Couple claims horse was abused by local man

April 28, 2007

By MIKE ROSIER
Index-Journal staff writer

Documented cases involving the ill treatment of horses and mules have resurfaced in the Upstate, headlined by the death of a young colt that was dragged down a driveway in Honea Path by thieves.
Numerous other attempted thefts have been reported, as horses of varying breeds — often located in quiet, rural communities — become the target of criminals. The animals can fetch $200 or more apiece at auction.
Horse owners Mark and Holly Parkman, now of St. George never imagined they would ever have their very own horror story to tell.
A Ninety Six man — Christopher Haynie, 40, of 1301 Scotts Ferry Road — has been charged with ill treatment of an animal, an offense punishable by up to five years in jail and a fine of $5,000, after allegations he dragged an unwilling horse down a driveway.
Holly Parkman said her three horses were boarding with Haynie, a friend of her husband Mark — himself a Greenwood native.
“I had been going through a divorce and had boarded my horses with (Haynie) since July of 2004, paying him a monthly fee,” she said. “I called on April 26 (2006) and spoke with his wife, Amanda, and told her that I was going to come and pick up my horses.
“She said that I would not be able to pick up ‘Casey.’ I asked, ‘Why not?’ She said ‘Jake’ and Casey had gotten out of the pasture via jumping over the fence, and they were running up and down Scott’s Ferry Road and that he had hurt his hooves. (The horses) had run down to (neighbor) Ray Corley’s until (Haynie) got home the next day.”
What Holly Parkman says she saw upon arriving at the Haynie property April 29, 2006, in Ninety Six drove her immediately to tears.
“We thought that Casey was dead,” she said. “He had lost about 300 pounds and had bruises all over him. It was road rash. I had a horse that jumped out of my access trailer on Highway 26 going 65 miles per hour, and that horse didn’t look as bad as (Casey) did.”
The Parkmans allege Haynie — upon going to retrieve the horses from the Corleys’ property — tied the horses to the back of a pickup truck before turning for home. Only Casey didn’t want to go, and began to sit down.
Holly Parkman claims Haynie dragged her horse down the driveway.
She pulls out several photos taken May 1, 2006 — the day the horse was euthanized — and points out several wounds.
One in particular is difficult to look at.
“You could stick your hand in that wound, it’s that deep,” Holly Parkman said, pointing to the gruesome injury. “This right here is a coffin bone (the basic equine equivalent of an ankle bone). If you were to drag me behind a truck, right down to my ankles, that’s what happened to this horse.”
“(Haynie) drug his shoes off his feet,” Mark Parkman said. “That wound right there is three weeks old (in the picture), and it’s still open.”
Holly Parkman instantly called her veterinarian, Dr. Amy Hayek.
“I completely lost it,” Holly Parkman said. “I called my vet from (Summerville) immediately. I’m crying hysterically. When we pulled up, my foster daughter put some feed down for him, and he devoured it because, of course, a horse that can’t get up can’t eat.
“He was sitting down. He was fighting the truck.”
A police statement taken from Haynie — The Index-Journal’s attempts to contact Haynie’s attorney for comment were unsuccessful — explains the devastating injuries to the horse’s rear hooves by saying Casey foundered, or suffered from laminitis — a degenerative equine condition causing a separation between hooves and bone because of (according to a dictionary) an “infection, stressful events or trauma.”
The statement says “(Haynie) knew nothing about dragging a horse behind a vehicle” and that (Haynie) never tied the horses to a vehicle, but instead led the animals back to his pasture on foot.” The statement adds that Haynie “noticed that one of the horses that got out was not feeling well, so (Haynie) checked the animal out and noticed the animal had foundered.”
The statement also says that when the Parkmans picked up Casey, there were no injuries to the horse other than to the hooves, and that the “road rash” depicted in photographs was not present.
The statement also says police questioned Haynie’s wife, Amanda, who said “she had no idea where (Ms. Parkman — or Ms. DuRant at the time) was obtaining her information because it was false and untrue.” Other horses observed in the Haynies’ pasture by police “all appeared to be nourished and in good health.”
The Parkmans refute Haynie’s statement that the horse foundered.
“They also said that he got into some mares and that they had kicked him, but he’s a gelding (a castrated male horse),” Holly said. “He didn’t want anything to do with mares. Dr. Amy (Hayek) looked at the wounds. As soon as she looked at the back hooves, she said that we had to put him down.”
