Eugene weekly., February 18, 2016, Page 10, Image 10

NEWS
ON MONDAY, FEB. 15, JULIAN
‘ZEUS’ MCCLURKIN OF THE
HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS
SPOKE TO THE KIDS AT THE
EUGENE YMCA ABOUT THE
ABCs OF BULLYING
PREVENTION (ACTION,
BRAVERY AND COMPASSION).
KIDS WERE OUT OF SCHOOL FOR
THE PRESIDENTS’ DAY HOLIDAY.
PHOTOS BY TODD COOPER
Helzer says Lanker went around to the community
with a letter for citizens to sign to get the sculpture made
— everyone from Phil Knight to UO basketball coaches
signed on.
“People who signed said this is what we want to do and
this is where we want it to go,” Helzer says. “I would like
to see it stay there.”
Helzer continues: “The proposals [for Kesey Square]
I’ve seen treat [the statue] like a painting. It was designed
as a 3-D piece so people can move around it.”
He says the square should remain public but should
be improved. “I think there are some possibilities to
transform that square into a more fully functioning public
space,” Helzer says. “I’d like to see it a little more art-
friendly, a little more family-friendly, but I think that
could be accomplished without turning it in to a [six]-
story building.”
Mayor Kitty Piercy was asked if she was aware of
the deed when the City Council and the city manager
held an executive session Oct. 12 to consider an offer
from a private local development group to purchase the
square. “All we know is what is in the proposals we have
received,” Piercy writes. “It would have been good if we
had received a memo on this prior to it being discovered
by the R-G and actually prior to council deciding to take
a look at the merits of the application for development.”
The City Council will review options for Kesey Square
Monday, Feb. 22, during a 5:30 pm work session and 7:30
pm public forum in Harris Hall, 125 E. 8th Ave. — Alex
V. Cipolle
HORSE NEGLECT CASES
CAUSE COUNTY CRITICISM
Frustration is growing with the way Lane County
Animal Services is handling horse neglect cases, says
horse rescuer Darla Clark of Strawberry Mountain Rescue
and Rehabilitation Center.
Although Clark is in Douglas County, she gets frequent
calls from concerned Lane County residents about horse
neglect situations here, including a case in which horses were
wandering on a roadway near a school in Cottage Grove and
another situation in Elmira in which a herd of horses were
alleged to be starving. Many of the Elmira horses were sold
at the Eugene Livestock Auction on Feb. 14.
10
February 18, 2016 • eugeneweekly.com
In the case of the horses on the road, Karen Sinclair,
a teacher at Child’s Way Charter School near Row River
Road, says that for three months several horses have been
showing up in the schoolyard and in the road.
Sinclair and some of the students would chase the
horses out of the schoolyard, but she says an aggressive
one would “offer to kick or bite.” On one occasion, she
says, a Cottage Grove High School student came into her
classroom crying because she had nearly hit one of the
horses driving past the charter school.
“An animal like that can cause a fatal accident easily,”
Sinclair says. Nearby residents report that at least one of
the horses has been hit.
HORSE
SOLD AT
EUGENE
AUCTION
Sinclair and concerned people in the area say they
called the Lane County Sheriff’s Office and other agencies
several times and never heard back.
Clark says callers were told by LCSO that animal
services handles such situations and, in turn, LCAS said
it was the sheriff’s job.
Meanwhile, Clark says the horses are malnourished
and very much at risk. Strawberry Mountain was getting
calls but, she says, “a rescue organization has no legal
authority to pick up horses without following the proper
channels. In this case, in rural Lane County, that means
callers must continue to report equine neglect and abuse
to Lane County Animal Services.”
County spokesperson Devon Ashbridge says, “When it
is a matter of traffic safety rather than suspected neglect
it is the responsibility of law enforcement. The most
recent complaint mentioned that at least one horse looked
underfed, which means that LCAS is now looking into
the situation.”
In January, Clark was also fielding calls about a herd
of starving horses in Elmira. She noticed on the Eugene
Livestock Auction’s Facebook page that some of those
horses were to be sold at ELA’s monthly horse auction.
Along with regular horse purchasers, ELA is frequented
by “kill buyers” who buy horses and then ship them out of
the country to be slaughtered for meat.
Ashbridge says, “The owner was given the opportunity
to thin his herd.” She says, “The owner has chosen to work
with the auction. As long as he continues to comply with
agreement and reduces his herd to an appropriate number,
he will not be cited.”
In Lane County most horse neglect cases are handled
as code, not criminal violations. Clark says this leads to a
lack of criminal history for those with repeat violations.
Images posted on social media by those who
purchased some of the horses show skeletal animals with
lice and fungal infestations. According Bruce Anderson
of the Eugene Livestock Auction, the man who allegedly
neglected the animals had previously purchased several
of them at the auction, and several owners repurchased
animals they had previously sold. Local group Oregon
Horse Rescue aided in one of those sales.
Anderson says he does not know of a legal way he
could prevent the man from buying animals at the auction
again.
Ashbridge tells EW, “Our animal control officer and
staff continue to be in contact with the owner to help
ensure the agreement is kept. We have also ensured that
there is adequate feed for the animals while the owner
makes arrangements to reduce their numbers.”
Clark says that the number of calls Strawberry
Mountain is receiving from Lane County residents “has
reached an all-time high.”
She says, “County residents have shared with us
that they feel unheard and are often argued with when
reporting neglect to LCAS. That exasperation leads to
a community that no longer has faith in their county
leadership and citizens who feel that animal welfare is
not a focus for Lane County.” — Camilla Mortensen