LEWISBURG — A Greenbrier County judge issued an order Tuesday morning that placed some 180 animals found in poor condition on farms owned by Grady Whitlock into the temporary custody of the county’s humane officer.

The order was issued as a result of a civil action filed by Greenbrier Prosecutor Patrick I. Via seeking the seizure of the animals to allow humane officer Cpl. Todd Williams of the Greenbrier County Sheriff’s Department to “properly provide care and maintenance” to them.

The complaint notes Williams investigated reports of dead horses on Whitlock’s farm near Crawley Feb. 9. There, the officer discovered 32 deceased horses and approximately 80 other horses in poor condition “resulting from deprivation of necessary sustenance and/or proper medical treatment.”

Three days later, on Feb. 12, Williams found four dead horses and two dead cows on another Whitlock-owned farm located in or near Lewisburg, according to the complaint. At that site, more than 100 head of horses and cattle were judged by a veterinarian to be in a condition similar to that of the horses at the farm near Crawley (Shawver’s Crossing).

In the temporary order issued Tuesday, Chief Circuit Judge Joseph C. Pomponio Jr. directed, “The Greenbrier County humane officer may keep the subject animals on the real estate of the defendant where they are currently situated, and may, together with others at his direction and control, enter onto the subject real estate to attend to the care and maintenance of the animals.”

The order further provides that the animals may be moved at the discretion of the humane officer, although none of the animals may be moved upon the direction of Whitlock without Williams’ express authorization.

The temporary order will remain in effect until the court rules further in the case.

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Greenbrier County Sheriff James Childers said, as of 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, “My deputies have a paper signed by a judge and are on their way to the farm now.”

He said word had been passed to him that the prosecutor did not want any further information on this case, beyond what is contained in the court file, to be disseminated to the media.

Staci R. Teaney, case manager in the prosecutor’s office, said Tuesday the only comment from that office would be, “The investigation is ongoing.”

She confirmed that the civil action described above had been filed in the hope of getting treatment and sustenance to the surviving animals on Whitlock’s farms.

Whitlock, 83, of Beckley, was arrested at the Shawver’s Crossing farm Thursday and charged with multiple misdemeanor counts of cruelty to animals. He is free on his own recognizance.

At the time, the sheriff said a veterinarian who accompanied law enforcement officers onto the property believed the dead animals likely perished due to starvation.

Childers said he does not know if Via has any plans to charge anyone else in connection with the alleged abuse of the animals on the two Greenbrier County farms.

Veterinarian Amy Wasalaski, identified in the court file as the confirming vet at the Shawver’s Crossing site, was not available for comment Tuesday afternoon, but earlier she told the Charleston Daily Mail that some of the animals had been dead since October. Dead horses could be seen in the creek, in the ditches and in the fields, she said.

Summer Wyatt, who represents the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) in West Virginia, said she has fielded several complaints about the condition of Whitlock’s animals over the past year.

“I took those complaints to law enforcement in the counties where the animals were kept, and they investigated if they felt the circumstances warranted it,” Wyatt said. “I never got any complaints about a situation in Greenbrier County, however.”

She said in one instance, the Department of Agriculture was called in to a Raleigh County farm owned by Whitlock but found plenty of hay on the property, apparently put there by a neighbor who was concerned about the hungry animals.

Regarding the current situation in Greenbrier County, Wyatt said, “I have offered any help we can give, including providing secondary shelter for any horses seized and monetary funding for veterinary bills and the purchase of hay. Law enforcement has assured me they have everything under control.”

While she said state law governing cruelty to animals could stand to be toughened up, current statutes do provide for relatively stiff penalties.

“A person convicted of misdemeanor animal cruelty cannot own animals for five years, and that’s for each count,” she said. “The problem isn’t so much toughening the law; it’s making sure there’s enough law enforcement officers available to investigate these cases and see to it they’re prosecuted.”

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Wasalaski told the Daily Mail that the surviving horses had formed three herds that included a large group of 58 animals, consisting mostly of the stronger horses, and two smaller herds of 12 and six, made up of the sicker horses, miniatures, mules and donkeys. She said almost half the animals in the main herd were in acceptable condition, while the other half appeared to be malnourished.

She said emergency workers at the scene put out a 2,000-pound bale of alfalfa hay for the horses to eat, but some of the animals didn’t recognize the hay as food. Others began clawing at the ground for grass that wasn’t there.

“This is an extremely tragic situation,” she said. “We don’t deal with wild horses too much east of the Mississippi, but these animals have reverted back to that herd mentality. You could see it when we put the feed out for them. The stronger, fitter animals were pushing the weaker ones away from the feed.

“They were fighting for survival.”

— E-mail: talvey@register-herald.com