A Garland County man was arrested Sunday on 27 counts of felony animal cruelty.
Ryan Christopher Scott-Kirchen, 23, of 408 Ballard Road in Royal was arrested after Garland County sheriff’s deputies responded to an animal cruelty complaint at 9:52 a.m. Sunday, according to an arrest report.
After arriving at Scott-Kirchen’s property, located about 10 miles west of Hot Springs, Deputy Ashley Collier said she saw two dogs with visible sores, matted fur and other injuries inside what appeared to be an abandoned log cabin. Crossing a field on the property, she found more than a dozen horses, each of which appeared malnourished with bony rib cages and necks that lacked both muscle and fat. Several of the horses appeared to have urinary infections, according to the report.
Collier then discovered another home on the property, where she saw several dogs inside the house and noted the floor was covered in feces. She also saw Scott-Kirchen sleeping on the floor. After Collier pounded on the door, Scott-Kirchen answered and confirmed he was responsible for the dogs and horses on the property, according to the report.
Collier contacted a supervisor at the sheriff ’s office and Hot Springs Animal Services, which conducts animal control duties for the sheriff’s office in the area.
The report said that of eight dogs found inside the home, one was dead and infested by maggots. Scott-Kirchen said the dog had been dead for several days, according to the report. He was also in charge of a puppy that had lost much of the skin from one of its legs.
“When I picked it up the infection poured from its little body,” Collier wrote in the report. “It was a yellow liquid.”
Behind the residence, four dogs — two of which were dead — were found in an open-air kennel, according to the reports. There was no food or water in the area.
“It appeared as if these dogs were left for dead,” Collier wrote.
Overall, Collier found 13 dogs and 14 horses that “appeared to have been tortured by starvation.” Three dogs and one horse were found dead on the property.
Kay Gilder, manager of the Humane Society of Pulaski County, said she was contacted by the Garland County sheriff’s office Sunday about possibly housing some of the animals, although they were transported to other facilities instead.
Calls to the Humane Society of Garland County were not returned.
Dan Bugg, director of Hot Springs Animal Services, said the surviving animals were “under the care of a veterinarian” but would not specify the location.
Adam Parascandola, director of animal cruelty response for the Humane Society of the United States, said Tuesday that rates of discovered animal cruelty in Arkansas are “pretty consistent” with most states in the Midwest and southern United States. He said the Humane Society of the United States had been asked to assist in two notable cases in Arkansas over the past several years: In July 2013, more than 90 cats and dogs were seized from a home in White County, in what Parascandola described as a “hoarding” situation. In February, about 185 animals, mostly dogs, were rescued from a puppy mill in Jefferson County.