7 Horses Found Starving Off Rural Road In Hudson, Owner Arrested

HUDSON, FL — Even hardened veterans of the Pasco County Sheriff's Office Agricultural Unit cringed when they saw the condition of the horses occupying a field in a rural area of Hudson Wednesday.

Deputies said the seven horses were so malnourished, their ribs stood out and untreated sores on their bodies oozed infection. They so sick and weak from starvation and lack of hoof care, they could barely walk. Two were no longer able to stand. They lay on the ground, their large brown eyes helplessly following the movements of the deputies who were there to rescue them.

One of the prostrate horses later died.

A passerby first noticed the condition of the horses and reported it to the sheriff's office on Oct. 24. The horses were in a field along Lazy Lane, a gravel road dotted by mobile homes.

"As is our normal procedure, our agricultural unit worked with the owners to try and get them to rectify the situation," said sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll. "However, our deputies and Pasco Fire Rescue were called out to the property yesterday to assist with a horse that could not get up."

To transport the horses that were too weak to stand, Pasco firefighters constructed a makeshift pulley to lift the horses onto a trailer.

Deputies arrested the horses' owner, Nicole Hutchins, 32, of Lazy Lane in Hudson, who lists her occupation as unemployed, and charged her with one county of felony animal cruelty and six counts of misdemeanor animal cruelty. Her bond was set at $5,000.

The sheriff's office will petition the court for custody of the horses and most likely auction them off.