By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter
Diane Marchand says she has documented cases of starving horses that died in Levy County because the resources weren’t available in county government to get them help.
She believes the lack of a trained agriculture investigator at the Levy County Sheriff’s Office has contributed to the problem. She asked the Levy County Commission on Sept. 6 to add money to the sheriff’s budget for an investigator.
Commissioners didn’t make a decision on her request.
She said there were 92 animal complaints in 2015 and 1,965 animal complaints in the past 20 months.
“With the massive increase in population in Levy County and many people still enjoying the rural way of life and seeing the animals grazing in the field, there will be even more livestock neglect in Levy County that will need to be investigated,” she said. “The sheriff’s office is doing the best they can but without a budget for a dedicated livestock deputy, the regular patrol deputies are pulled from their job of protecting the citizens to investigate livestock complaints. Deputies are not trained to look for and what records to ask for and many times they must follow up on cases for months to get help for the animals. Sometimes the sheriff’s budget is burdened with hiring a vet to get second opinions to prove neglect.”
Sheriff Bobby McCallum told Spotlight in an interview Monday he won’t be able to hire an agriculture investigator until after he fills his many vacancies for patrol deputies, a drug investigator, and detectives.
“We’d love to have one. We work on all kinds of agricultural crimes and take complaints, but I don’t have the personnel to dedicate to an agriculture investigator. I had a dedicated person handling the agriculture investigations, but we never could please the people who were reporting stuff. He was doing a good job. He requested a transfer. He couldn’t put up with the harassment to please people,” McCallum said.
Marchand sent photographs to County Commissioner John Meeks citing instances where “untrained deputies” had to return multiple times due to reports from four different callers. She said the two photos were of horses owned by the same person that died of starvation and sand impaction. After seeing one horse not getting up, she said she contacted Levy County Commissioner John Meeks about the need for a livestock investigator. Meeks provided her with a response in an email.
“The Board of County Commissioners are not in the business of regulating and mandating how people keep their animals and livestock. What some consider cruelty, others see as folks doing the best that they can. I will agree the horse in question looks skinny, but how long has it been in the possession of the current owner? What was the condition of the other horse in this picture? There are a lot of unknowns besides just a picture of a horse. I can appreciate your passion for protecting animals but I don’t have the answers you are seeking.”
In an interview Monday, Meeks talked about the sheriff’s budget as well.
“We gave the sheriff almost $19 million for his budget and we have no control over how he spends his money and I’m not throwing him under the bus, but we can’t get anybody to volunteer who currently is employed at the sheriff’s office to take on the role because the person involved in that email worries them to death,” Meeks said. “It’s unfortunate this horse passed away, but there are so many circumstances beyond ‘here’s a horse.’”
Meeks said an agricultural investigator looks into more than animal neglect and abuse cases. An investigator probes the theft of equipment and agricultural products. A previous agricultural investigator for the Levy County Sheriff’s Office before the one who worked most recently in the position spent a lot of time in Cedar Key dealing with clams and clam leases.
“I’m not denying we need one, it’s finding someone that’s willing to do it, is the biggest issue. Like the sheriff said at the Sept. 6 meeting, he can’t fill regular deputy positions. Those people are not out there to fill those positions. It doesn’t matter how much money you offer them,” Meeks said. “It’s similar to what we did with EMS. We spent all that money trying to hire paramedics and we’re still 7 paramedics down.”
Meeks conceded that the county has put the 7th ambulance back in service. It’s located in Chiefland rather than Fanning Springs, where it was located before it had to be shut down for lack of medics.
“But we’re on a razor-thin edge. Another COVID breakout and we lose two or three medics and we’re back to being in bad shape again,” Meeks said.
McCallum said his deputies do receive classroom training related to animal cases, disputing Marchand’s claim that untrained deputies are being sent to investigate livestock cases. He said they receive classroom training on what to look for and have a checkoff list for examining the condition of the animal.
“A lot of times these horses are in old age. We just had a vet go out and check on some cattle we had a complaint on. The cattle were old and of different breeds. They are being fed. The veterinarian gave them a clean bill of health for their needs and they are being cared for,” McCallum said. “We got two or three complaints from the same person over that. When we’re in doubt, we’ve been hiring a veterinarian.”
He said Lt. Jimmy Anderson has been assigned to help deputies with their animal investigations and to make sure there is a follow-up on calls to ensure the owners are taking care of them. He said if the deputies find the animals aren’t being cared for, the deputy issues them an order to feed the cattle and then returns for follow-up calls to make sure the animals are recovering.
“The bottom line, until I can fill my open positions with my first response deputies, I can’t fill the drug task force and I can’t fill the Ag investigator position,” McCallum said. “Right now, Lt. Anderson is doing his best to keep up with the animal complaints and reviewing these and working with the deputy to make sure we get the professional people. Do we want an Ag investigator, do we need one, yes. No question about that. We’re sending deputies to these calls. They’re getting followed up on. It doesn’t always come out like the complaining parties want. We have to abide by the law. It’s not whether we want to do something, it’s whether we have probable cause to do something.”
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Board of County Commission Regular Meeting September 6, 2022; Posted September 19, 2022
