Authorities seized more than a dozen emaciated horses from a property in unincorporated La Cresta on Thursday, according to Riverside County Department of Animal Services.
"Over the last several weeks, the horses had been deteriorating and deteriorating and the sergeant said nothing's going to improve here. She made the decision to seize the horses," said the department's John Welsh.
Janice Deutsch, 46, said the horses' weight loss was due to a strangles outbreak last year.
"Some of the horses dropped weight because of it and are too skinny, but we have been working to get them back up," she said.
The animals don't have diseases; they just need more food, said veterinarian Allan Drusys.
"They were about 150-200 pounds under weight. For a 1,000 pound horse, that's a considerable amount," Drusys said.
The horses were placed in protective custody in an undisclosed location and are now eating three times a day.
Deutsch said her feed bills prove she's never dropped the horses' feed levels during the last eight years.
"I was showing the feed bills to one of the deputies," Deutsch said in a phone interview with NBC LA. "He said something to me like, 'It's irrelevant.' And I said, 'how can it be irrelevant when it's hard evidence?'"
The district attorney will decide if charges will be filed against Deutsch.
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