Kentucky: Giant animal graveyard of more than 30 animals found on Marlene Robinson's property

KENTUCKY -- Animal control officers from Henry and Trimble counties watched Wednesday afternoon as more than a dozen starved horses – including foals and ponies – fed on what was left of 15 hay bales brought to a Perkinson Lane farm south of Bedford the night before.

 

The horses – and the remains of others – were discovered on the property Tuesday night while Trimble County sheriff’s deputies were attempting to serve a warrant.

At least 30 dead animals were found on the property owned by Marlene Floyd Robinson, 33, of Bedford.

Animal control was called in immediately and brought the hay for the animals, who also appear to have been without water for an extended period of time.

On Wednesday, officials waited outside of the property until search warrants were issued late in the afternoon.

Once on the property, Trimble Animal Control Officer Russell Spaulding said 13 horses and five rabbits were rescued. The horses went to volunteers from L’Esprit Farms in La Grange, Ky., who will provide medical care and rehabilitation, he said. The rabbits are in the custody of the Henry-Trimble Animal Shelter on Sulphur Road.

Spaulding said Wednesday night that his team found the remains of four horses near or around a trailer that sits on the property.

In the rear of the property, beyond the tree line, officers found “a giant bone graveyard” where the remains of at least 17 horses were scattered on the ground,” he said.

“As soon as you walk off into the woods, it turned into this morbid grave site,” he said. “All we found were bones back there.”

He said some of the bones also appear to be the remains of alpacas and llamas.

There also was a pit with three horse carcasses that someone had apparently tried to burn, Spaulding said.

Missing from the property, Spaulding said, was a rabbit hutch that had been photographed near the trailer Tuesday night that held a number of dead rabbits. Spaulding said Wednesday that officials are trying to determine what happened to the hutch and the dead animals.

Spaulding and his assistant, Jimmy Davis, and Henry County animal control officers Dan Flinkfelt and Skylar Berry, also obtained search warrants for two other properties owned by Robinson – another farm on Harley Lane and her residence on Bray Ridge Road.

Nothing was found during the initial search Wednesday evening on Harley Lane, Spaulding said. Officials plan to search the residence later today with detectives from Kentucky State Police Post 5 in Campbellsburg.

Robinson also owns properties at Hardy Creek in Trimble County and in Turners Station in Henry County. Spaulding said he expects to find more carcasses when those locations are searched today.

He said Robinson will be arrested this morning and charged with at least 38 counts of animal cruelty. First-degree animal cruelty is a Class D felony, while second-degree animal cruelty is a Class A misdemeanor.

She also faces at least 21 counts of improper disposal, for which Robinson will likely be fined, Spaulding said.

(Madison Courier - Feb 2, 2017)