Monica has already blogged about Dean Solomon's sentencing on her blog, so I'll simply direct you there - she was present, I wasn't.
While I know you would all like to see her photoshopped ass in jail, especially after reading the details straight from her barn manager, she was only charged with 2nd degree animal cruelty and the judge's hands were somewhat tied as a result.
I would like to particularly direct you to the fact that the judge did not know about hoarding. As an "animal person," I assume everybody knows about hoarding. I am shocked to read that a highly educated individual didn't know about it. Wake up call for me! Clearly the judges do not read the Fugly blog, ha ha. Her lawyer does, as he tried to use it as a defense, claiming that "blogs and chatrooms" had vilified his poor, poor client. Um, no, sir, the dead horses and the sworn testimony of people who tried to help your client are what vilified your client.
It was nice to hear the things we've known about for years - that Dean's electric was turned off for weeks, that vets and farriers would not visit the property due to unpaid bills - verified in court. Dean has always popped up on the message boards and denied all of this. She was denying her property was in foreclosure even after I popped up on COTH a couple years back and posted links to the PDF's of the Trustee's Sale documents. You know, there are things you can lie about and things you can't...
I still want to know where all of Dean's horses are. She still had 15 or so a few days ago and the announcement was made that they were going to SOS Rescue...but SOS tells me they are getting just two of them. So where are the rest? Soot has allegedly been placed in a good home that wants to stay quiet about it. I'll tell you now, I won't accept that. There have been too many lies here, too many horses that weren't safe, and whoever has that mare can either do the right thing and come out and post updates for everybody who cares about her, or I will never let it drop. If they are truly a good home, they will have nothing to hide and will be happy to do that much for all of the people who care about that mare.
On a related note, in the scramble to place the last of Dean's horses, I contacted the breeders of two of the Thoroughbred mares: Wheatland Farm and Golden Eagle Farm. I explained about the humane case, gave them a news story link and my phone number if they wanted to help their homebreds. They ignored me. So now you all know who two of the asshat breeders in the Thoroughbred industry in California are! Hope you guys hear plenty from your fellow trainers and breeders about this.
And a tiny bit of humor for you all...you know I love a good typo and this has to be one of the best EVER...Click to enlarge.
