New Hampshire State Police have accused a woman who runs an animal rescue farm of neglecting the care of 26 horses that were seized by the state.
Olexandra Beck, 63, of Langdon was arrested Thursday on four misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty. She’s scheduled to be arraigned March 11. A message was left with her seeking comment.
Her farm was investigated in November following complaints made about the horses’ condition. The Department of Agriculture and the state Veterinarian’s Office were involved in the investigation. Nine horses were seized then; Beck had said they were debilitated when they were brought to her.
Investigators and police returned to the farm on Jan. 25 with a search warrant, and determined the remaining 17 horses were receiving inadequate care.
Beck, who spoke to the Monitor in November when her first nine horses were taken away, said financial difficulties in recent months had been a strain on her farm, which she said she has operated for 12 years.
“When there isn’t enough, then it comes out of my pocket,” she said. “For an establishment that’s very tight with funds, that starts to eat into quite a bit.”
Beck said at the time that the horses that were taken from her farm had come to her shortly before they were removed and were already “very debilitated.”
Beck, who works with horses who are old, sickly or have no one to care for them, said she was working to rehabilitate them.
Beck she said she planned to work with a veterinarian to make sure the animals still living on her farm stayed healthy. She said she hoped to be able to get the organization back on its feet.
“Rescues are not a dime a dozen and it’s a very hard life. It was very, very painful – it still is,” she said, in November of having her animals taken away.