Donald Genthner, the Rockland man charged with abusing horses on a Waldoboro farm last fall, pleaded guilty to five counts of misdemeanor animal abuse on Nov. 29 in Lincoln County Superior Court in Wiscasset.
The guilty plea is part of a deferred disposition. If Genthner fulfills specific requirements for two years, all but one of those pleas will be withdrawn, and Genthner will be convicted of one count of misdemeanor animal abuse. He is scheduled to appear in court again on Nov. 29, 2012.
That charge comes with a $500 fine and a lifetime prohibition on owning hoofed animals or caring for them without supervision. He will also be sentenced to 90 days in jail, all suspended. Under the deferred disposition, Genthner will not serve any jail time.
Genthner was arrested in January and originally charged with 11 counts of animal abuse, including four felony charges. All the felony charges and two of the misdemeanor charges have been dismissed.
In total, there were 15 horses under Genthner’s care. Along with the bodies of seven dead horses, one horse was found in severe pain from malnutrition and an untreated leg problem, Waldoboro Police Chief Bill Labombarde said at the time of Genthner’s arrest. At that time, eight horses, including the horse with the leg problem, were alive and all were recovering nicely once they were transferred to new caretakers.
When they were found last fall, the horses were severely malnourished, according to necropsies conducted on the dead horses at Purdue University in Indiana. The necropsy tested the horses’ bone marrow for fat content. A healthy horse should have between 66 and 93 percent fat. One horse tested had 3 percent fat, the other had 5.4 percent.
Following Genthner’s indictment on April 21, his attorney, Rick Rubin, said a more thorough investigation would have shown that the horses had herpes, which he said was rampant in Maine at the time.
Rubin reiterated these statements following Genthner’s guilty plea.
Betsy Piper owns the farm on Chapel Road in Waldoboro where the horses were being kept. She was not involved in the abuse and was “nothing but helpful” in the investigation, Labombarde said. “She went above and beyond to make sure these animals were cared for after they were found,” Labombarde said.
At the time of Genthner’s arrest, Piper said that Genthner told her that the horses had herpes and that he had been consulting with a vet. However, as Piper’s concern for the welfare of the horses grew, Genthner had “a plethora of excuses as to why the vet couldn’t come,” she said.
Genthner was consulting with a vet, but could not afford to have the vet come to the farm often enough, Rubin said after the hearing.
Piper said that even if the horses had herpes, the conditions in which they were living were grossly unsuitable. “If there was six inches of poop, there was a foot,” she said. “They were standing in it, both inside and outside the barn.”
Piper also pointed out that if the horses had herpes, it likely would have spread through all the horses on the farm. The horses that survived were placed into foster care, and do not have herpes, the current owners said at the time of Genthner’s arrest.
The conditions of the deferred disposition stipulate that Genthner not commit any “crimes or violence or crimes of dishonesty” over the next two years Rubin told him before the hearing.
Traffic crimes, such as operating under the influence, and crimes involving use of illegal drugs will not affect the deferred disposition, Rubin said.
For two years, Genthner will also be held to his current bail conditions, which allow him to live with his family, who owns guinea pigs, turtles and cats, according to court documents filed earlier this year.
The bail conditions also allow Genthner to work with and transport animals as long as he is under the direct supervision of the animal’s owner.
Following the hearing, Rubin said the abuse was not intentional and that Genthner is remorseful. The situation on the farm was the result of “severe economic struggles and severe cold,” Rubin said.
Rubin continued that Genthner was “too proud and too self reliant” and “should have asked for help.”
Genthner said he was glad to have the matter resolved “for my family’s sake.”
“That’s sickening,” Piper said, when she heard Genthner’s sentence. “It’s discouraging that he got such a light sentence.”
Piper worries that this demonstrates that the court system does not take cruelty to animals seriously. “Seven horses died, and he got a slap on the wrist.”
