Couple charged with animal cruelty

Jerry Conley went to the courthouse to get his horse back.

He left after learning he had been charged with eight counts of animal cruelty.

Conley, 58, and his live-in girlfriend, Jillian Medina, 25, both were charged after an investigation into their horse rescue shelter located off Tranquility Lane near Brooksville.

Seven horses were confiscated from their 2.5-acre lot earlier this month by Hernando County Animal Services. Two others were euthanized because they were too weak to stand, authorities said.

On Thursday, deputies responded to the third floor of the courthouse in Brooksville where Conley was in court for a fitness petition. He was hoping to reclaim possession of one of his horses.

Instead, the judge made him pay restitution to Animal Services and ordered the county to maintain possession of all of Conley's horses.

Conley was served with the summons after his hearing.

Both he and Medina are scheduled to appear in court Jan. 6, 2010, to answer to the misdemeanor charges.

Jason Smith, the assistant state attorney who is prosecuting the case, did not return a message seeking comment Friday.

Matt Pila, a Brooksville prosecutor, said his office typically doesn't file felony charges in animal cruelty cases unless they can prove the defendant killed the animal. A veterinarian who comes in later and euthanizes and animal is not the same, he said.

An animal cruelty case can otherwise rise to a felony if authorities can prove the defendant "intentionally commits an act to any animal which results in ... excessive or repeated infliction of unnecessary pain or suffering," according to Florida law.

That is difficult to prove even after a veterinarian's examination, Pila said.

"Our burden of proof is so high for a felony case," he said.

Conley claimed the horses were sick when they arrived on his property. He and his girlfriend ran a rescue for only three months and it takes time for a horse to fill out after it has been deprived of food, he said.

Neighbors said they had made several calls to animal welfare groups and the county to report Conley and Medina.

The couple claimed they fed their horses twice a day.

Jennifer Weldon, the veterinarian who examined the horses after they were confiscated by Animal Control, told authorities "if they were feeding the horses that amount of feed and type of feed twice a day, the horses should not have been in the condition they were in," according to an arrest report.

When Animal Control first arrived on the property Nov. 11, they observed two horses in "very poor condition," deputies said.

One was lying on the ground with all of its ribs and vertebrae bones showing while the other was urinating blood and had open sores on its back and upper lip.

Weldon determined they were "too severely malnourished, too emaciated" and were euthanized.

Conley told Animal Control he was in financial trouble and could not pay for a vet. He also confessed to being "unable to properly care" for the animals, according to an arrest report.

Conley and Medina were days away from being evicted from their home on Tranquility Lane. They have since moved to a house in Shady Hills in Pasco County, deputies said.