Homeowner Faces Animal Cruelty Charges After Several Animals Were Seized

OKOLONA, Miss. (WCBI)- An Okolona man is facing multiple charges after several animals were seized from his property on Monday.

Two horses and dozens of chickens were taken away by Animal Control due to the poor and unclean living conditions they were being housed in.

Police said they’ve warned the homeowner that if he doesn’t take better care of the animals and clean things up they’d be seized.

However, they said that request was ignored.

“It’s pitiful to have to live close to something like that,” said Barbara Hood, the next door neighbor who informed police about the unsafe living conditions.

According to investigators, the horses had no shelter and lived in unhealthy conditions, walking around in mud and even their own waste.

The drinking water used by the chickens was filled with dirt and was described as unsanitary.

“I cannot see an animal living one minute in this kind of living conditions, not one minute, and I cannot allow animals to suffer like they were doing here at this home,” said Jermandy Jackson, Assistant Police Chief with the Okolona Police Department.

“It’s also a fire hazard not only to their house, and I don’t want anything to happen to their house, but it’s also a fire hazard to my house,” said Hood.

For thirty years Hood has lived peacefully at her home, but lately she said that’s changed.

“I can’t sit out on my porch and enjoy it for the filthy talk, and the junk, and the flies caused by horses and things in the backyard,” she described.

“You can’t have these kinds of living conditions for animals,” said Robert Stokes, investigator with the Okolona Police Department. “With livestock, horses, they’ve got to have so much free grass, acreage per horse. If you’re going to have them pinned in, they got to have grass, they got to have their area to accommodate them, they got to have good water, they got to have a shelter to get under, we have none of that here.”

“If you’re going to keep an animal, keep the animals just like if it was a part of your family, which he should be a part of your family because they have rights,” said Dale Lacey, Animal Control Officer.

Lacey said the horses are now being taken to a ranch in Monroe County, and the chickens are being taken to a shelter where they can get proper medical attention and to a better farm.

The Animal Control Officer admits, animal cruelty is a growing problem in the Magnolia State and this marks his second case this year.

However, he said Monday’s incident should be a sign that it won’t be tolerated in the city of Okolona.

“I’m going to make sure these ordinances are upheld, the law is upheld, and if I see an animal that’s not being treated right, they’ve got me to deal with.”

It’s against the city’s ordinance in Okolona for a resident to have livestock within the city limits.

As a result, the homeowner is being charged with housing livestock within city limits and animal cruelty.

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