Authorities Seize Hundreds Of Animals From Central Texas Ranch
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Authorities Seize Hundreds Of Animals From Central Texas Ranch
Authorities seized hundreds of animals Thursday and Friday from a Central Texas ranch after investigating complaints of abuse.
Reporter: By Dallas Cook
Email Address: dallas.cook@kwtx.com
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HILL COUNTY (March 6, 2009)--Hundreds of animals were seized Thursday and Friday afternoon at a ranch just outside of Blum in Hill County.

Hill County Sheriff Deputies showed up Thursday after reports from neighbors and passers-by that a man claiming to run a program to nurse sick horses back to health was neglecting the animals.

What began as a routine seizure turned momentarily dangerous when the ranch owner, 50 year old Greg Brinkley, suddenly appeared from the woods armed with a pistol grip shotgun, deputies said.

They reacted by grabbing their own guns and tackling Brinkley, who was arrested.

Hill County Sheriff Jeffrey Lyon said the 86-acre ranch is too small for the more than 200 animals, including horses, cows and llamas that were kept there.

"The condition of the animals was deplorable...horrendous and terrible. I've never seen anything like this in my entire career of law enforcement," said Lyon.

Brinkley's girlfriend, Rilla Craven, said the horses weren't neglected.

She said many had a deadly disease.

"When the horses go down with the Strangles that has gone to their lungs and turned into pneumonia, it kills ‘em," she said.

Brinkley is now charged with 25 counts of cruelty to animals and two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Latest Comments

Posted by: Wishful Thinking Location: TX on Apr 1, 2009 at 09:28 AM

Otherside- The video shows all of those animals living together on 86 acres. 230 "live" animals. Mares, Studs, babies, cows, bulls. All running together on 86 acres. In what perfect world do you think that all of those animals can live together in harmony? Responsible owners would NEVER allow the anmials to breed freely creating an even bigger problem. Horses fighting, babies getting run into fences, ect. The horses were all tested and ZERO evidence of Strangles were found. That was a pitiful attempt to cover up his irresponsibility as an owner. The girlfriends claims only got her boss (the vet she worked for,) in hot water and got his office under investagation. The animals were STARVING. This mans greed is what did this. Stop blaming the economy, and the drought. He purchased 80 horses in Dec from the Cleburne Sale Barn. The economy and the condition of his property was in the same shape it is now. He needs to pay for his actions.
Posted by: otherside Location: cleburne on Mar 20, 2009 at 11:31 AM

26 round bales, and plenty of water is what you see in the video. Judge this case like every other ranch in Texas. Everyone is feeding their animals just like this. North of Austin they're burning the spines of cactus for food for their cattle. Throw in disease and you get really sick animals. Look up treatment of Strangles anywhere and you'll see antibiotics aren't part of the initial treatment plan. Brinkley definitely has a colorful past, but judge THIS case on whether these animals had available food and water, and weigh THAT against the diseases they came with. THEN consider the Humane Society for never taking that into consideration when they removed those horses and started spreading strangles around North Texas. He's not guilty of not feeding them, they had water, and they had an epidemic of disease, also not his fault.
Posted by: Curious Location: Waco, TX on Mar 11, 2009 at 09:51 PM

When is there going to be a follow up story on this horrific case? I saw this story in many different newspapers and I see several other TV stations with their own videos. Would like to know what happened to these poor animals!! One article on the web notes that "several of the animals died during the rescue attempt". I hope to see a follow up soon! I hope the man who did this is put away for life!
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