UPDATED: 200 Horses Seized By Houston SPCA

Montgomery County awarded custody of more than 200 horses rescued last week from Calico Dairy in Conroe, TX to the Houston SPCA.

Herman and Kathleen Hoffman were each charged with three counts of animal cruelty upon their arrest and will not be permitted back on the property. The Houston SPCA is on the scene to remove horses in the worst condition with officers posted at the farm 24 hours a day to protect the remaining animals.

President of the Houston SPCA Patricia Mercer told KTRK, “We have over 200 horses and we are going to be doing blood work, diagnostics on these horses and farrier work.”

“We have a huge job ahead of us,” she continued. “It’s unusual to do a seizure on site, but because of the sheer number of horses involved, we’ve elected to take the most critical horses back to the Houston SPCA — all of these horses need care, all of these horses are in need of veterinary care and so we’ll be providing care on site here…but we’ll be taking about two dozen of them.”

Montgomery County Attorney JD Lambright said to KTRK, “The logistics — just, you can imagine the nightmare involved of getting this many horses in this condition off the premises and getting them some place for care…(they) will be taken to a medical care at the (Houston SPCA) facility.”

The full story, via KTRK:

To help the Houston SPCA, go to their website where they are launching “Caring for the Conroe 200” to help buy food, provide veterinary care and medicine and give hope to animals in need. You can help by donating online to The Cinderella Fund which helps the Houston SPCA rescue, rehabilitate and rehome over 10,000 animals each year.

They also have a Caring for the Conroe 200 Wish List.

Update 7/19 8:38 AM: The Hoffmans’ charges have been upgraded and they now face seventeen additional counts of animal cruelty. Herman Hoffman is also charged with one count of tampering. The animal cruelty charges are misdemeanors with bond at $12,750; tampering is a felony charge with bond set at $10,000. The Hoffmans turned themselves in to authorities on Friday afternoon.

Go Riding.