“I’ve known Chris for years,” Mark Parkman, said. “Those horses were never on the road. (The Corleys) had told Chris that he needed to get those horses. I imagine that Amanda told him that he was going too fast. He was just kind of like, screw it. He’s probably got 14 or 15 head. All of those horses are healthy. They take care of their horses, there is no doubt, but he was being paid $350 a month, and these were pasture horses.”
The Parkmans rushed Casey to their veterinarian’s office.
An invoice from Hayek’s office in Summerville (East Coast Equine LLC), dated April 29, 2006, states “the horse (Casey) has been through some mysterious trauma ... abrasions and lacerations of 90 percent of his body ... both hind hooves have no soles ... hoof walls have change in angle/horizontal lines ... coffin bones in both hind feet are exposed ... has lost approximately 300 pounds since (Hayek) last saw him ... wounds would be consistent with having been dragged down the road in a trailer whose bottom had fallen out ... horse is ravenous as though he had not been fed for days.”
An incident report filed with the Dorchester County animal control officer says “horse in horrible condition ... can barely hold own body weight ... very thin with healing lacerations covering entire body ... horse was euthanized.”
There is also a signed statement from Jennifer Cobb — a neighbor of the Haynies and niece of the Corleys — saying that about April 4, she heard “a loud scraping sound.” The statement adds Cobb went to the window of her home and “saw a white work-type truck with two horses tied to the back of it. The horse tied to the left side of the truck was almost in a sitting position ... causing its back hooves to drag along the tar and gravel road.
“I didn’t know ... who was driving the truck or who the horses belonged to. I called my aunt (Ms. Corley) ... she told me it was Chris Haynie. The next morning I was taking my daughter to school and we saw a blood trail that went approximately two-tenths of a mile on the road and then turning into Chris’ driveway. The blood trail looked like two round-like spots in the road.”
The Parkmans say their horse suffered needlessly.
“We got Casey that Saturday (April 29, 2006) and put Casey down at 10 a.m. that Monday morning (May 1, 2006),” Holly Parkman said. “For three weeks they gave my horse Bute (a medicine like aspirin). So my horse sat there for three weeks with aspirin in him, with broken feet, no water and no food, and they didn’t even call us. They knew we were setting our farm up in St. George.”
“That’s like putting a Band-Aid on a broke back,” Mark Parkman added. “As soon as I saw the horse, I knew what was up.”
Law enforcement eventually drew up an arrest warrant, but the case was dismissed initially at a preliminary hearing before a magistrate, because of a lack of information. The charges were expunged, but after a review of the case and further investigation on the part of the Eighth Judicial Circuit Solicitor’s Office, an indictment was taken before a grand jury.
Haynie’s attorney — Greenwood’s Billy Garrett — made a motion to dismiss indictment on the grounds the case could not be legally taken before a grand jury after it was previously dismissed, but a circuit court judge denied the motion.
Haynie was arraigned and later released on bond.
“I think that people need to be aware of this stuff,” Holly Parkman said. “It’s happening more and more every day now. When is stuff like this going to stop? I just think that people need to be aware of this.”
“What we were after was for (Haynie) to pay for the damages,” Mark Parkman said. “(Haynie) was saying that Casey foundered, but founder doesn’t grind your hooves off. Maybe they could have passed it off as (founder) with someone who didn’t know any better.
“The thing is, it wasn’t a favor. He was being paid. If he had just (apologized) or said he was sorry, hey, just pay for the horse and let’s be done. We didn’t want all of this to happen.” As for the charges levied against Haynie, Holly Parkman says the evidence — the couple continues to keep their horse’s frozen hooves for trial — speaks for itself.
“A jury of his peers indicted him after seeing the evidence,” she said. “A jury indicted him, not me and not you.”
The couple says there is no place for violence of this type toward animals.
“There was a dragging in Greenville last year where a guy dragged a mule, and he went to jail,” Holly Parkman said. “Then there was that colt (in Honea Path). That’s just cruel.
“Casey was just a mellow horse. He wouldn’t hurt a flea. Who could hurt a horse? Why would someone do that?”
“It was just totally uncalled for,” Mark Parkman said.
Haynie’s trial awaits an open date in general sessions court.

