Woman Accused of Abuse in Horse Scam

A 28-year-old Palms woman suspected of soliciting hundreds of donations of horses over seven years was arrested this week on suspicion of abusing, neglecting and selling the animals for profit, Los Angeles police said.

Renae Ferguson claimed to be the head of a nonprofit riding academy for disadvantaged children, but police say the business was a front.

Animal regulation officials recovered eight emaciated horses this week from two San Fernando Valley stables, and prosecutors charged her with 18 counts of cruelty to animals.

She was arrested Tuesday and was being held at Twin Towers Jail without bail.

Ferguson also has been charged with several felony counts of animal cruelty in the city of Ventura--her criminal trial there is scheduled to begin Wednesday.

“The part I don’t understand is why she neglected the horses. She could have gotten much more money for them if they were in good condition,” said Det. Rene Lacasse of the Los Angeles Police Department’s fraud unit at Parker Center. “People would buy them because they felt sorry for the condition of the horses.”

Ferguson solicited horse donors for the West Coast Riding Academy in publications such as the Recycler and California Horse Trader. The solicitations stated that impoverished children would ride the horses and that donors would get a tax write-off for their donations.

Police say there was no such academy and that solicitations for horse donors were often published on the same page as advertisements for the horse sales.

Ferguson sold the horses for $200 to $1,500, Lacasse said.

“People didn’t make the connection,” Lacasse said. “She’s been doing this for years, and she’s operated out of Sylmar, Ojai, Thousand Oaks and several locations in the city of Los Angeles. She usually ends up having trouble with her landlord.”

Most recently she had trouble with Jeanne Damato, landlord of Tara Ranch in La Tuna Canyon, where Ferguson rented stable space for the last two months. Damato said she called authorities about Ferguson’s alleged neglect of the horses.

“A girl came and said she wanted to donate her horse to Renae’s organization--her nonprofit,” Damato said. “I started laughing. The girl said: ‘Where are the children?’ I said: ‘What children?’ ”

Damato said Ferguson was behind on her rent and rarely checked on or fed the horses.

“Never in my life have I seen such starved, wrecked-out horses,” Damato said. “She had no conscience, no care, no love for these animals.”

According to Ferguson’s estranged husband, Lance Ferguson, horses became an obsession for Ferguson and she had been mistreating animals for years. He described a visit by the Humane Society in Ventura that discovered two horses so severely starved they had to be euthanized.

“She got colder and colder about the horses in the past few years,” Lance Ferguson said Thursday. “Finally, I said: ‘Either the horses go or I go.’ She got rid of me.”