HARRISONVILLE, Mo. — A 74-year-old man found guilty of animal abuse for dragging a horse behind his truck and killing it has been sentenced to serve time behind bars, but he is appealing his sentence.
Court records show that a jury concluded Roy V. Hammond was guilty of the misdemeanor count filed for a crime that happened in spring of 2016. On the afternoon of March 29, a Cass County sheriff’s deputy responded to the area of East Orient Cemetery Road on a report of the horse being dragged, and found Hammond standing behind his truck with a horse lying in the road.
The deputy found an extensive trail of blood in both lanes as he got closer to them, and then found the horse was bleeding, breathing heavily and soaked in sweat. Hammond told the deputy the horse had repeatedly broken away from him, so he tied the horse to his truck and pulled it. He added that the horse would be “okay with some oil on her feet and rest.”
Hammond was arrested, and in the end, the horse wasn’t okay.
Veterinarians at Pleasant Hill Vet Clinic said the injuries were life-threatening and saw the horse’s hoof had been ground smooth, and reported multiple wounds to the fleshy portions of its feet, along with open wounds on the flesh around the hooves. One veterinarian said the open wounds were discolored and brown like “cooked meat,” likely due to frictional heat from being dragged against the roadway.
“We could tell that she had been through a lot,” said Dr. Zachary Patterson.
Vets determined that the horse needed to be euthanized, but it died on its own before that happened.
“This is a pretty severe case, it wasn’t a matter of neglect where the animal wasn’t fed or cared for, there was an intentional act by a human being to drag the animal down the road way causing ultimately for the animal to die. It’s pretty bad,” said Major Jeff Weber told FOX 4 when charges were filed.
While Hammond has filed his paperwork with the Western Missouri Court of Appeals, he’s currently behind bars in the Cass County Jail.
Previous Coverage: