Police remove five horses from Moscow property

Five horses belonging to a Moscow woman were taken into protective custody Tuesday by the Moscow Police Department after a lengthy investigation and a series of Facebook posts about the condition of the animals and their living conditions.

Moscow Police Cpt. Roger Lanier said the department has been investigating the animals' condition since the latter part of 2015, when Code Enforcement Officer Patty Riedl brought it to his attention.

Photos uploaded to Facebook depict three of the five animals in their shed at Rodeo Drive and Polk Street with no food and near-empty water buckets with inches of gnawed ice in the bottom. The other two horses were unsheltered.

Lanier said the animals have been removed from the location.

"They are in a safe location with people who specialize in the rehabilitation of horses," he said.

This is not the first time the animals' owner, Teresa Rai Davis, has had her animals removed, according to the Idaho Repository.

Her case history in Latah County dates back to June 1999 and includes five charges of animals at-large, three charges of permitting animals to go without care, two charges of cruelty to animals and one charge of failing to provide adequate fencing.

Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson said the difference between failing to care for animals and cruelty to them is marked by intentional harm.

"Cruelty to animals is like intentionally abusing, inflicting unnecessary suffering or pain, attacking animals," he said.

Thompson said his office has handled two of those charges against Davis, including an animal neglect case in 1999, originally charged as cruelty to animals, in which Davis pleaded guilty to transporting an animal without having it checked by a vet. She was instructed to pay a $150 fine. The second was an animal cruelty charge in 2008. The conviction carried a fine of $605.

"She pleaded guilty and went on probation and completed a year-and-a-half of probation," he said.

Of the remainder of the charges, all were dismissed except for one misdemeanor charge of animals at-large for which she was fined $159 and one charge of permitting animals to go without care, which carried a $388 fine.

City Prosecutor Erin Tomlin said the dismissals in the past happened for a variety of reasons, and the previous case she handled that ended in dismissal was "extremely frustrating and disappointing." Tomlin said she is unable to comment fully on the current investigation.

Shanon Quinn can be reached at (208) 301-2386 or by email to squinn@dnews.com.