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HomeNewsShocking Discovery: Horses Drinking Mud in Aiken County

Shocking Discovery: Horses Drinking Mud in Aiken County

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Three horses were found in terrible shape in Wagener, leading to charges last week against a mother and her son for ill treatment of animals, according to authorities.

(This is one of many stories in this week’s Jail Report, sold in convenience stores. Cover: http://bit.ly/1MxElJn)

Marjorie Sheil, 53, and Richard Sheil, 35, were cooperative with animal control officials after the discovery of their three Arabian mix horses, according to Paige Bayne with Aiken County’s Code Enforcement Division.

A local resident was on Brown Pond Road on July 17th and noticed a horse running at large with a broken tether. When authorities tried to locate the property owners, they stumbled upon the other horses being stored in a horse trailer, confined to a very small area with no drinkable water.

“It was mud that they were drinking from,” Bayne said. “The condition wasn’t conducive to what we found humane. … It could have turned out worse if it wasn’t addressed.”

The county seized the three horses and arrest warrants were issued for the Sheils. The pair was booked into the jail last Tuesday, and the horses are improving.

The Sheils have been cooperative and are working to get the horses back, Bayne said. They even transported them to the county’s facility.

The county will require the mom and son to get fencing and a better setup to care and house the horses before they can get them back, Bayne said.

The pair had recently moved to the area from another part of the state.

Greg Rickabaugh
Greg Rickabaugh
Greg Rickabaugh is an award-winning crime reporter in the Augusta-Aiken area with experience writing for The Augusta Chronicle, The Augusta Press and serving as publisher of The Jail Report. Rickabaugh is a 1994 graduate of the University of South Carolina and has appeared on several crime documentaries on the Investigation Discovery channel.
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