Georgia Department of Agriculture officials removed seven starving and dehydrated horses from James Leonard Baxley’s Appling, Ga., farm on July 15, said Linda Fulmer, manager of Colombia County Animal Care and Control in the eastern part of the state. Baxley was arrested and brought to the Columbia County Detention Center on a $7,700 bond and is facing misdemeanor charges.

“The Department of Agriculture has been watching him because we have had some previous history with him,” Fulmer said. “The inspector for our area went by his farm doing a re-check, and that is when we found them (starving).”
There were a total of nine horses on the property, but only seven were removed. “The other two horses were left because they were in better shape,” said Fulmer. “They had hay to eat.”

The horses that were removed had been involved in a similar abuse case back in January 2004, when Baxley was fined several thousand dollars and ordered to reduce the number of animals he owned. Fulmer said the horses were removed at that time, but were later returned to his property after they were nursed back to health.

“He didn’t cut down on the number of animals he owned, though,” she noted