Woman faces neglect charges
A Rathdrum woman accused of neglecting four horses, including one that had to be euthanized, faces animal cruelty charges.
Authorities seized the other three horses Tuesday, Kootenai County sheriff’s Lt. Kim Edmondson said.
Owner Lisa Close said she believes the accusations against her stem from an ongoing property dispute. In a phone interview, she denied mistreating the animals and said she feels she is being harassed.
Edmondson said the investigation began Jan. 27 after someone complained that a horse was down in the Rathdrum field.
“The horse had been down for several days,” she said. “It had thrashed in place. … You could tell how long the horse had been there from the piles (of manure) by its tail.”
Edmondson said Close was given a chance to get the horse on its feet but was unsuccessful. A neighbor euthanized the animal, she said.
Close said she believes the horse slipped on the ice, fell into a small ravine and possibly broke its hip. She said she didn’t see the horse the last time she went to feed the animals before the complaint was made in January, but that it didn’t concern her.
She said the horses often went beyond the treeline where she couldn’t see them and didn’t always come out when she was there to feed them.
Edmondson described the three surviving horses as severely malnourished. Close denies that.
“They’re not emaciated,” she said. “They’re not thin as far as I’m concerned. I’ve seen worse at other people’s places.”
Edmondson said authorities gave Close about a month to improve the horses’ conditions – with close monitoring.
“They didn’t look any better,” Edmondson said. “They looked worse.”
A previous animal cruelty complaint was made against Close in 2005, though no criminal charges were filed.
Kootenai County Prosecutor Bill Douglas on Monday charged Close with four misdemeanor counts of permitting animals to go without care. His office is petitioning to keep Close from ever getting her horses back.
Douglas said a hearing should be scheduled within the next couple of weeks.