The Witnesses Speak

DAY 2 OF THE TRIAL:

Here is the most recent report from The Daily Mail

Kill pen owner testifies to taking Paragallo’s horses

Trial of accused animal abuser resumes

By Colin DeVries
Hudson-Catskill Newspapers
Published: Wednesday, March 3, 2010 1:00 PM EST

CATSKILL — A Bainbridge horse farmer testified Tuesday that horses delivered from Center Brook Farm in Climax were in a seriously malnourished condition.

“They were nothing but bones,”

said Donald Nickerson of the 22 emaciated Center Brook Farm thoroughbreds brought to his small farm intended for slaughter.

Nickerson testified Tuesday in the temporary Greene County Courthouse during the case against accused animal abuser Ernest Paragallo.

“They were in very, very bad shape,” said the aging farmer. “We lost ‘bout four of them to malnutrition.”

Nickerson purchased the horses from a transporter, Richard Bairidi, who had brought them from Paragallo’s Center Brook Farm in Climax.

Nickerson commonly buys horses and has them transported to a slaughterhouse in Quebec, Canada for cash. Slaughterhouses have been shut down around the U.S. in recent years, after a U.S. Court of Appeals in Illinois upheld as constitutional a ban on horse slaughter for human consumption. Horse meat is seen as a delicacy in Japan and parts of Europe.

Paragallo has been charged with 35 misdemeanor animal cruelty counts of failure to provide proper sustenance. His Center Brook Farm was raided by authorities on April 8, 2009, where 177 malnourished thoroughbreds were found, infested with lice and in dire need of veterinary care. The case is being heard, without a jury, before Greene County Court Judge George J. Pulver Jr.

Greene County District Attorney Terry Wilhelm continued his case against Paragallo in the third day of trial proceedings Tuesday, presenting evidence that the horses were the victims of being improperly cared for.

“The horses were starved to death,” said Nickerson of what he observed the day Bairidi and another driver brought the thoroughbreds to his farm on Feb. 23, 2009.

He said one horse was already dead when the trailers arrived and one was laying motionless on the trailer’s floor.

Nickerson estimated the horses weighed only 800 to 900 pounds, though “they had a 1,300 or 1,400-pound framework.” A veterinarian, Dr. Jerry Bilinski, had previously testified a healthy thoroughbred weight is 1,000 to 1,200 pounds.

He nearly told the driver to take them back, but instead gave him a check that was just enough to pay his shipping costs.

After a few weeks of rehabilitation at the “kill pen,” Nickerson called upon friends to purchase and rehabilitate the ailing horses. Two of those friends testified Tuesday.

Lisa Leogrand, a horse trainer with over 20 years of experience, testified she had never seen horses in worse condition.

“They had thousands of lice all over them,” she said. “They were really bad.”

Leogrand purchased three mares from Nickerson and nursed them back to health on her farm in Fulton, where she boards and trains horses.

She said the horses coats were shedding severely due to lice-induced infections, leaving unusual bald spots. Many of the horses also had open sores due to constant itching from the lice. She said it was nearly impossible to shave their winter coats because of all the open sores.

“You couldn’t really touch them,” she said. “They’d cringe.”

She also said they had been infested with digestive worms and had signs of anemia, a condition likely caused by malnutrition.

Christy Sheidy had also purchased horses from the Nickerson farm and observed the same maladies. Sheidy operates Another Chance 4 Horses in Bernville, Pa., a nonprofit horse rescue, rehabilitation and placement center.

Both women commented on how skeletal and emaciated the horses had become.

When asked by Wilhelm what could have caused their skeletal condition, Sheidy responded, simply: “Not being fed.”

Sheidy rehabilitated four of the thoroughbreds formerly owned by Paragallo and identified photographs for the court showing each of the horses at a healthy weight after only three months of proper care and feeding.

During cross examination by defense attorney Michael Howard, Sheidy said that Paragallo had contacted her by phone and offered to pay her $4,000 for caring and rehabbing the horses. He also told her he didn’t know they were brought to a kill pen.

Howard, of Hudson, said that his client intends to testify in the coming days and show that he did not treat the horses improperly.

Paragallo told state police in a videotaped statement that he was feeding the horses strictly with hay to keep them lean, as suggested by breeder Joseph Taylor in his book “Joe Taylor’s Complete Guide to Breeding & Raising Racehorses.”

He also told police he had not personally visited Center Brook Farm for nine or 10 months before the April 2009 raid.

“Did I mismanage? Shoot me. I mismanaged.” he told the police. “I f—ed up. I’m not denying it. If they want to lock me up, maybe they should. Whether it’s my fault or not, it happened and it’s my responsibility.”

Wednesday’s proceeding will begin at 9 a.m. in the temporary Greene County Courthouse on Woodland Avenue in Catskill.

To reach reporter Colin DeVries please call 518-943-2100 ext. 3325, or e-mail cdevries@thedailymail.net.

Copyright © 2010 – The Daily Mail

1. 

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