Horse Owner Faces Animal Cruelty Charges

WINNSBORO – A Winnsboro horse owner is facing six counts of ill treatment to animals and is scheduled to face a Magistrate’s Court judge on Aug. 30 to answer those charges.

According to a report from the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office, Calvin D. Carver, 52, of 480 Hungry Hollow Road, was cited on July 19 for the half dozen horses that “were not being taken care of properly and needed to be fed,” the report states. The Sheriff’s Office said photographs of the horses were taken and reviewed by a Columbia veterinarian. That veterinarian, whose name the Sheriff’s Office asked to be kept anonymous, reported that, “On a scale of 1-to-10, these horses were at a 5 or below,” because of lack of adequate food and nourishment.

The Sheriff’s Office was originally called to the Hungry Hollow pasture on July 16 after receiving an anonymous complaint about Carver’s horses. Lt. Roger L. Haney and David Brown, Director of Fairfield Animal Control, were initially shown about 10 horses by Carver and each of them appeared normal and in good health, according to the report. The report states that Carver did tell Haney and Brown that he did recently have to put one horse down after it had been bitten by a snake. Carver reportedly told Haney that the snake-bit horse had been treated by a veterinarian out of McConnells, in York County, but the horse would not eat and could not stand on the leg that had been bitten, Carver said in the report, and had to be euthanized. But Brown told The Voice last week that Carver had not properly disposed of the carcass until after Brown and Haney had visited the property.

“He didn’t cover him up or bury him until after we went out there,” Brown said.

After examining the 10 horses, Haney asked Carver if he had any others, according to the report. Carver said he did not.

The next day, Haney received a second anonymous call about Carver’s horses at the address. The caller said there were at least four horses, less than a year old, that were all “in real bad shape,” the report states. When Brown and Haney returned to Hungry Hollow Road on July 18, the emaciated horses were discovered and Carver was hit with the animal cruelty charges. On July 30, Haney contacted the McConnells veterinarian whom Carver had said treated the snake-bit horse, but that vet said he had not treated any of Carver’s horses since 2010.

As Carver awaits his day in court, Brown said he has been visiting the pasture several times a week to make sure the animals are being fed properly.

“We’ve been going out there until the court date to make sure (Carver) has food for them, and he has complied,” Brown said. “You can already see an improvement (in the horses). He has stepped up his game.”

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