Neighbors watched a horse killed in slow motion. Now they want the owner, and Sonoma County Animal Services, held accountable

Betsy Bueno got the call from a neighbor on July 10.

“It’s really bad with the dog and the horse, Betsy,” her acquaintance said. “Can you please go check?”

So Bueno drove roughly a half-mile north of her home, to a field abutting Petaluma Hill Road in unincorporated Sonoma County, to a scene she had visited many times in the preceding months. This time it was much worse.

A large German shepherd had taken a brown and white horse (known as a paint) to the ground, and was viciously attacking it. The exhausted horse thrashed and shrieked, but was unable to repel a dog that was pouncing “like a lion on an elk,” as Bueno put it. The woman started to jump the fence to intervene, but retreated when the enraged dog ran toward her. She shouted herself hoarse and threw rocks at the dog. Nothing could halt the attack.

A veterinarian wound up euthanizing the horse that day.

‘Horrific’ incident not the first time

“I’m a strong woman,” Bueno said last week. “I was a police officer for almost 25 years, I was in the Army. I’ve seen a lot, including the fires in 2017. And I’m gonna tell you, in 64 years of life, I have never witnessed and had to deal with something as horrific as I saw. Nine days later, I can’t sleep, I can’t eat, I can’t stop thinking about it.”

As an isolated event, it was gruesome. But what bothers Bueno and many of her neighbors most, they say, is how many times it had played out. They had called Sonoma County Animal Services on numerous occasions over the previous year, begging the agency to remove the horse or discipline its owner, and were told that nothing could be done.

These neighbors, about a half-dozen of whom spoke to The Press Democrat, believe the county failed this horse. And they are adamant that its owner, Lorenzo Martinez Salcedo, is unfit to care for animals.

Over a period of months — two people said it went on for as long as a year — people living near Petaluma Hill Road and Hopi Trail were subjected to the tragic spectacle of a horse being killed in slow motion.

Day after day, for hours at a time, the German shepherd chased a paint horse around the property at the northeast corner of the intersection. The dog would bark and nip at the horse. The horse would kick and paw the ground, then attempt to flee. On and on and on it went.

There was another horse in the same pasture, a sorrel mare. For whatever reason, the dog never bothered that one.

Eventually, the neighbors say, the paint showed open wounds and became emaciated from overexertion. Its ribs showed, its jawline became drawn. Dodie Malmanis, who lives on Warrington Road, said she watched one day as the horse tried to urinate and couldn’t even find that small measure of relief as the dog barked and snapped.

“The horse was run into the ground and not able to put its face down to eat with the dog on it daily each morning, and the other horse ate both portions,” Bueno said. “That’s why this one was so skinny and the other at good weight.”

Salcedo angrily declined to comment. “Don’t call back,” he said before hanging up.

The area around Hopi Trail is large-animal country. Many residents there own horses, and they were aghast at what they were witnessing.

“I did horse rescue for 28 years,” said Sandy Chiaroni, who lives on Petaluma Hill Road. “And oh god, it’s the worst case I’ve ever seen.”

A few neighbors spoke to Salcedo directly, they say, but couldn’t get much response. Others felt intimidated by him. So most turned their attention to Sonoma County Animal Services.

15 emails, calls about horse; ‘many’ visits from Animal Services

Brian Whipple, the department’s director, estimated that Animal Services received 15 calls or emails related to the horse over several months, and said his officers made “many visits” to Salcedo’s property.

“During this entire time, we were giving all kinds of ideas to the owner on how to keep this dog contained,” Whipple said. “We gave so many ideas and suggestions, and it never got to the point where they were able to keep the dog contained.”

Animal Services wasn’t able to take more forceful action, he said, because his officers never saw the firsthand evidence — “an active attack or, say, a person hitting a dog,” as he put it — that would allow them to act immediately. Without eyes-on confirmation, the department’s hands were tied.

“This one is tricky, because the property owner is also the horse owner and the dog owner,” Whipple said. “Animals are considered property. You can’t just go on someone’s land and remove an animal without good cause.”

Kimberly Cherney, who has worked in humane animal welfare and law enforcement for nearly 35 years, and who now works as a private consultant for the animal care industry, agreed with Whipple’s assessment.

“If it got to the point where officers went out to investigate, and if they were to see a situation on the property that is injurious to an animal, like a barbed wire fence or an exposed stake in the ground, the owner is obligated to keep the animal safe,” said Cherney, whose career included stints as animal control officer for the County of Orange and the city of Costa Mesa, and as animal services supervisor for the city of Irvine.

