Owner of 43 Horses : Rancher in Saugus Pleads Guilty to Animal Cruelty

A man accused of neglecting 43 horses penned in a remote Saugus canyon pleaded guilty Friday to 90 counts of animal cruelty.

Sentencing for Gerald Ingle, 67, is scheduled Dec. 18 in Newhall Municipal Court. He could receive a maximum of two years in County Jail and a $2,000 fine for the misdemeanor violations, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Elliott L. Fisher. At the least, he will be sentenced to probation, Fisher said.

Los Angeles County animal-control officers last week ordered Ingle to trim his horses’ badly overgrown hoofs and clean up their manure-filled pens and stalls. He has complied with those orders, officials said.

The horses, impounded on the Saugus property Oct. 14, are under the supervision of the county Department of Animal Care and Control. Fisher said he may ask the court to decide if the horses should be taken away from Ingle and removed from the area once Ingle is sentenced.

For each of the 43 horses, Ingle was charged with a count of cruelty to animals and a count of failure to care for animals. He was charged with four more counts relating to the county’s contention that the horses were not properly exercised and that they were surrounded with barbed wire.

Ingle said he started breeding horses five years ago as a retirement investment, but became overwhelmed by the venture and has been trying to sell the Saugus property for eight months. He has denied abusing the animals, but has acknowledged that his care of them has lapsed.