BUILDING A STABLE ENVIRONMENT SINCE 2001 ®

For the most part, animal control officers in Washington are focused on catching stray or dangerous dogs.  Despite the fact that Washington is largely an agricultural economy, and had somewhere around 80,000 horses and ponies, and nearly 450,000 cattle in the State in 2007, animal control doesn’t do a lot of work with livestock. 

By the end of 2007, Hope For Horses had worked with Pierce County animal control officers for more than two years.  Most of the cases involved one or two horses at a time, but at least one case had resulted in the impound of nine horses.  We had also worked on the infamous King County beastiality case.  These two cases, among others, caused the Washington legislature to take bold action on behalf of animals, and by 2005 certain acts of animal cruelty could result in a Class C felony.  Prior to that time, any act of animal cruelty, no matter how heinous, was considered a misdemeanor - making death by starvation roughly equal to a traffic ticket. 

So by the end of 2007, Pierce County animal control officers were probably as well-equipped as anyone else in the State to know when a horse was in trouble, and they certainly understood Washington law.

Although Washington animal cruelty laws are fairly broad, they don’t (and can’t) cover every single circumstance that causes an average person concern.   For the most part, people commit the crime of animal cruelty in the first degree when they starve or beat a horse to death.  And if it can’t be demonstrated that the owner acted with intent or in a way that they definitely should have known better, it’s often difficult for animal control to take action.

In the Donna Gale case, the horses were not starving or anywhere near death.  The conditions were not good, to say the least, which might meet the definition of animal cruelty in the second degree - but there was no law prohibiting Donna from keeping fifteen horses on an acre and a half of land.

a whole lot of complaining going on

I am woman.  Hear me roar

In numbers too big to ignore.

And I know too much

To go back and pretend.

             -- Helen Reddy and Ray Burton

December  2007

Diana Martin is a strong woman.  She’s not one to back down or give up easily.  And her friend Diane Ellis, whose property bordered Donna Gale’s, was upset.  So Diana came to see the conditions for herself.  The two women peered over the fence at the horses huddled together against the freezing cold. 

While they were watching, Donna Gale and a friend appeared and Diana asked whether they had a way to thaw out the frozen garden hoses that snaked across the property.  Donna told them the landlord didn’t want them using the electricity.   “What’s wrong with you?” Diana asked.  Donna suggested that Diana mind her own business, but that just wasn’t Diana’s style.

Diana began calling animal control on a regular basis, trying to get some satisfaction for her neighbor and for these horses.  Animal control responded with the party line - the horses were well-fed and there was nothing they could do. 

So Diana went on the offense.  She filed a public records request dating back to 2004 to see how long people had been complaining and what, if anything, had been done.  She asked her husband, Russ, to film the baby as it tried desperately to suckle from it’s skinny mother.  She contacted the Environmental Health Department and attended Pierce County Council meetings and asked them to define what constitutes adequate animal shelter.    She contacted local equine vets, including Dr. Jack Gillette, who had previously done some work with the County.  She called a couple of animal attorneys, who referred her to PETA.  She made notes to call  State House Representative Dawn Morrell (R) and her assistant Nancy Parsons.  She contacted the Washington State Horse Council, the Tacoma/Pierce Humane Society, and Pierce County Councilman Calvin Goings’ office.   She called Pat McCarthy, the county auditor and Ed Troyer, a detective in the county sheriff’s office, and Adam Karp, an animal rights attorney. 

And still more people got involved.  Local citizens making their way to and from work began to contact animal control.  Some stopped to give the horses an apple or carrot.  Some even dropped bales of hay over the fence, but most of it was immediately trampled into the mud as the horses scrambled to grab a bite.

In mid-December, Diana had secured a meeting with Lisa Drury, Pierce County records supervisor, and supervisor of animal control.  Diana had already met with the Department of Ecology by that time to see whether the run-off of water into the drainage ditch might constitute a violation.  She even spoke with a newly formed citizen group that was focused on rescuing animals in emergency situations caused by natural disasters.  Diana was determined. 

By Christmas Eve, one of the concerned citizens reported to animal control that she had seen no food delivered to the horses for a week.  Another caller said there were no water buckets and the fences were down. 

It was almost time for that meeting that Diana had set up with Lisa Drury.  Hope For Horses was asked to attend the meeting scheduled for January 3 at 2 PM to determine what the next steps should be. 

Chapter 3 ....

IMPOUND AT WALLER ROAD - Chapter 2