53 year old Paul Curry was arrested and charged with cruelty to an animal, a misdemeanor. Niagara County Sheriff's deputies say on Saturday evening Curry tied his horse up to a guard rail at the intersection of Checkered Tavern and Wheeler Roads, near his house in the Town of Hartland. "Tied up to a guard rail that was so close to the road that the horse could have wandered into the roadway and gotten struck and killed," Capt. Steve Preisch said.
Several neighbors say this isn't something new and they've seen the horse out there before. "For the last few weeks we've seen the horse tied up out there. It was moved around and kept in a fairly confined area," one neighbor said. "Sometimes you'd see it tangled up around some of the trees and guard rails... and how well it was attended we don't know."
Authorities aren't only concerned about the horse being hit, but also drivers being harmed. The speed limit on Checkered Tavern Road in that area is 55 mph. "It's a very large animal and if it were to be struck by a motor vehicle it could cause a lot of damage," Capt. Preisch said.
"It's a busy corner especially in the morning and in the afternoon, so you're concerned for motorists as well as the animal," a neighbor said.
The Niagara County Sheriff Department Chief Deputy Jim Voutour says Curry has been investigated before on animal complaints. The county SPCA is investigating the incident and may take the horse from the owner. Curry is scheduled to be in town court in mid November.
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