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Man arrested for abandoning horses on Highway 7
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The five Appaloosas will be put up for adoption when weaned After nearly two months of investigation, the Baker County Sheriff’s Department has arrested a man accused of abandoning five young Appaloosa horses on Highway 7 near Sumpter in mid May. James Charles Harmon, 30, of 15735 Hunt Mountain Road, was jailed Tuesday on five counts of animal abandonment and four counts of second-degree animal neglect, Class B misdemeanors, and one count of first-degree animal neglect, a Class A misdemeanor. Harmon was granted a conditional release from jail Wednesday. Sheriff Mitch Southwick said the animal neglect charges accuse Harmon of dumping the animals without providing adequate food, water or protection for them. All five of the young horses, three females and two males, were found with barbed-wire cuts and scrapes, but one was more seriously injured, resulting in the first-degree animal neglect charge, Southwick said.A pair of month-old fillies were the first to be found on May 17 near the top of Huckleberry Mountain on Highway 7 between Sumpter and Whitney. The black-and-white babies were thought to be twins or sisters. Three more young Appaloosas were found a short time later in the same vicinity. The horses have been kept at the John and Kay Dobbel ranch on Sutton Creek where they are being nurtured with goat’s milk, Southwick said. The Animal Legal Defense Fund of Portland has offered $1,000 to help defray the cost of caring for the animals and the veterinary treatment they required, Southwick said. The sheriff expects the Appaloosas to be weaned in about a month. At that time he plans to offer them for adoption. “I just want them to go to a good home,” he said. In the meantime, the investigation is continuing and Southwick said other arrests are pending. |
