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Couple arrested after dozens of hogs pulled from Polk rescue
Aug 09 2016
POLK CITY (FOX 13) - A Polk County couple is behind bars after deputies say they had to rescue nearly 200 animals -- including 135 hogs -- from their overrun animal rescue facility following a PETA tip.
According to the Polk County Sheriff's Office, it was back in May when two representatives from PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), began working as volunteers at Darlynn's Darlins in Polk City. They recorded "severe neglect" of animals there and turned the footage over to the sheriff's office last week.
On its website, Darlynn's Darlins described itself as a "not for profit, no kill, animal rescue, sanctuary, advocacy and education organization." But deputies say PETA's testimony and videos described hogs on the property suffering from tumors, hair loss, overgrown hooves, open sores, and ambulatory issues. There were also dogs, cats, and a steer suffering from neglect.
Thursday, detectives and Animal Control officers swarmed the facility and removed 197 animals. The rescue's owners -- Darlynn Czerner, 65, and her husband, Clinton "Butch" Martin, 61 -- were arrested and charged with three counts of felony animal cruelty and 138 counts of animal neglect.
A civil hearing at a later date will determine the fate of all the seized animals.
"We consider this 'bogus' rescue to instead be a hoarding facility that left sick and injured animals to suffer without even basic veterinary care," Daphna Nachminovitch, PETA's senior vice president of cruelty investigations, offered in a press release thanking the sheriff's office.
Owners of Polk County animal rescue farm arrested for neglect and abuse of pigs
Aug 9, 2016
POLK CITY, Fla. - The owners of an animal rescue group and so-called “pig sanctuary” are accused of neglecting nearly 200 animals of the basic necessities to live.
Darlynn Czerner and Clinton Martin are charged with 138 counts of animal neglect and three counts of felony animal abuse for the inhumane conditions at their farm, Darlynn’s Darlins Rescue Ranch in Polk City.
PETA received a tip earlier this summer about the conditions at the ranch and armed volunteers with undercover cameras.
Some of the footage captured is too graphic to show on television. The clips, released by PETA, show pigs struggling to stand, walk, and deprived of food and water.
In one of the more disturbing clips, the owners are seen performing a medical procedure on a severely injured pig. Investigators said they knew it needed to see a veterinarian, but did it themselves.
“Even if they were animal hoarders, even if they lacked certain resources, they were knowingly depriving these animals of food, of water, and of veterinarian care,” said Dan Paden, associate director of evidence analysis at PETA.
PETA submitted its findings to the Sheriff’s Office, which immediately started to rescue the rescues.
“It’s incredibly disturbing and sad to see these animals suffering like that,” Paden added. “That said, they’re all safe now.”
Three of the animals on the farm had to be put down, according to PETA. Animal control seized the rest.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the owners of the farm were in route to the Polk County Jail to be booked in for neglect and abuse charges.
Polk County Sheriff
8/9/2016
PCSO Agricultural Crimes Detectives Charge Owners of “Darlynn’s Darlins Inc.” with 138 Counts of Animal Neglect and 3 Counts of Felony Animal Cruelty; Investigation Began With Tip from PETA
On Tuesday, August 9, 2016, PCSO Agricultural Crimes detective obtained arrest warrants for a husband and wife, 65-year-old Darlynn Czerner and 61-year-old Clinton “Butch” Martin, owners of the Darlynn’s Darlins, Inc., animal sanctuary (9830 Evans Road, Polk City), charging both of them with three (3) counts of Felony Animal Cruelty (F-3), and 138 counts of Animal Neglect (M-1).
According to their website (darlynnsdarlins.webs.com) “Darlynn's Darlins Inc., is a not for profit, No Kill, Animal Rescue, Sanctuary, Advocacy and Education organization. The Ranch provides a safe, loving, lifetime home to more than 200 exotic, farm, and domestic animals. We facilitate the adoption of spayed and neutered animals to appropriate and fully screened families. Many animals, due to age, physical issues, or type will remain at Darlynn's Darlins Ranch for life. We offer help and solutions to animal behavior issues hoping to help animals remain in their homes.”
Of the approximately 200 animals at the sanctuary, the following animals suffered from cruelty and neglect:
• 135 hogs
• Four dogs
• One steer
Czerner and Martin were both taken into custody on August 9, 2016, and booked into the Polk County Jail.
