Tuesday cleaning up the rotten sheep. Edwards said the carcasses were sent to the landfill for proper disposal. Officers loaded the remaining live sheep along with a horse and nine chickens on a trailer and turned it over to Randy Freeman, Sallisaw animal control officer, who took them to a facility for care. Oliver said the remaining live sheep were in very poor condition. He reported being able to see their ribs, backbones and hipbones.
Edwards said this isn’t the first time Hamilton has been accused of animal cruelty.
On July 27 an employee of Hamilton’s reported Hamilton killed two dogs on July 22. She reported that Hamilton said the two dogs got out and killed two sheep, and Hamilton told her to get the two dogs and tie them to a tree. The employee told officers Hamilton then came outside with a rifle and shot one dog two times and the second dog four times.
The report states that after Hamilton killed the dogs she looked at her employee and said, “You better not tell anyone what just happened because it would cause her (Hamilton) a lot of grief.”
Hamilton then told her employee to bury the dogs under the tree but not to bury them deep and cover the dogs with leaves.
The first incident was reported on Sept. 22, 2009. Hamilton’s previous employee reported she watched Hamilton beat her dogs with a whip on several occasions. She reported that on Sept. 22 Hamilton had gone outside with a worker to do some yard work and one of her dogs started to bark.
“Hamilton got in a golf car and drove down to the dog pen then went inside the pen. She whipped the barking dog with until she was red in the face and could not hit the dog any more,” the worker reported.
According to the report Hamilton voluntarily surrendered 72 chickens and several sheep on Sept. 29, 2009, and agreed to pay the fees for the caring of the live animals so the case was not prosecuted.
Edwards said Hamilton was taken to the Sallisaw City Jail and later released on a $10,000 bond. She will be arraigned by Special District Judge Dennis Sprouse Wednesday at Sequoyah County District Court in Sallisaw.
(Sequoyah County Times - August 16, 2010)
