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Stanchfield woman charged in animal neglect case
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Wednesday, 20 February 2008
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By Evelyn Puffer
Contributing writer
An animal abuse and neglect case that has been under investigation since October 2007 has moved into the court system with eight charges of animal neglect against a rural Stanchfield woman.
Representatives of the Isanti County Sheriff’s Department, Hooves Animal Rescue and the Animal Humane Society executed a search warrant at property on 377th Ave. N.W. Oct. 2 following a tip that horses believed to be neglected in Kanabec County had been moved to property in Isanti County.
Searching for properties recently purchased in Isanti County, Sheriff’s Office Investigator Lisa Lovering determined a possible address where the horses were being kept and a sheriff’s deputy was advised of the vehicle being driven by the horse owner.
The information paid off and the property was soon located.
The University of Minnesota Veterinary Medical Center, where nine horses and one donkey were taken to its Large Animal Clinic, has a rating system to denote the condition of an animal.
A body condition of one or two denotes a horse at risk for developing a systemic illness. Under this nine-point system, a score of one denotes an animal in poor condition who is extremely emaciated.
A score of two denotes that the animal is very thin and emaciated. Three denotes thin where fat is built in spinous process, and four denotes moderately thin with a faint outline of the ribs discernible.
One of the horses, a gelding, had a body score of one; two horses were rated at two; the remaining horses were rated between 3 and 3.5 on the 9-point scale. A donkey, also seized, had an approximately three years of hoof growth and had difficulty walking.
Last week the animals’ owner, Tracy Jean Bratlie, 37, of Stanchfield was charged by complaint with one count of felony animal cruelty for the gelding in the worst condition; six gross misdemeanor animal cruelty charges for the remaining horses and a misdemeanor failure to provide proper hoof care for the donkey.
She has also been charged with six misdemeanor animal mistreatment charges in Kanabec County to which she has pled not guilty. Those charges were lodged September 10, 2007. A pre-trial conference in that case was held Feb. 19.
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