According to their affidavits, on May 31, 2016, two representatives from PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), began working as volunteers four hours per day, four days per week at the shelter, after receiving information that there were neglect issues at the facility. While there, the PETA members observed and video-recorded severe neglect of animals housed at the facility.
On August 2, 2016, PETA members contacted PCSO, told them of their findings, and gave detectives copies of their video recordings. The witnesses and the videos describe hogs on the property suffering from tumors, hair loss, overgrown hooves, open sores, and ambulatory issues. Additionally, there were dogs, cats, and a steer suffering from neglect.
“We consider this ‘bogus’ rescue to instead be a hoarding facility that left sick and injured animals to suffer without even basic veterinary care. Animals were found with open wounds, they starved in plain sight, and many went without water to drink in this summer heat. PETA thanks the Polk County Sheriff's Office, which swiftly responded to PETA's evidence of a crime in progress and rescued these long-neglected animals from their living hell.” - Daphna Nachminovitch, Senior Vice President of Cruelty Investigations for PETA
On Thursday, August 4, 2016, PCSO Detectives and Animal Control Officers arrived at the facility in Polk City, and served a search warrant. They seized the aforementioned neglected animals, and additional animals (2 hogs, 43 chickens, 3 dogs, 7 cats, 2 ducks, a rabbit, and a horse), and brought all except the horse to PCSO Animal Control to be examined by Animal Control Veterinarian. The horse was taken to Hope Equine Rescue.
A total of 197 animals were removed from the scene.
The following are excerpts from the affidavit:
• There were 23 hogs that were found to be a body score of a 1-1.5, fifteen were found to be a body score of 2-2.5, and 26 were found to be a body score of 3-3.5 [the body scores indicate animals were from very thin/skeletal frame to underweight]
• Three hogs were found to have overgrown hooves that were causing the hogs to have issues walking.
• One hog was found to have a broken leg that had healed in an unnatural position.
• 25 hogs were found to have severe skin conditions to include hair loose and severe sunburn.
• 11 hogs were found to have tusks that were growing into the side of the hogs' faces or causing them to have difficulty eating.
• Two of the hogs found in the house were very obese, barely able to walk, and were found to be blind.
• Located inside the residence were 8 hogs, 7 cats, 1 dog, and 1 rabbit. The hogs located inside the house did not have access to water or feed being confined within the walls of the residence.
• Four dogs that were located without food or water were confined inside kennels where they could not leave to obtain food or water.
• Two of the hogs found in the house were very obese, barely able to walk, and were found to be blind.
• Two hogs were located in the front yard of the residence. One hog was found to be over 50% non-ambulatory and had a severe infection to its back. Dr. DeGroat who responded to the scene recommended the hog be euthanized due to its severe condition. The hog was transported to the Sheriff's Office Animal Control section and euthanized by Dr. DeGroat.
• A small pot-bellied pig was found to be in distress and unable to walk. Dr. DeGroat examined the hog and determined it needed to be euthanized. The hog was euthanized at the Sheriff's Office Animal Control Section.
• Two of the cats were found to have an upper respiratory infection upon examination
• Six barrels of vegetable scraps were found in the bed of a black Nissan truck parked beside the residence. The barrels were full and were gathering flies. Located in a small barn near the center of the property were 20 unopened bags of hog feed.
• In a pen area between the hogs was a Charolais / Long Horn cross steer. The steer did not have any hay, feed, or grass in the pen to eat.
• During the investigation it was determined a large hog named "Buddy" laid on the ground for 14 days in respiratory distress. The hog was non-ambulatory and did not drink or eat for most of the time period. Witnesses observed the hog in that condition, photographed and videotaped the incident. The hog along with the hog located in the front yard suffered a cruel death that could have been avoided by the suspects. Witnesses observed the hog first on 06/01/2016, observed it for 14 days, and then observed it died on 06/14/2016. Witnesses assisted in burying the hog on 06/14/2016.
Through witness statements, evidence at the scene, and post-Miranda statements from the suspects, it was determined that three counts of felony animal cruelty were committed for the three hogs that died (two were euthanized, and one died in June). It was determined that 138 counts of animal neglect were committed on 133 hogs, 4 dogs, and 1 steer, for failure to feed, water, and provide proper medical care.
PETA has graciously donated feed for the animals. A civil hearing at a later date will determine the custody and disposition of all the animals seized.
