Developing Story

Billings rancher charged with animal cruelty, officials concerned over hundreds of horses

Posted: Jan 23, 2011 11:52 PM by Amanda Venegas
Updated: Jan 24, 2011 9:07 AM

BILLINGS - A well-known Billings rancher is facing five misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty for failing to properly care for horses, which ultimately died. At this time, authorities are very concerned about another 4 to 600 horses that may be in danger of starvation or dying.

On Friday, the Yellowstone County Attorney's Office filed the counts against James Leachman of Billings.
Court documents indicate that the Yellowstone County Sheriff's Office has responded to numerous complaints of lack of food, water and veterinary care for Leachman's horses on a property once known as the Home Place Ranch. The ranch is about 9,400 deeded acres and 30,000 leased acres. It was sold to the Stovall family at a U-S marshals sale in 2010.

Over the course of the investigation, authorities documented five horses with injuries so severe they died.
They include everything from a mare with visible bones to a three-to-four year old bay-black mare whose plastic identification bands were so tight that it cut into her leg, to a buckskin mare with a severe cut tendon to a young black-blue roan mare that had been walking on exposed bone after apparently breaking her leg and a very thin bay mare was lame in the left rear leg, who was thought to be "winter kill."

The court documents indicate the animals were in extreme distress and pain and were humanely shot or died. Documents allege there are hundreds of horses left on the property by Leachman.

"I can just tell you this case is very complex. There are two things going on here. There are criminal charges and I'll let those speak for themselves, but also you have these other animals still out there in this country that need to be dealt with before we have a disaster on our hands," said Yellowstone County Attorney Scott Twito.

Each count carries up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $1,000 each.

Topics: billings, leachman, horse neglect