“Could the officer take action? Yes, but they would have to have evidence.”

Bueno disputes the notion that Animal Services officers didn’t directly observe the carnage. She was sitting in her FedEx truck watching the dog-and-horse drama play out one day, she said, when an officer arrived. She pointed out to him that the dog was biting the larger animal’s back legs.

“Brian is trying to make excuses for their non-action,” Bueno said.

Other complaints

The concerned neighbors have other complaints relating to this case.

One is that it took Animal Services an hour to respond to the final episode on July 10, and another hour for a veterinarian to arrive. By then, there was no option but to put down the suffering horse.

Whipple pushed back against that assertion. He acknowledged the response time was “a bit extended,” explaining that the on-call officer was dealing with someone who had been badly bitten by an animal when the call came in from Hopi Trail. The officer went directly from that call to the downed paint. But, Whipple said, “it definitely wasn’t an hour for our person to get there.”

He said he personally spoke to Cotati Large Animal Hospital, the veterinary service that wound up euthanizing the horse, and was assured they would have a vet there within a half-hour.

Bueno, citing AT&T call logs, said she first reported the unfolding incident to Animal Services dispatch at 10:53 a.m. on July 10. Her last call to them that morning was at 11:46. An animal control officer showed up shortly after that, she said.

‘The system let those animals down’

Making these recent events all the more troubling for nearby residents is that the fallen paint wasn’t the first distressed horse they’d witnessed on Salcedo’s seven-acre property. About a year and a half ago, Bueno said, she was driving her delivery route when she saw a different horse lying in the pasture there, in obvious distress. She knocked on doors and learned the emaciated horse had suffered through a difficult miscarriage a week earlier.

Bueno tracked down Salcedo. He refused to call a veterinarian, she said, so she told him she’d contact her own. Bueno ran to her house and retrieved a collapsible 12x12 shelter to set up over the mare. The animal had a fever of 105 degrees, she said. Standard temperature for a horse is around 100.

“There was no bringing that horse back,” Bueno said. “That’s how I met Lorenzo. I’ve kept an eye on that property ever since. And yet the system failed us. (Animal Services) know there’s a prior.”

Several residents confirmed Bueno’s recounting. One of them — a man who lives on Hopi Trail and requested anonymity because he doesn’t want animosity with his neighbor, Salcedo — claimed a third horse also died on the property. That one, the man said, couldn’t get into its shelter last winter because Salcedo had jammed so many items near the entrance, and wound up dying in the elements.

“The system let those animals down,” this source said, echoing Bueno.

The distraught neighbors want Animal Services to be more responsive to complaints, and more direct in imposing orders or fines on owners. Whipple notes that his office fields about 12,000 calls annually. He is allotted 10 staff members, but currently has only five. It’s a lot to handle for a department that is on call 24 hours a day.

“For Animal Services, it’s kind of a double-edged sword,” Whipple said. “We either do too much or too little. We don’t really have a winning thing for a lot of what we handle.”

In addition to their frustration with Animal Services, the neighbors feel strongly that Salcedo should not be allowed to care for horses. The sorrel mare is still in the pasture off Petaluma Hill Road.

“We want him to be charged with felony animal cruelty,” Chiaroni said of Salcedo. “And never be allowed to have an animal again.”

It would have to happen through a court order, said Cherney, the animal care professional. And that may yet happen. Whipple said Animal Services is moving forward with potential animal cruelty charges against Salcedo.

“We’re still gathering evidence and witness statements,” he said. “We need all the pertinent information. But we have spoken to (the DA’s office). We will get that prepared and submitted to them, possibly this week.”

Meanwhile, Salcedo buried the horse in the field where it died. A heaping mound of dirt is still visible there. He surrendered the German shepherd to Animal Services, which is weighing the dog’s fate. “Given the circumstances, it could be a threat to public safety or other horses,” Whipple said.

A few blocks away, Dodie Malmanis keeps thinking of her 10-year-old grandson. The two of them spent much of the weekend of July 8-9 worriedly checking on the beleaguered paint together. A day later, it was dead.

“The worst part is I have to tell my grandson that horse was killed,” Malmanis said. “He’s out of town right now. I’m hoping he just forgets.”

You can reach Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @Skinny_Post.