Clinton “Butch” Martin’s criminal history includes a prior arrest in 1975 for DUI, and in 1980 for Cultivation and Sale of Marijuana, both of which occurred in California, and an arrest in 2012 by PCSO for Battery Domestic Violence.
PETA: Pigs Starved, Mutilated, and Left to Die at Darlynn's Darlins 'Rescue'
Almost every day, PETA receives reports about “rescue” and “sanctuary” operations that claim to “save” animals from euthanasia but instead severely neglect them—sometimes to death. Over and over, PETA has exposed cases in which sham rescues, like Caboodle Ranch and Angel’s Gate, prey on well-meaning people who have never actually visited the facility and have no idea what they’re funding.
Now, PETA has documented that at Darlynn’s Darlins Rescue Ranch, Inc. (DDRR), outside Polk City, Florida, pigs weren’t given anything to eat for up to five days at a time, and then, when they were, it was often nothing but rotten scraps of produce and moldy bread. Sick, injured, and dying animals were denied veterinary care. Malnourished dogs kept confined to kennels outdoors were deprived of water as temperatures approached 100 degrees. And the list goes on.
Based on PETA’s evidence of systemic neglect and unnecessary suffering at the facility, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) executed a warrant on August 4, 2016, and seized nearly 200 animals, rescuing them from utter misery. On August 9, 2016, officials charged DDRR operators Darlynn Czerner and Clinton Martin with a total of 282 counts of cruelty to animals, including six felonies.
Spunky and Buddy
Spunky was emaciated, covered with sores, and unable to use his back legs. He was left languishing like that for months on end. When the largest of several lesions on his back grew to the size of an orange and became abscessed, Czerner and Martin spent an hour cutting into it and squeezing pus and blood out of it without any anesthetics, while he screamed and struggled to escape.
In the weeks that followed, Czerner squeezed the abscess again and again, tearing large swaths of skin off Spunky’s back and admitting as he screamed that “of course” it caused him pain,
Spunky spent several days penned up with Buddy, a listless, emaciated pig Czerner said she would take to the vet in early June. But time passed, and she didn’t do it. Buddy was left lying on his side—just standing up was a struggle for him. According to Martin, after suffering for “over two weeks,” Buddy was found dead. Spunky was by Buddy’s side on the last day of his miserable life.
Starved Pigs Deprived of Basic Care
Martin routinely denied pigs feed for up to five days (even though it took just 30 minutes or so to feed them) and rejected numerous offers to help feed the animals. When they were finally fed, some got scraps of produce—much of it rotten—or bread that was often moldy. But they were denied hay and only rarely given pellet feed.
When food was provided, smaller, less assertive pigs couldn’t access it, as larger pigs dominated the few troughs available. The vertebrae, hips, and other bones protruded prominently under the skin of numerous emaciated pigs.
Even though some pigs’ hooves curled up and others’ tusks rubbed against their faces because they were so overgrown, no hoof or dental care—which are important to pigs’ health—was provided during PETA’s investigation.
With such a nutritionally deficient diet and lack of basic care, they didn’t stand a chance.
An Emaciated Steer, Desperately Thirsty Chickens and Dogs, and Dying Cats
As heat indices topped 100 degrees in the Florida summer, Isis, the couple’s emaciated steer, was repeatedly found without water. He often had little to eat besides a few wisps of hay on the ground, despite requests by a PETA eyewitness to give him more food.
Approximately 40 hens and roosters were found without water again and again. When water was provided by a PETA eyewitness, the chickens routinely drank for nearly 10 minutes.
Thin dogs were repeatedly found without water and drank voraciously whenever it was provided. After a dogfight occurred on the property, Martin offered to shoot the dog whose leg was injured and bleeding. No veterinary care was provided.
After a lethargic and unresponsive cat named Princess convulsed and died, Czerner admitted that she had so many animals, she was simply unable to care for them all. (She also kept several pigs in her bathroom and in a crate in her house.) She even admitted that she feared being jailed for neglect.
You Can Help Stop This Cruelty!
The Office of the State Attorney for the 10th Judicial Circuit has joined the PCSO in taking swift, strong action in this case. Please thank State Attorney Jerry Hill for his support of the PCSO’s efforts and let him know that you strongly support his office’s action and criminal prosecution of this case.
