Video: Horse rescuer charged with animal cruelty

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MAPLE VALLEY, Wash. - A Renton woman who operates a horse rescue went before a judge on charges of animal cruelty Tuesday.

Dean Solomon pleaded not guilty to allegations she starved and neglected four horses at her Auburn rescue, Pacific Equestrian Center.

The KING 5 Investigators have been looking into the growing problem of horse abuse for months and talked to Solomon at length before the charges were filed.

Solomon says she's rescued more than 1,000 horses over the past two decades. Her attorney denies there are any horses at risk.

"Animal Control is welcome to come out, and has frequently," said attorney Mark Prothero.

But the K5 Investigators uncovered disturbing video and photographs taken by concerned volunteers and people who boarded horses at her rescue.

Video taken by a volunteer in 2007 shows horses at her rescue with patchy skin and coats heavily crusted with mud and manure.

Two months ago Solomon was ordered to reduce her herd. She turned horses over to a Maple Valley rescue, and one horse named Ginger - who had been in her care for more than a year - could barely walk.

"She was starving, had lice and rain rot," said Dr. Hannah Evergreen, veterinarian.

Evergreen was called in to evaluate the horses at Pacific Equestrian Center by King County Animal Control. Three had to be put down.

"Multiple horses involved, they all were starved," she said. "They all had hooves that were not cared for, lice dermatitis, so plain and simple neglect, suffering, it's just a sad case."

King County Animal Control

15-year-old Natasha is one of four horses Dean Solomon is accused of abusing.

It's not surprising to find sick and injured horses at a rescue. But they're supposed to get better. And sources say that's not what happened at Pacific Equestrian.

People complained to animal control about as many as 80 horses crowded into pastures and stalls choked with manure.

Patricia Clark of Serenity Equine Rescue, who's now rehabilitating 10 of Pacific Equestrian's horses, says she confronted Solomon last summer.

"I said to her, you've taken these horses from a bad situation and put them in a concentration camp," Clark said.

School teacher Kristi Margeson says she was appalled by what she saw when she volunteered at Pacific Equestrian in late 2006 and early 2007. She described it as "kind of like horse torture."

KING

Dean Solomon pleaded not guilty Tuesday, April 29 to allegations she starved and neglected four horses at her Auburn rescue.

"There was no hay coming in. The horses outside were so hungry they were eating the boards off the fences," she said. "It definitely wasn't a rescue."

For two years King County Animal Control monitored Solomon, warning her to make improvements.

But sources tell KING 5 Solomon often knew when Animal Control officers were going to show up. She made sure she had hay and successfully argued the horses in bad condition weren't her fault.That's the same thing she told KING 5.

"They're horrible when they get here," she said. "We take the worst of the worst cases out there. We don't ever try to take a horse that may have a chance that another rescue - we take horses that other rescues have turned down."

But finally Animal Control had enough and recommended she be prosecuted for cruelty.

Solomon contacted KING 5 last month to complain that Animal Control wasn't being tough enough in a different case.

"Animal Control does need to come in and they do need to take the horses prior to them dying in a field," she said.

King County Animal Control

Ginger had to be euthanized after more than a year in Solomon's care.

KING 5's Linda Byron asked her: "Are they doing that job?" Solomon said no; she believes they're too easy on people.

And Solomon showed no sympathy for people with good intentions who get in over their heads.

Linda Byron asked her: "Would you take horses and being unable to care for them, just let them languish?"

"Absolutely not," Solomon replied. "That's wrong. That's abuse. That's neglect. No."

At her arraignment Tuesday, prosecutors asked that Solomon's remaining horses be seized.

"It's a case similar to child abuse in the sense that you have - it's not just property, they're actually live animals," said Julie Kline, King County Deputy Prosecutor.