On April 17 Tory Morgan of Reedy is scheduled to appear before Magistrate Ronald Lewis in Spencer, WV because she is charged with over 30 counts of animal cruelty including the starvation deaths of over 20 horses.
Tory Morgan will no doubt say that she couldn't afford to feed her horses or some other such excuse but the truth is, Morgan had alternatives to cruelly starving her horses to death and yet she chose to starve them to death instead of exercising one of her many options.
If Ms. Morgan couldn't afford to feed her horses why didn't she give them to somebody who could? Why didn't she call her local animal rescuers and ask for help? Why didn't she call her local police? Why didn't she call neighbors?
Ms. Morgan had a gun and used it to shoot some of her horses. Why not euthanize all of them? Could she not afford bullets to shot all her horses? Again, I ask, why didn't she ask for help?
Reporters who have covered egregious cases of animal starvation can tell you that every time this happens there are neighbors who say - often fighting back tears - that they would have fed the animals had they known the animals were being starved.
My friends and readers know my position on cruelty to animals; I support creative sentencing that reminds the community what the perp did. In a perfect world, Magistrate Lewis would sentence Ms. Morgan to, say, 10 days of starvation followed by 10 years supervised care giving to sick, injured and rescued horses.
I would also be OK with giving animal abusers the death penalty but I'd rather see them be forced to do something positive and, dare I say, redemptive, for animals.
If you want Magistrate Lewis to send a clear signal to the community that slowly and cruelly killing animals by starving them to death will not be tolerated, send this blog post or write your letter before April 17 to:
Magistrate Ronald White
201 Main Street
Spencer, WV 25276
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