State agriculture officials will take permanent possession of a Redding woman's two neglected horses after she was charged with animal cruelty.
The News-Times reports that Lisa Lind-Larsen was found responsible for the emaciated and neglected conditions of her two mustangs in a civil suit filed by the state Department of Agriculture.
Officials said the horses are doing well and are at the Agriculture Department's animal facility in Niantic.
The state seized the animals from Lind-Larsen's property in July after finding them fly-bitten, dehydrated and emaciated.
Agents found stalls with manure eight inches deep, water troughs filled with algae and the horses emaciated and covered in fly bites.
Lind-Larsen argued in court that her facilities were not unsanitary.
Hartford Superior Court Judge Robert Vacchelli ruled the horses will be placed in the permanent care of the Department of Agriculture, which can seek compensation of expenses since the two horses were seized.
