IRON COUNTY, Utah — A man was arrested on animal cruelty charges after multiple horses were found dead or malnourished at an Iron County corral.
Nathaniel Lebaron, 49, was first contacted by the Bureau of Land Management after reports that several horses he kept on his land in Arizona were found to be severally dehydrated and in a malnourished state.
"The BLM officer in charge of the case stated she had never seen horses in that bad of a condition," the arrest report read. "She stated
several horses were in the process of dying and several had already died due to malnourishment."
After being ordered to re-home the horses, Lebaron instead allegedly transported several of them to a location in Iron County in an attempt to hide them from law enforcement.
While in Iron County, the horses remained in poor condition, and reported by an anonymous party. Video sent to law enforcement showed two dead horses lying in a corral and 9 additional horses with protruding bones.
According to officials, the horses were all between 1-2 years old.
An Iron County Sheriff's Office deputy visited the location where Lebaron kept the horses and confirmed their condition, adding, "the horses did not have access to hay, instead there was only straw, which does not provide any life sustaining nutrition."
Along with the two dead horses, the deputy wrote of another that was in the process of dying and too weak to stand.
The horses were taken by law enforcement and seen by a vet, with the horse too weak to stand being euthanized due to its poor health.
When contacted by the Iron County Sheriff's Office, Lebaron refused to provide his address or location. Members of Lebaron's family said he had additional horses on a different property, and that he had other people help him relocate the horses in an attempt to hide them, including 5-7 horses brought to s location in Utah on Sunday.
Lebaron was later arrested in the Iron County Sheriff's Office parking lot and booked on multiple animal cruelty charges.
According to the arrest report, the horses seized and brought to the county animal shelter "are showing signs of progress and significant gains in their condition."
