SAGINAW, MI – In the spring of 2021, Saginaw County animal care and control officers seized 41 ill-healthy animals from a local farm. As a result, three people were charged with animal cruelty and now owe five-figure damages to the county.
On Tuesday, August 16, Lynn M. Leiner, Daniel R. Rogers II, and Kimberlynn Delong appeared in Saginaw County District Court AT Frank for sentencing. The judge eventually imposed a year of probation for Leiner and Rogers and a six-month term for Delong.
In addition, Frank ordered Leiner and Rogers to pay back $5,000 each to Animal Control. He ordered Delong to pay $4,000.
“It comes right back to us so we can continue to care for these animals,” Bonnie Kanicki, director of Animal Control, said of the $14,000 fee.
Frank also forbade the trio from owning animals during their probation.
In May, Leiner and Rogers argued for no fight against cruelty to two or three animals, while Delong fought no fight against abandonment or cruelty to one animal. Both charges are felonies, the first can be punished with up to one year in prison and the other with up to 90 days.
In return, the prosecution dismissed charges of abandonment or cruelty to 25 or more animals, a seven-year offense facing Leiner and Rogers. They agreed to dismiss a two-year felony of cruelty to four to 10 animals Delong had dealt with.
Also in May, Frank ordered two horses, two bulls, three dogs, a cat and a turtle that had been seized and confiscated from the county.
Kanicki previously told MLive that the case against the trio began on April 5, 2021, when Michigan State Police officers responded to a call from three stray horses from their paddock at Leiner and Rogers’ farm at 5300 block of Sheridan Road in Spaulding. township. The horses had gone to adjacent yards and damaged property.
The troopers managed to secure the horses back on their owners’ property. The troopers noticed that the paddock fences were broken and that the horses had insufficient water, Kanicki said.
Leiner and Rogers weren’t home at the time, Kanicki says.
Animal protection officers monitored the farm over the next few days and also noticed that the horses had insufficient water. On May 10, a Saginaw County sheriff went to the ranch after a person found a deceased milking calf near the back of the property.
On May 21, Animal Control officers and deputies executed a search warrant on the property, finding numerous animals in clear need of veterinary care.
“They were so skinny,” Kanicki has said. “There were calves with visible ribs, their spines protruding, their hips protruding. A horse had a large mass on its neck. Another had something wrong with his eye.”
A 100-gallon supply tank in the animals’ pen had insufficient water, she added.
Leiner and Rogers were home this time. Delong owned a miniature horse and a horse with a mass in his neck and boarded the property, Kanicki said.
Kanicki said the trio was not cooperating.
“They had no excuse for these skinny animals,” she said. “The body conditions of the animals showed that they were negligent in providing proper food and water.”
The following day, May 21, authorities seized 41 animals from the property – five horses, including a miniature, two calves, nine goats, three sheep, a pig, five dogs, two adult cats, six kittens, a turtle, three painted turtles, two ducks and two chickens. The animals were taken to five rescue organizations in Michigan and one in Indiana.
As of Aug. 19, these animals have been adopted or handed over to rescue organizations, Kanicki said.
Read more:
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