Animal Cruelty

An animal-rights official who brought animal-cruelty charges against the operator of a Southampton horse farm and seized his horses was convicted of theft yesterday for not returning one of the animals. John Dobran, 38, who is medical adviser for Save-a-Horse Foundation, a private Burlington County animal-rights organization, was fined $305. Southampton Municipal Judge Dennis P. McInerney also ordered Dobran to pay $135 in restitution to the horse's owner, Al McGuckin, and to perform 10 days of community service.

When Barney the carriage horse fell ill and collapsed in June 1999, the meat wagon arrived even before he was dead, a carriage driver testified yesterday. Driver Carol Mattia said the former owner of Society Hill Carriage Co., Bastawi Ali, told her nothing could be done and refused to call a veterinarian. "He was still alive," Mattia testified, adding that she refused to let the butchers have the horse. "There was no way they were going to take Barney. " Another driver called veterinarian Jennifer Platt, who determined that the horse suffered from colic - a digestive blockage frequently caused by stress, poor feed, or inadequate dental care.

A Chester County Amish farmer was arrested last night during a raid on his farm and charged with multiple counts of animal cruelty. John Blank of Cochranville, owner of Limestone Kennels, was taken into custody by Pennsylvania State Police shortly after 5 p.m. when agents from the Pennsylvania SPCA descended on his farm. In front of his crying children, he was handcuffed and placed in the back of the police cruiser. After it was determined that he wasn't a flight risk, he was allowed to spend the night on his farm.

Seventy-six men were indicted on cruelty to animal charges this week, as a result of cockfighting raids earlier in the year by the Vineland police. Seventy-three men were charged after the Feb. 6 raid on the basement of Benjamin Cardona's rural Vineland home, where 48 roosters and $11,844 in cash were seized when police allegedly found men laying bets on fighting cocks. Cardona, 43, of West Walnut Road, was also charged with maintaining a gambling resort in his basement. The other men arrested at the scene came from Vineland, Philadelphia, Hammonton, Camden, Perth Amboy, Paterson, Mays Landing, Passaic, Somerset, Atlantic City, Hoboken and Lawrence, Mass.

A 49-year-old West Chester man, accused of leaving more than a dozen animals alone to starve and keeping more than 200 packets of crack cocaine in his home, was ordered to stand trial Friday. William Molina of the 300 block of South Adams Street remains in Chester County Prison with bail set at $6,000. West Chester police charged Molina with 13 counts of cruelty to animals and five counts of animal fighting, a felony in Pennsylvania. He also faces drug charges, including possession with intent to distribute and possession of a controlled substance.

Six agitated rottweilers, a red plastic rake, and at least one turkey are the only details in the saga of Oct. 7, 1996, that Austin Dutton and Jeffrey Lukens agree upon. The two Buckingham Township neighbors, who have been at odds for the last four years over Dutton's right to breed dogs on his property and have countered each other in multiple civil courtrooms, last week took opposite sides in a criminal matter: Lukens accused Dutton of siccing his dogs on the Lukens family turkey.

The Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office will decide whether two cable-television installers accused of tying a cat to the bumper of an Ocean Cable Co. truck and dragging it through the streets will face felony charges. An arraignment scheduled yesterday in Atlantic City Municipal Court for one of suspects, Joseph M. Newton, 25, of Galloway Township, was postponed pending the prosecutor's review. Newton is charged with animal cruelty. An Atlantic City police sergeant allegedly noticed a cable-company truck dragging the animal Dec. 22 as another cable truck followed along Grammercy Avenue near Route 30. Newton, who was driving the second vehicle, has pleaded not guilty, said his attorney, Jerry H. Steiner of Pleasantville.

In what local and county authorities called a largely educational punishment, a Philadelphia restaurateur has been ordered to clean up his livestock and slaughtering operation here, pay $500 in fines, and serve 30 days in jail after pleading guilty to five charges of animal cruelty and neglect. Municipal Court Judge Nicholas Lacovara sentenced Aimen Soudi, owner of Chicken Hut Livestock/Halaal Farms on Coles Mill Road, on Wednesday after more than an hour of plea negotiations with attorneys.

A Superior Court judge has tossed out an animal-cruelty conviction against a Franklin Township farmer accused of neglecting more than 20 horses. In a written decision issued Wednesday, Judge M. Christine Allen-Jackson ruled that an October 2003 warrantless search of the farm operated by Joseph Stuebing was illegal and that all evidence gathered during it must be suppressed. She also dismissed the entire case. The case was on appeal from Franklin Township Municipal Court. In May, Stuebing was found guilty of 34 criminal and civil counts of failing to care for the Arabians and American saddlebreds.

A municipal judge yesterday ordered the arrest of the owner of a homegrown-livestock and slaughtering operation after the man failed to appear in court on animal-cruelty charges. Judge Nicholas Lacovara issued a bench warrant and set $25,000 cash bail for Aimen Soudi after seeing pictures taken last month of conditions at Soudi's Chicken Hut Livestock/Halaal Farms on Coles Mill Road. Soudi, 41, had been scheduled to appear on four charges and a total of seven counts of animal cruelty and neglect, all filed by the Gloucester County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.