Make sure you aren’t funding or backing a “slow-kill” nightmare for animals. Instead, support professionally run, open-admission shelters that provide animals with veterinary care and, when necessary, a painless and dignified end, instead of hoarding them and letting them suffer until they die on their own, in misery.
197 animals seized from Polk facility, many without food, water
August 9, 2016
POLK CITY, Fla. (WFLA) – Undercover video provided by PETA prompted an investigation into a disturbing case of animal cruelty in which 197 animals were removed from a Polk rescue facility that is accused of depriving more than 100 pigs and other animals of food, water and veterinary care.
On Tuesday, Polk County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Darlynn Czerner, age 65, and Clinton “Butch” Martin, age 61, the owners of Darlynn’s Darlins Rescue Ranch located on Evans Road in Polk City.
A sign at the property lists the organization as an “Animal Rescue, Life Sanctuary, a no kill organization saving lives, educating people and speaking out for those with no voice.”
The investigation began with PETA members, who volunteered at the sanctuary, after receiving a tip that animals were not being fed.
“This spring PETA got a tip from someone concerned about what they saw. PETA had two eyewitnesses volunteer at this facility, 7 days a week, between May 31st and mid last week,” Dan Paden, Associate director of evidence analysis in cruelty investigations department PETA Associate Director of Evidence Analysis in PETA’S Cruelty Investigations Department said.
The PETA volunteers, using hidden body cameras, recorded video of the abuse, and turned it over to the PCSO.
“They were knowingly depriving these animals of food, water and veterinary care. They admitted that these pigs went without food for five days. They admitted that they couldn’t be bothered to secure their water dishes, so they could get at least have a drink in the sun and humidity. You had pigs who were left to lay on the sun for 13 days, unable to move, unable to even stand up and drink, simply left to die. They were starving in plain sight.”
“In the years of doing this work, this is by far among the most systemically neglected animals of any species I’ve ever seen,” Paden said.
Of the 200 animals at the sanctuary, PCSO investigators say 135 hogs, four dogs and one steer suffered from cruelty and neglect.
The owners of the animal sanctuary are charged with 138 counts of animal neglect and three counts felony animal cruelty, because three of the pigs died.
Animal Control Officers seized 197 animals from the property and they have since been checked by veterinarians.
Couple who ran rescue charged with animal cruelty
August 09, 2016
POLK CITY --
A Polk City couple were arrested Tuesday after the animal rights group PETA conducted an undercover investigation of the couple’s animal rescue facility and turned in its video to the Sheriff’s Office.
- Sheriff said it may have started off as rescue but became hoarding
- Rescue partner admitted to not feeding hogs everyday
- Sheriff said there was plenty of food at facility
The couple now faces more than 80 animal cruelty and neglect charges.
The video shows mostly hogs that PETA and the Sheriff’s Office said were not being fed enough food. PETA and investigators also said some of the hogs had infirmities that were not being treated.
The animal rescue is called Darlynn’s Darlins.
Darlynn Czemer didn’t say anything to reporters as she was being brought into the Polk County jail, but her partner, Clinton “Butch” Martin, said the couple was doing the best it could with the animals but admitted they were not fed every day.
"Well, it actually got to the point where it wasn't every day,” he said. “But it was a good part of the week. But when they did get fed, it was a good portion of food."
Sheriff Grady Judd said Darlynn’s Darlins may have started off as an animal rescue but didn’t turn out that way.
"It turned into a hoarding situation. They apparently weren't letting any of the animals go,” Judd said.
Judd said it wasn’t clear why some of the animals were not being properly fed, because there was plenty of food at the facility.
PETA is pleased with the quick response to its investigation. Investigators seized more than a hundred hogs, cattle, dogs, chickens and cats after PETA contacted the Sheriff’s Office.
"It sets a standard for a large-scale animal cruelty case in the country,” PETA’s Dan Paden said.
"They are locked up in the jail,” Judd said. “That's where they need to be.
"Guess what — we are going to feed them three times a day while they are in the county jail," he said.
ARREST
MARTIN, CLINTON
136 counts: (828.13) Abandon/Confine Animal w/o Sufficient Food & 3 counts: (828.12) felony animal cruelty
CZERNER, DARLYNN SERENE
136 counts: (828.13) Abandon/Confine Animal w/o Sufficient Food & 3 counts: (828.12) felony animal cruelty
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