PARK RAPIDS, Minn. -- A suspect has been arrested in connection with a gut-wrenching case of animal abuse after finding two horses that starved to death tied to trees near Dorset Corner.
Minden Crenshaw, 28, of Park Rapids was arrested at her residence on Saturday and appeared in court on Monday on felony charges of animal neglect, according to a press release from the Hubbard County Sheriff's Office.
Hubbard County Sheriff Cory Aukes interviewed Crenshaw on Friday afternoon. Crenshaw admitted to owning the horses and tying them to a tree on a neighbor's property when her mother refused to let her have the horses at home, the press release said. When Crenshaw moved out of her mother's house in early April, she admittedly stopped taking care of the animals. Crenshaw was arrested by Hubbard County Deputies at her residence on Saturday.
The investigation revealed that there was no shelter for the horses for the past three months and that the horses had not been fed or watered since approximately the first of April, the press release said.
The horses were discovered by resident Virgil Johnson on Friday as he hiked through the woods. He immediately reported the incident to authorities and the Headwaters Animal Shelter.
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Johnson lives in the vicinity of where the horses were tied and abandoned.
"I just can't understand cruelty like this," he said.
One horse managed to break its leash, but the other simply dropped in place as it was shackled to a tree in a heavily wooded area. The two had obviously been left there for part or most of the winter.
