Carol Murphy says she will go to court to get her animals back.
NEW SHARON – A New Sharon woman said she plans to go to court to get back animals the state seized from her Lane Road home.
The state claims Carol Murphy’s animals were malnourished and living in filth.
A hearing set for Wednesday was canceled due to an anticipated snowstorm.
Murphy said she returned late from work March 8 and discovered her animals, including a pony, a horse, angora goat, six sheep and turkeys were gone. She said they were taken unjustly and called the case “bogus.”
Agents from the state Animal Welfare program seized 14 animals and had a state veterinarian euthanize an ill draft horse, according to a court document.
Director of Animal Welfare Norma Worley said the state received complaints about the animals 10 days prior to seizing them.
Attempts to contact Murphy were made, she said, and information was left.
Murphy claimed she didn’t receive sufficient information and left messages for a state agent that were not returned.
According to a state application for possession order, written by state Humane Agent Thomas Eddy, New Sharon Animal Control Officer Wayne Atwood arrived at the residence March 8 and observed many animals in “distress due to malnourishment and unhealthy living conditions.”
The conditions included lack of food, water described as filthy, and at least three animal carcasses in the same location as the seized animals, according to the court application. On the other side of Murphy’s residence was a deceased pony, it states.
Eddy also noted that state veterinarian Christine Frazier went to Murphy’s place March 8 and found a horse in the barn lying on its side in a “filthy soaking wet stall floor, which appeared to be just fecal matter and urine,” Eddy stated.
It was determined the animal had to be euthanized, Eddy wrote. He also noted that the other animals living in the same barn “did not have any water or edible food present and were living in unclean condition.”
Murphy said she moved to New Sharon 18 months ago and there could have been some old skeletons on the farm.
She said a pony died in December during a snowstorm after it broke down its stall and got into some clothing stored in boxes in the barn and ate mothballs.
It was impossible to move the pony out of the barn because of the 4 feet of snow the area received, Murphy said. She later had the pony removed from the barn and covered it.
She said her draft horse, which the state euthanized, had colic after someone gave it some bad hay. She asked a Chesterville veterinarian to euthanize it, she said.
Murphy also noted that she was sick for several weeks this winter and was unable to clean the barn, and later things froze.
Murphy said the state has notified her that it wants to seize her four dogs and four rabbits in her house.
Worley said the state’s intention is to get a search warrant to check on the animals inside the house.
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