Coos County Animal Control Officer Rick Hoover remembers the first time he spoke with the owners of Hope, a 2-year-old filly found on the edge of starvation last month in Lakeside.

It was last March. Hoover was following up on reports that several horses were not receiving proper care. He receives about three or four such calls a week, Hoover said, and most times the allegations are unfounded.  

“Owners sometimes are offended when we come out, but once they realize we are just asking them to make sure the horse is all right, they are generally pretty cooperative,” he said.

Hope’s owners were living in Pendleton at the time, so she, her mother and brother were being taken care of by relatives who didn’t seem to know how to properly care for the horses. After instructing them on what feed to give the horses, he spoke with the owners on the phone.

“They told me they would move (the horses) to Eastern Oregon,” he recalled. “Instead, they moved them out of sight.”

Hoover thinks the horses were moved in September to a field farther away from the highway, though he suspects it was because of the better grass there, not because the owners wanted to hide the horses.

A couple days after New Year’s, Hoover received an anonymous tip suggesting the horses were in sorry shape. Hoover drove up to Lakeside, but a sleet storm prevented him from locating the horses.

When Hoover went out to Lakeside on Jan. 13, he found the horses. Or, more accurately, what remained of them.

Hope was “extremely emaciated,” according to his report. She also was suffering from rain rot and the loss of muscle mass in her hind legs. Her mother and brother were less fortunate. They were dead.

“They were both emaciated, with hip bones protruding prominently,” he said. “There was no fat covering on the animals at all.”

Hoover suspects the mother had died shortly before his arrival, noting it had been very cold the night before. When he arrived at the scene, the mother was surrounded by freshly curled mud, suggesting she had thrashed violently before dying.

“There were no signs of foot prints or predators in the area,” Hoover said. “She probably just got weak, went down and didn’t get up.”

Hoover spoke with the owners again and determined the three animals were victims of neglect. More owners are abandoning their horses on federal lands in other parts of Oregon, he said, because of the increasing cost of feed (see sidebar). But with Hope’s family, it was because the owners wouldn’t give up the horses that led to their demise.

“In Hope’s case, their owners were trying to sell those horses for money,” he said. “They never made the attempt to do the right thing for the animals.”

Christi McDonough has tried to right the wrong. After the filly was rescued from the Lakeside field, she was treated at Myrtle Veterinary Hospital. McDonough’s daughter, Jennifer Gluege, agreed to house Hope for the first couple of days. It was then that the horse made a big first impression on McDonough.

“I just fell in love with her,” she said. “She put her head on my shoulder and I said, ‘OK, she’s mine.’”

Hope has since been living at Family Four Stables near the intersection of U.S. Highway 101 and state Highway 42. McDonough estimates Hope has gained about 150 pounds since she was taken from her previous owners.

She did catch a cold at one point, but she was given antibiotics and appears to have recovered.

A gloss has returned to her coat and the skin on her back has muted from an angry pink to a dull brown.

“The vet says she has a long way to go, but she’s doing real good,” McDonough said. “He’s calling her Bright Eyes because there is a twinkle in her eye now.”

While Hope’s condition has improved, it has not swayed McDonough’s opinion of the horse’s previous owner.

“I don’t think Hope had a deal. Her mom and brother didn’t get a deal. I don’t think (the owners) should get a break,” she said.

At this point, there has been no formal arrest in the case, though Hoover said he plans to file his report with the Coos County District Attorney’s Office.

“Absolutely. The problem is our time is just so limited,” he said.

Hoover is one of two animal control officers staffed by the county. Their duties have increased in recent months, following the departure of the county’s animal shelter operator. So in addition to responding to calls reporting animal neglect and abuse, Hoover and his fellow officer, Wendy Martinez, must care for the shelter’s dogs and cats, which need attention seven days a week.

“When you are limited in the time you have to respond to calls, investigation time is a luxury,” Hoover said.

Should Hoover complete his report and charge the owners with first-degree animal neglect, a Class A misdemeanor, their stiffest penalty would likely be a sharp fine.

Coos County District Attorney R. Paul Frasier said the case has not come across his desk, but he would be surprised if a judge sentenced the owners to a full year in jail, the maximum penalty.

“The problem you have is with our jail space,” he said. “It would have to be gosh-awful ugly before you see (a year’s sentence).”

Instead, the judge might require the owners to pay for the cost of caring for the animal and an additional fee of up to $6,500.

“Usually where we hit these people is in their pocketbooks,” Frasier said.

Frasier said his office handles one or two cases of animal abuse or neglect every couple of months, though it has been years since a case arrived involving horses.

If a case were to go to trial, Frasier said a common defense is to suggest the animal had a disease, rather than it was a victim of neglect.

“In that case we would ask a vet to testify who could say, ‘No, this wasn’t a case of disease. This was a matter of the animal not getting fed,’” he said.

At first, McDonough was frustrated with the delay and thought the Sheriff’s Office was planning to drop the case. After having a conversation with Hoover, she began to sympathize with the animal control officers and even volunteered to help at the animal shelter.

“I might volunteer four hours a week at the shelter, and then they would have more time to do animal rescues,” McDonough said.

Hoover and Martinez should also have some help arriving soon in the form of a new animal shelter operator. Sgt. Dan Looney said the Sheriff’s Office recently collected several applications for the post. They will be tested in the coming weeks.

Even with the additional help, Hoover emphasized that McDonough’s role was important in saving Hope, especially since the animal shelter is not designed to house horses.

“It’s people like Christi that the animal shelter survives on, because resources are just so limited,” he said. “Otherwise, I don’t know what would happen to these poor animals.”

Others have helped, too. McDonough said $600 in donations have been collected at the Coos Grange Supply store and at Sterling Savings Bank. She also appreciates the work done by the caretakers at Family Four Stables.

“These guys checked on her every day. Constantly,” she said.

McDonough hasn’t exactly been a stranger. She tries to visit Hope every day, once in the morning and again in the afternoon.

“And if I can’t sleep, I come out and talk to her,” she said. “She’s a good listener.”