Jake Dean Rider’s animal cruelty trial is fast approaching, and he’s furious about the way he’s been treated.

Rider, also known as Larry Blanchard, was charged on Feb. 8 with animal cruelty in the first degree in King County Superior Court, according to Dan Donohoe, a spokesman for the county’s prosecuting attorney.

The charges, Rider claims, are wrong. He said the county didn’t complete a thorough investigation of the alleged violations in Covington, and he’s prepared to argue his case June 10 when he will be before a judge.

An animal cruelty conviction is a class C penalty that carries a penalty of up to a year in jail and as much as a $10,000 fine.

“The county and (Pasado’s Safe Haven, an animal welfare group that became involved in the investigation) have totally gotten out of hand and have turned this into a publicity event for their own agenda,” Rider said in an e-mail. “They are not qualified to even asess the health of any animal.”

Donahoe defended King County Animal Control’s investigation as “full and complete” and resulting in the case that is going to trial.

What happens next will be determined at the trial in Seattle. Donahoe said it’s hard to predict the length of the trial, but similar cases have lasted as long as two weeks.

An animal control officer went to Rider’s home in the 26800 block of 156th Place Southeast in Covington on Dec. 7, 2007. A neighbor had been watching the deterioration of living conditions of livestock on the property since September, according to court documents which refer to Rider as Blanchard throughout. (Rider hasn’t identified himself by that name in his correspondence with the Reporter.)

The officer went to check on a horse that appeared to be dead and had been lying in mud for several days, according to charging papers.

The officer “saw a horse lying on her side in about five inches of mud,” the court documents stated. “Blanchard, owner of the horse, was present and contacted by (the officer). Blanchard claimed that the horse became entangled in the blanket straps during the night and had just fallen down.”

Rider then told the officer the horse was the thinnest of the four on the property and was exhausted from trying to get up. Authorities said the officer decided, based on her training and experience, that the horse needed immediate veterinary care due to its weakened condition.

The officer and Sgt. Dave Morris, another animal control officer, assessed all four horses Rider had on his land and found they were all in poor condition, authorities said.

“Their hip bones, ribs and spines were all prominent and accentuated, which is commonly found in horses that are malnourished,” charging papers stated. “(The) downed horse resembled a skeleton with hide on it.”

Rider refutes this allegation. He said “one of the horses was in perfect health,” and two others “were showing some ribs but they were improving quickly. The 30-year-old horse that eventually died was in very poor shape when we got her and was unrecoverable.”

Rich Vrban, Rider’s partner, said that he and Rider had sought medical help for the elderly, sick horse named Miss because they had taken it from a rescue that Rider claims has been visited often by county animal control officers in recent months.

The equine veterinarian Vrban and Rider spoke with suggested they “prop her up with a bale of hay and keep feeding her until she is able to get her energy back and stand up.”

Vrban said that on the morning of Dec. 17, “the King County Animal Control officer arrived and actually saw me administer therapy to Miss and I was trying to prop her up per the orders of the vet. The officer then approached me to ask what happened and I explained to her that we found Miss like this first thing in the morning. She then called her lead officer for assistance and preceded to call the vet that she was familiar with, which in fact was the same vet that (Rider and Vrban had) contacted prior of the officer arriving. The vet had explained to the officer the exact same thing she had told us.”

Later that night, the vet told Vrban that the horse’s lab work looked fine, and she wasn’t sure why Miss couldn’t get up, Vrban said.

“She also advised Jake and I how to keep proper nutrients for the rest of the farm animals,” Vrban said.

Vrban said the animal control officer told him she would make periodic visits during the coming months to ensure the health of the other animals.

Then, he said, he and Rider took a list of items their veterinarian suggested they buy to ensure the animals were properly cared for and got everything on the list.

Rider and Vrban thought everything was fine, but when they returned to the farm the next afternoon following some morning appointments, Miss wasn’t there, but the situation didn’t hint at what was to come, they claimed.

“That evening, about 5:30, the animal control officer called Jake’s cell phone and informed us the vet had the horse and she was doing better,” Vrban said.

In the early afternoon of Dec. 19, the pair received a call from a tenant on their property who told them “that there were people on my farm with trailers seizing the animals.”

The downed horse didn’t survive. A necropsy revealed there was no fat on the horse or surrounding its vital organs, which is needed for vital health, authorities said.

The officers reported that trees in the pasture had been stripped of bark on the lower sections, another indicator that the horses were starving, as equines will eat bark in an effort to survive, officials said.

Vrban and Rider insist that they not only cooperated fully with the officers, but they went beyond what was asked of them.

“During this whole process, the animal control officer who was present during all this, nor the King County investigators we met with a month later, ever contacted any of the witnesses we provided to them to verify that we had just rescued the horses and the one that died was 30 years old, which is about the maximum on their life expectancy,” Rider said. “As for all of the other animals that were seized, they were in perfect health and fed daily and mostly had continual access to food and water.”

A number of other animals were found on the property – a llama, a pygmy goat, three goats, two sheep, a pair of calves, two guinea fowl, a pair of geese, a peacock and some chickens.

Animal control officers worked throughout Dec. 17 with volunteers from Pasado’s Safe Haven to provide medical care and shelter for the livestock.

Kim Koon, an investigator with Pasado’s Safe Haven, told the Reporter in March she was unable to discuss the case because of its status in the court system.

Staff writer Kris Hill can be reached at (425) 432-1209 (extension 5054) and khill@reporternewspapers.com