Martinsburg man charged with animal cruelty

According to Sell, a county animal control officer arranged a visit to the Summit Point farm and found Dodson’s horses in acceptable physical conditions with free hay and fresh water available for them. The animal control officer believed the horses needed grooming.

One of those horses was euthanized “under suspicious circumstances,” Sell reported.

Dodson said a veterinarian told him that two of his horses had died during the winter holiday season from a bacterial disease that can kill older horses, according to a criminal complaint of the cruelty charges against him.

An animal control officer visited the farm a second time on Jan. 31 after another complaint alleged that Dodson neglected his horses at the farm. Dodson reportedly said he suspected family members upset with him over another family matter filed the second complaint.

An animal control officer attempted without success to have Dodson have a veterinarian evaluate his horses’ health. Then, on Feb. 10, Dodson told an animal control officer that he couldn’t afford veterinarian care for his horses, Sell reported. 

On Thursday, March 2, police executed a search warrant and removed 13 horses from the farm Dodson rented on Leetown Road. Two veterinarians examined those horses and found them to be malnourished and requiring medical attention, according to police. One of the animal cruelty charges Dodson faces relates to a euthanized horse.  

“Mr. Dodson has shown a pattern of cruelty towards his animals in the form of failure to properly secure veterinarian care for [his] horses,” Sell wrote in a criminal complaint against Dodson.

Working with animal control officers, county police maintain that the conditions under which Dodson kept his horses were inadequate. “The field conditions [available to horses at the Summit Point farm] were bare and minimal,” Sell reported, “lacking both grass/pasture and quality hay.”

“The water sources [at the farm] varied from adequate to inadequate based on where the horses were located,” Sell continued to report. “The fencing was inadequate and dangerous to the animals in terms of protecting them and/or possible escape. 

“All of the horses will need extensive care and treatment to return to a healthy body score and future.”

Dodson pleaded not guilty to the charges. He told police that he suspected family members might be responsible for the second complaint. 

Dodson did not return a message for comment left for him at a number believed to be his phone number. A preliminary hearing to evaluate the charges against him is scheduled for Thursday morning in Jefferson County Magistrate Court.