UPDATE: Woman who pleaded guilty to animal cruelty is sentenced
UPDATE 2:
Rachel Fleischaker was sentenced by a judge on the morning of Friday, January 23, 2015.
Fleischaker was ordered to spend ten days in jail followed by 50 days in home detention and five years probation.
Fleischaker will not be allowed to own large breed animals while she’s on probation, and will get random visits from the sheriff’s office and the humane society to make sure she is complying with the terms of her probation.
The judge said that if Fleischaker violates the terms of her probation, he will not hesitate to put her in jail for four years.
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UPDATE 1:
A Calhan woman who was previously convicted of cruelty to animals pleaded guilty to the same charge in a second case Thursday.
Rachel Fleischaker will be sentenced on either January 23 or January 29.
Fleischaker will be sentenced to probation. How long that probationary period will be is unknown. She will not be allowed to own any large breed animals while she’s on probation.
Fleischaker will also be subjected to random property inspections by the humane society.
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Previous story:
A judge ruled Thursday that a Calhan woman cannot retain possession of horses on her property.
Rachel Fleischaker was found guilty of cruelty to animals. Court documents show she failed to provide adequate water to horses on her property.
A group of people who have been following the case and attended Tuesday’s hearing before a judge were relieved by the news.
“We are all coming together for the same purpose and that is for the horses,” said Diana Ragula.
“I found this whole case outrageous that this woman was able to get away with this for so long,” said Judi Tobias.
However, the horses were not on Fleischaker’s property on Thursday. There were more than 20 horses on the property several weeks ago. Neighbors said they have only seen one or two horses on the property during the past two or three days.
El Paso County Sheriff spokesperson Sgt. Greg White said Thursday that deputies do not know where the horses are right now and are actively trying to track them down.
4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office spokesperson Lee Richards said Friday that the horses have been leased out or sold.
KRDO NewsChannel 13 contacted Fleischaker for a comment but did not hear back. She had said previously that she was actively working to downsize her herd by selling the horses.
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Previous story:
An El Paso County woman said the man married to a woman found guilty of animal cruelty has posted numerous times on Craigslist offering to house unwanted animals.
Rachel Fleischaker was found guilty of cruelty to animals. Court documents show she failed to provide adequate water to horses on her property. She is currently involved in another horse neglect case involving a mare. That trial starts in December.
Cheryl, who asked us not to use her last name, first noticed an ad on Craigslist that stood out three years ago.
Cheryl has more than 70 goats. She decided some of her boys needed new homes. The ad she saw on Craigslist offered to provide a “loving home for your pets.”
She brought her 10 goats to the property in Calhan. She said the conditions in the barn and in the animals’ areas were unacceptable.
“I looked around and out in the there are dozens of these poor animals where their ribs are showing. It was absolutely pathetic,” said Cheryl.
She said she felt unease but had already let her animals out of the trailer so decided to give the man a chance.
She said she called back every day for three days and was told each day that there was not hay for her goats. She went back and picked them up.
Cheryl said when she showed up, starving horses smelled hay and charged her trailer.
“It’s something I will probably always remember,” said Cheryl.
Cheryl later found out the man who posted the Craigslist ad was married toFleischaker.
“The husband is advertising on Craigslist for animals. They can’t feed what they have,” said Cheryl.
Cheryl teamed up with a group of people and monitored Craigslist for new advertisements.
“He would post an ad and that person would post a rebuttal,” said Cheryl. “In one day, I think we counted 33 ads he would post under baby and kids stuff, DVDs, antique stuff, boats, all these he would post in different sections thinking people weren’t going to see them, but quite honestly we found all of them.”
She said it was a “war” on Craigslist for a year-and-a-half. It stopped for a little while, and then ads started appearing on Craigslist again in May.
KRDO NewsChannel 13 tried contacting the couple on Monday but did not hear back.Fleischaker previously stated that horses on her property had been dumped on her and she was in the process of selling her herd.
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Previous story:
The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office said it’s up to a judge to decide if horses under the care of a woman found guilty of animal cruelty will stay on her property.
El Paso County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Sgt. Greg White said the District Attorney’s Office will need to ask for an injunction for the horses to be removed. If a judge grants the injunction, then EPSO will remove the horses.
White said one horse was removed already from the property because it was too thin.
A case involving horse neglect in Calhan has those who have followed the trial asking questions about the handling of the case.
Rachel Fleischaker was found guilty of cruelty to animals. A court document said she failed to provide adequate water to horses on her property. She will be sentenced in January.
There is another case against Fleischaker involving animal cruelty. In court documents affiliated with the case, it said the “defendant neglected 1 gray mare.” The jury trial is scheduled to start in December.
As of last Monday, more than 20 horses were on Fleischaker’s property.
Karen Marchman attended the trial to hear testimony from deputies with the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office who investigated this case.
“I wanted to hear testimony from sheriff’s deputies about what they found and what they did about it,” said Marchman.
She wants to know why there are still horses on Fleischaker’s property.
“They (deputies) kept going out and finding no water or frozen water or no hay and she kept saying, I’m going to do it, I’m going to do it and they kept giving her all the chances in the world,” said Marchman.
Susan Witter visited Fleischaker’s property and saw the horses. She called the Sheriff’s Office and found out they were already investigating.
“They (horses) are hidden and they can’t yell out, they can’t scream like people so if the owners aren’t responsible, someone has to be upfront saying this is not right,” said Witter.
In a different case in September, a neighbor found horses living among rotting horse carcasses in a barn in Black Forest. The sheriff’s Office removed the horses from the property while their owner, Sherri Brunzell, resolves the dispute in court.
Fleischaker did not want to speak on camera. However, she said over the phone that she went through a few bad years. She said the quality of the hay for her horses went down, but prices went up.
She said people also “dumped” their horses on her property and her herd grew too much for her to manage.
She said she is working on selling off the horses. However, she said it is taking time because she is particular. She said she does not want to sell her horses to buyers who will kill the horses.
She said her horses have fattened up and have nice muscles. She expects to be cleared from animal cruelty charges against her in the second case.
