Joe was arrested in April and charged with two felonies and two misdemeanors related to cruel neglect and failure to provide necessary medical attention to one of his horses in the village of Supai in Grand Canyon. The felony charges have since been dismissed.
The $1,200 in restitution will go to the Coconino Humane Association, which is caring for the horses. All of the animals appear to have been used as pack horses to haul tourists and other gear to and from the rim of Grand Canyon to the village of Supai and Havasupai Campground seven miles and 2,000 feet below.
Michelle Ryan, executive director of the Coconino Humane Association, said the association will keep the horses for at least 20 days more because Joe has 14 days to file a notice of appeal. After that point, the organization will decide what to do with the animals, whether it be keeping them for longer, putting them up for adoption or sending them to another rescue shelter, Ryan said.
The four horses are improving, but some are still hundreds of pounds underweight with visible sores along their spines, hip bones and shoulders. The scabs were most likely caused by heavy packs repeatedly rubbing on the horses’ bony frames, Ryan said.
Brownie, a mouse-gray male horse that was the subject of the initial charges, is still just half the weight of a healthy horse his size, Ryan said. He hasn’t gained much weight over the past several weeks because the animal’s energy has gone toward healing, Ryan said.
In the plea agreement, Joe confirmed that he had owned Brownie for about a year and that the horse had open saddle sores for at least several months prior to Joe's arrest. Joe also attested that he had no horse feed on his property at the time the horses were taken. During his initial appearance in federal court in April, he told the judge he is the sole provider for his family.
Joe’s two female horses, a small white one named Lit and a brown one named Blue, are still 200 to 300 pounds underweight. Both have saddle sores and Lit has permanent indentations on her face from a halter.
The other horse, Red, had saddle sores along his spine.
Havasupai Tribal Chairman Don Watahomigie did not return calls for comment about Joe’s case or a tribal initiative he discussed in April to help horses in Supai.
Susan Ash, a Flagstaff-area horse owner who founded the Stop Animal ViolencE Foundation to help horses in Supai, worked closely with federal investigators on Joe’s case and said her organization was pleased with the results.
“We are very aware of the fact that this is just the first step and there is an awful lot that still needs to be done down there,” Ash said. “The tribe needs to make concrete moves toward changing practices toward pack animals because we're going to be watching closely.”
Joe had not been prosecuted or punished for his actions by the tribe and at this point there have been no other federal prosecutions for animal cruelty on the Havasupai Reservation, according to Patrick Schneider, assistant U.S. attorney and tribal liaison with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Flagstaff.
As far as his office can tell, this is the first federal prosecution of its kind, Schneider wrote in an email.
Ryan emphasized that fact.
“We’re looking at it as a landmark case,” she said.
(AZDailySun - May 14, 2016)
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