MARFA – Two horses have been ordered into the custody of the City of Marfa after a municipal court hearing on Monday led a judge to order them removed from their owners due to neglect. The city has been ordered to care for the animals, pay their necessary medical costs and find new long-term owners.
“We’re going to take our time to get this right, whatever that looks like, as close to right as we can,” began Marfa Municipal Judge David Beebe, who presided over the case. “I’d like for everybody to remember we’re all human beings, and none of us are perfect and that we all have feelings about things, people, animals, our town, rules, regulation, authority.” Photos of the horses, which are living in the county’s rodeo arena east of Marfa, had been posted on social media, attracting anger and a big turnout to the court that afternoon.
As the civil hearing began, City Attorney Teresa Todd, working on behalf of the state, presented the case against Marfa residents Hilda and Rudy Salcido at the Casner Room in Marfa City Hall. She provided evidence and called witnesses to testify that the animals had not received enough nutrition, lived in too small of a pen and lacked medically-necessary attention.
The city first became aware of a small bay mare named Star and a larger, unnamed grey gelding when neighbors called in a complaint on May 31 about a horse pen with an increasing number of flies. According to Animal Control Officer George Gonzalez – who arrived on the scene with Marfa police and Code Enforcement Officer Anahi Garcia on June 2 – the pen that held the two horses did not comply with the dimensions required by the city’s animal ordinance.
Garcia reported that there was “a large accumulation of horse feces and a large number of flies” at the pen. Both animals struggled with walking, she wrote, “because of the lack of treatment to their hooves.” They had prominently visible rib cages, with the bay mare showing “more advanced signs of malnourishment with a more visible and distinctive ribcage,” she wrote in the incident report. “There was no food inside [the pen] with the horses and just a little bit of water in two containers,” Garcia said.
There was enough evidence to get an order to remove the horses from the Salcidos’ property. They were taken into custody by the city and veterinarian Zachary Dodson was called in to evaluate the horses’ conditions.
Dodson joined the trial on Monday via Zoom as an expert witness, testifying that he believed the horses had been victims of cruel treatment. He detailed the poor conditions of both horses’ hooves, which typically need care every six to eight weeks. The animals’ hooves had grown so long they were curling up and cracking, making it more difficult to walk and stay balanced.
Their teeth also needed “floating,” a technique to evenly grind down the teeth so that they can properly chew and digest grain. Even if they had been fed properly, they could suffer malnutrition if they were unable to chew enough food to digest its nutrients. “Pointed teeth can result in malnourishment, regardless of whether food is left out or not. If they’re unable to grind the food, it does nothing for the body,” Dodson said.
The bay mare was “ultra thin,” he explained, adding, “She’s probably missing about 200 pounds of body weight off of her.” The horse also had a troubling knot of swelling on the back right ankle, and its firmness indicated it had likely been that way for a long time.
She was essentially reliant on three legs, which Dodson characterized as a lameness that “is very detrimental to the contralateral leg” because it is overcompensating to support its weight.
“Before I could make a recommendation of the quality of life of this poor mare, an X-ray is needed,” he said. “If it is broken, upkeep of it is very hard. It’s not an inexpensive process and you’d have to go to a specialist.” If found to be broken, Dodson said humane euthanization can be a reasonable course of action. “I did feel like this horse was in a pretty significant amount of pain.”
While the judge explained the couple could cross-examine any of the state’s witnesses, Rudy waved his hand at the opportunity to ask Dodson questions, saying, “I don’t know.”
When the Salcidos’ turn to testify came, Rudy said that the injured ankle was one of the reasons her previous owner gave her to him over 10 years ago, and that she’d been in that condition the entire time. “He was going to put her down, so I said, ‘Let me take her,’” he recounted.
Hilda swore in as a witness, testifying, “We have been feeding the horses. We’ve been trying to fix up the pens,” she said. She said when Rudy contracted COVID-19, the family struggled, with Hilda working shifts at a hotel to make ends meet. Her daughter, Rita, brought in receipts from Livingston Ranch Supplies to show that her mother had purchased food for the animals.
Todd cross-examined the Salcidos, showing that the animals’ medical care had fallen behind long before last year’s pandemic. They testified that the mare’s teeth had not been floated in five years and weren’t sure when the hooves were last trimmed. She had never seen a vet. Rudy said he had trimmed the grey gelding’s hooves four or five months ago, but couldn’t recall the last time the teeth were floated.
“This hearing is not a witch hunt on anyone,” Todd said in her closing argument. “I understand this is a very difficult circumstance and Mr. Rudy, I know you’re not well and I know how hard you’re working. As the city attorney, I’m here for the best interest of the horses and it just seems like with everything going on in your lives, it’s just too much as well.”
“I don’t believe you’re torturing them, but I do believe they’ve been neglected and deprived of necessary care, food or shelter, and are confined to a space that is too small for them and not clean,” Todd said. “This case is not about a crime, this case is about doing what’s best for Star the bay mare and the grey gelding.”
“It hurts,” Hilda said in her brief conclusion. Pointing to her husband, she added, “He’s saying that he’s going to let them take them.”
“I believe that there’s no torture involved here. I believe that you’re not bad to animals, that anything that’s happened in this case is not of a purposeful malicious nature. I know that to be true actually,” Beebe told the Salcidos. “I know you are friendly and giving people. Regardless of my decision, I know that.” He recessed into his chambers, and after five minutes, returned with a decision.
In the end, Judge Beebe decided the state had shown with a preponderance of the evidence that the animals were cruelly treated and deprived of necessary care. The Salcidos would not be required to pay the estimated $2,078 in care expenses that the city is set to incur, but if they appealed his decision, the cost would be imposed on them.
ACO Gonzalez will continue to feed the two horses, and at the advice of Dodson, is tapering up the diet of the mare slowly, along with providing anti-inflammatory pills for her ankle. The city will need to secure an X-ray for the mare, and – if the mare is still viable – teeth floating and hoof trimming for both. The judge’s decision was that Gonzalez and the city must adopt out the two horses to a proper, long-term home once they have had medical care.
The Salcidos did make a request, and the judge agreed, that the horses be provided shade during their stay at the county’s rodeo arena. Regardless of the pen they had lived in before, the family hoped the horses would have food, water, medical care and shade, especially as the temperatures climbed above 100 degrees.
Outside the Casner Room, Rudy said he was at peace with the judge’s decision, and that he would not seek to appeal it. Hilda and daughter Rita accepted the decision, “as long as the city takes care of and feeds those horses,” Rita said.