County Monitoring Dispersal : Owner in Cruelty Case Is Selling Horses

A Saugus man who pleaded guilty to 90 counts of animal cruelty for failing to properly care for his horses began selling them this week, a Los Angeles County animal-control officer said Friday.

About 16 horses had been sold, said Sam Morris, supervisor of the county Animal Care and Control Department for the Santa Clarita Valley.

The animals’ owner, Gerald Ingle, 67, is selling the 43 horses, which are mostly breeding stock, under the county’s supervision.

The horses sold through Friday brought from $500 to $2,000 each, Ingle said. He would not disclose the total realized from the sale so far.

Ingle said he has given away some horses that would have been hard to sell in a package deal, “just to ensure they get a good home.”

He said he hopes to sell all the horses in the next few months.

“We feel if we keep one animal, someone would always be looking to see if they were mistreated,” Ingle said.

“Our goal is just to get all this behind us, go on and retire and go fishing,” he said.

Ingle came under fire last month when a newspaper reported that his horses’ hoofs were overgrown and that the animals were kept in pens with manure a foot deep.

Ingle has acknowledged that his care of the horses lapsed, but maintained that they were always well-fed. County animal-control officers agreed that the animals had plenty to eat. They were impounded because their hoofs were overgrown and they were being kept in filthy conditions, the officers said.

“There just wasn’t enough of me,” Ingle said. “It got ahead of us, and I’m not denying that.”

Ingle said he received death threats on his telephone-answering machine after a spate of articles disclosed the conditions in which the horses were kept.

Ingle, who will be sentenced Dec. 18 in Newhall Municipal Court, said he expects at least “a fine and probation.”

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.

Ingle said the money he gains from selling the horses will probably be used to pay the fines he believes will be imposed by the court, as well as the cost of cleaning the pens. “I don’t think we’ll make much profit on them,” he said.

Animal-control officers said they received about 28 calls from people who wanted to buy the horses.

Officers inspected the property of the prospective buyers and required them to sign affidavits ensuring that the horses will not be returned to Ingle, Morris said.

“They’re carefully screened,” Morris said. “He wants them all to go to good homes, and he’s working toward that.”