Ryan
GOSHEN – The Goshen woman who was indicted on 20 counts of animal cruelty in connection with the deaths of nine horses was found guilty in Orange County Court Tuesday. One other horse suffered from extreme malnutrition but survived.
Judge Robert Freehill found Jeanne Ryan, 52, guilty on 10 felony counts and 10 misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty under the state Agriculture and Markets Law.
On July 29, 2017, investigators from the Hudson Valley SPCA Humane Law Division executed a search warrant at a barn located on Ryan’s property and discovered the badly decomposed bodies of five of the horses and one malnourished horse.
Chief Assistant District Attorney Christopher Borek, who prosecuted the case, said Ryan systematically starved the animals to death. They were also left in deplorable, filthy conditions.
She was sent to the Orange County Jail pending a sentencing hearing on September 6. She faces a maximum of two years in the county jail when sentenced. District Attorney David Hoovler said the state laws aren’t strong enough.
“The state laws that deal with Agriculture and Market laws are woefully inadequate,” Hoovler said. “They don’t address the seriousness of the crimes at all and they are quite antiquated back to a time when we lived in a different type of society. They need to be changed; they need t be updated and they need to have more teeth and a tougher penalty.”
Ryan must surrender all animals in accordance with the county’s Rocky’s Law.
Hoovler credited Borek and Assistant DA Anika Mohammed with successfully prosecuting the case.
