~ Update: October 26, 2023
On Monday, October 23, 2023, 51-years-old KATHY WRIGHT (pictured), appeared at Riverton Circuit Court before Judge Daniel Stebner in relation to the animal cruelty charges filed against her in 2022, when she starved several innocent animals to death.
As reported by County 10, WRIGHT maintained her innocence and throughout the hearing, she repeatedly said: “I did not do this.”
According to County 10, at the hearing, Assistant Fremont County Prosecuting Attorney Ember Oakley showed pictures taken on WRIGHT’s property depicting a horse with his hip bones as well as dead goats.
Oakley also noted that it is unfortunate that Wyoming law only recognizes this charge as a misdemeanor.
Judge Stebner sentenced WRIGHT to a total of four years of probation with the first two years supervised. While on probation, WRIGHT cannot “own, transport or possess any animals”, reports County 10. Additionally, WRIGHT “was ordered to pay $4,261.76 in restitution to the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office for hay, supplies, veterinary care, and other costs associated with caring for and re-homing her animals. “
So, starving innocent animals to death is not a felony in Wyoming. Wyomingites, please do something about that!
50-years-old KATHY WRIGHT (pictured), of Riverton, has agreed to plea guilty to four counts of animal cruelty.
WRIGHT is accused of starving chickens, geese, goats, horses, and sheep. Some of the voiceless victims were sadly starved to death.
On December 7, 2022, Lt. Sarah Trehearne with the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office responded to a property on 54 David’s Way in Riverton after Deputy Sara Lowe found many deceased goats in pens. Some of them had died recently, while others were in various stages of decomposition.
Deputy Lowe also saw a horse who needed “immediate veterinary care.” In two pens were skeletal-looking horses, and sheep and goats were in “deplorable” condition.
Lt. Trehearne knocked on WRIGHT’s door, but no one answered. She then walked around the property and among the animals, and discovered between ten to twenty deceased animals. Some of them were still warm as though they had died that same very day.
None of the animals on the property had food or water, and although there were three bales of hay, they were insufficient to feed just one animal.
Dr. Guna Gamble of G Bar G Veterinary Hospital responded to the scene and carried out an emergency assessment. She determined two of the goats had died that day. Dr. Gamble then advised officers to feed the animals a little explaining that since they were so malnourished, overfeeding them could shock their systems. Dr. Gamble further noted that the animals needed grass hay and they could not be fed the “straight alfalfa” that was on the property.
As stated above, the poor souls were not only deprived of food, but there wasn’t any water either so, officers used a hose that was on the property and as you can imagine, the animals, who were extremely thirsty, drank immediately.
Lt. Trehearne called WRIGHT on the phone, who said that the “very thin horse” was hers but that she did not know what was wrong with her/him.
WRIGHT also said that she was planning on getting the horse wormed and treated, then quarantined at her mother’s home. WRIGHT explained to Lt. Trehearne that only nine of the eleven horses were hers and that the other two were her mother’s.
WRIGHT then admitted that all the chickens, geese, goats, and sheep were hers.
In reference to the goats, WRIGHT said that they may have been dying of chlamydia. WRIGHT claimed that a veterinarian at the state fair had diagnosed them.
When Lt. Trehearne followed up with vets in the area and at the state fair, none of them confirmed WRIGHT’s claim. Furthermore, they also said they would no longer do business with WRIGHT.
Lt. Trehearne then seized multiple deceased goats and took them to the G Bar G Veterinary Hospital for necropsies. Dr. Glenn Gamble performed necropsies on two goats and said he believed the animals died of starvation, explaining that there were no fat deposits between the skin and muscle of their rib cages, no fat around their internal organs, and no fat survival reserves.
Buffalo Bulletin reports that on December 12, 2022, two charges of animal cruelty were filed against WRIGHT for incidents occurring between January 1, 2022, and December 8 2022. WRIGHT was then arrested on December 13, 2022. At her December arraignment, WRIGHT plead “not guilty”.
According to Cowboy State Daily, on December 20, 2022, the Fremont County Attorney’s Office increased its case against WRIGHT from two animal cruelty charges to the following ten:
Count one, for more than twenty dead sheep and goats.
Count two, for a dead red roan Nubian doe and a dead cream-colored Nigerian dwarf buck.
Count three, for cruelty toward nine horses, a sorrel gelding with a club foot, two bay mares, two red-and-white paint geldings, one roan mare, one roan gelding, one bay paint pony and one bay filly pony.
Count four, for cruelty toward a red and white paint gelding.
Count five, for cruelty toward thirty-seven doe goats.
Count six, for cruelty toward a doe goat with mastitis (infection related to breastfeeding).
Count seven, for cruelty toward seven buck goats.
Count eight, for cruelty toward eighteen ewe sheep.
Count nine, for cruelty to four ram sheep.
Count ten, for cruelty toward three geese and fifteen chickens.
WRIGHT initially plead not guilty to all ten charges.
However, according to a motion for a change-of-plea hearing filed on March 3, 2023, WRIGHT made a plea agreement in which she promised to give Alford guilty pleas for ONLY four of the ten counts so that the state will drop the other six.
An Alford plea means the defendant maintains their innocence but admits that the evidence against them is sufficient to convict them in court.
WRIGHT is scheduled to change her plea from “not guilty” to the Alford plea on May 1, 2023.
I emailed Fremont County Sheriff Ryan Lee and requested pictures of the furvictims and in an email he explained that since the “incident is not yet adjudicated” further case information to include photographs of the animals involved in the case cannot be released at this time. I was advised to request them after WRIGHT is sentenced.
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Details may be removed or additional information may be provided in future should such sources report an update.
