Judge is set to rule on horses

A judge is expected to decide today who should take care of 30 miniature horses allegedly mistreated at an Upton farm.

Milford District Judge Robert Calagione was hoping to rule on the horses' future at a hearing in the case of horse owners Jerrold Arnowitz and Maria Kelleghan, who are facing charges of cruelty to animals.

A lawyer for Arnowitz and Kelleghan told the judge last week that they had moved most of their horses to ''reputable horse breeders" while planning to keep five and take better care of them.

But a prosecutor said the horses needed special care and demanded that all be sent to the Northeast Miniature Horse Society, where plans have been made to rehabilitate them.

In April, the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals launched an investigation into the couple's Upton farm after receiving complaints that conditions there were squalid and that horses lacked proper care. Arnowitz and Kelleghan were arraigned June 27 and pleaded not guilty to charges that they failed to provide their animals proper food and a sanitary environment.

The couple have said that illness in the family hindered their ability to care for the horses and that the condition of the horses is improving.

Daniel Solomon, the couple's lawyer, emphasized at a hearing Friday that the horses were the couple's property and raised concerns about the state's liability if it took them away.

''Horses do have rights, but they are also assets," Solomon told the judge. ''I understand the court has wide discretion, but obviously that discretion is not unlimited."

If the state's plan is adopted, he said, the state would be liable for any damages incurred in the event of such things as a natural disaster. A better plan, he said, would be a voluntary transfer of the horses to places where the MSPCA would be able to monitor them in weekly inspections.

Prosecutor Robert Shea argued that the law not only requires decent treatment of the animals, but that the horses now need special care that the owners' plan would not provide. ''I'm saying the horses will not be receiving the necessary sustenance that they are statutorily entitled to under the law," Shea said.

Given their poor health and unusually thin condition, ''they are entitled to the highest-quality sustenance," he said.

Cheri Ezell-VanderSluis -- director of Maple Farm Sanctuary, an animal sanctuary in Mendon -- said she was delivering bales of hay to the Upton farm about five years ago when she noticed that the horses appeared to be infected with parasites and were generally in poor health.

She and about a dozen other miniature-horse enthusiasts eventually managed to persuade the MSPCA to launch its investigation.

Dawn Tessier, an Uxbridge horse judge and trainer, and her sister, Jodie-May Rose, a stable manager, said they started buying as many of the horses as they could afford and urged others to do the same to spare them from the poor conditions.

Tessier said horse-abuse cases are trickier than cases involving abuses of cats and dogs. It's not as easy to find homes for horses, she said, because they are far more expensive to care for, particularly in cases in which veterinary bills run high.

In a confrontation outside the courthouse Friday, Arnowitz told nearly a dozen trainers and breeders who have questioned his treatment of the horses that, while the horses had lost significant weight during the winter, his veterinarian had determined that their health had improved.

''They love me, and I love them," he said of his horses.

''It's unconscionable," Tessier fired back.

Calagione said Friday he needed more time to gather information on state power over privately owned livestock, but hoped to decide the horses' future today.

Miniature horses are typically under 38 inches tall. Enthusiasts say they offer the joys of owning a horse while taking up less space and requiring less food.