The ants go marching one by one ... for charity

Preschoolers step out for March of Dimes

April 28, 2007

By CHRIS TRAINOR
Index-Journal staff writer

They didn’t go two by two — they bounded along in a big blob, actually — but the students at Noah’s Ark Pre-School in Greenwood marched for charity Friday morning.
Noah’s Ark had its annual charity walk Friday morning. Each year, the pre-school selects a charity and holds a march in honor of that group.
“This year we chose the March of Dimes,” said Janette Taylor, co-director of Noah’s Ark. “This year, we also chose Ryan Piontek, whose brother (Nathan) is one of our students, as our ambassador for the March of Dimes. Every year we teach the children about service, about serving others and helping others. And, hopefully, the kids have fun while they are doing it.”
From all appearances, the children did indeed have fun. The march actually more closely resembled a parade, with a large banner announcing the group’s cause — held by Jennifer DuBose and Andrea Scott — leading the way. Lander University student Danielle Madden provided a drum beat, and faculty and parents walked with dozens of students while holding balloons and keeping everybody in a loosely cobbled-together line.
The march took on an ant theme, with each of the children donning a powder-blue March of Dimes T-shirt with a cartoon ant plastered on the front. They also wore homemade hats with paper “ant legs” hanging off the sides of their heads.
Ryan Piontek was born four weeks early and began having breathing problems. He was diagnosed with persistent pulmonary hypertension and needed nitric oxide to relax the blood vessels in his lungs.
The March of Dimes is an organization that funded research for nitric oxide, the drug credited for saving Ryan’s life.
On Friday, Noah’s Ark donated $550 to the March of Dimes in Ryan’s name.
“We sent a letter out to the (Noah’s Ark students’) parents, asking for a donation,” Taylor said. “Anything they could give was fine. And from that, we raised the $550.”
The children each received mock paper sneakers from the March of Dimes to bring to their parents for the donations. The students then brought them back and decorated the halls of the preschool with them.
Taylor said the preschool strives to educate youngsters on giving back at an early age.
“The 3- and 4 (-year-olds) really begin to grasp it,” Taylor said. “On Wednesdays we’ll take canned goods over to the soup kitchen and talk about giving to others in need.”
Taylor said next year’s march might center on donating to diabetes research.

Turner turns it around in McCormick event

April 28, 2007

By JIM JOYCE
Special projects editor

McCORMICK — In his last Hooters Tour event, Greenwood native Emmett Turner finished far down the list.
This week, however, he is next to the top after two rounds of the Savannah Lakes Classic at Monticello Golf Club at Savannah Lakes Village.
“I played pretty well last week, but I had a double bogey and a triple bogey on the last three holes and that knocks you down.”
Friday, Turner turned in his second straight three-under-par 69 for a two-day total of 138, good enough to get him into the last two rounds of the championship.
“Actually, I played pretty well, but I left a few shots out there,” Turner said of Friday’s round. “I didn’t birdie any par 5s on the back side. I hit a lot of good putts, but didn’t get many in today. I can’t complain.”
Starting on the back side, Turner’s only troublesome spot came at No. 2, where he tried to make the par 5 green in two shots. It landed short and in the water.
“I was trying to go for the green,” he said. “It’s not that hard a shot and I pull it off 70 percent of the time.
“I know what the repercussions are if I don’t pull it off. I just didn’t make it.”
He had one bogey and three birdies on the back side and finished on the front with one birdie.
“I need to score a little better the last two days,” Turner said. “I’ve got to shoot numbers lower than 69 to catch up a little, but I’ve still got two days.”
Vince Hatfield, of Greenwood, was in only his second Hooters Tour event and slipped from a first-round 74 to 76 the second round for a 150, which missed the cut.
“It’s a long process,” Hatfield said. “It’s not a one time deal. I know I’m young and I’ve got a lot of years ahead of me.
Hatfield also started Friday’s round on the back side, where he had four bogeys and two birdies for a 38. However, two double bogeys and one bogey overwhelmed a birdie at No. 1 and an eagle at No. 9 for another 38 and a 76 total to give him a 150 for the tournament.
“I couldn’t get any bounces,” Hatfield said. “Good bounces get your confidence going in your mind and I didn’t get any.
“It’s tough to keep the momentum going all the time, but I tried every shot and that’s all you can ask for.”
He said hitting into three hazards cost him some strokes.
“It was dumb swings that take time to get out of me, but I’m ready for the next time,” Hatfield said.

Obituaries

Alexander Brunson Hart

RIDGE SPRING — Services for Alex Hart will be held Sunday, April 29, at 2 p.m. at Ridge Spring United Methodist Church, with burial in Ridge Spring Cemetery. Born in Greenwood, SC, in 1942, Mr. Hart died April 26, 2007. He was the son of the late Robert (Bert) Williams and Adeline Brunson Hart. A graduate of Erskine College, he worked as a claims adjuster for State Farm and served in the United State Navy. He was a member of Ridge Spring United Methodist Church.
Surviving are two children, son, Jody Brunson Hart (Teena) of Lexington, SC, and daughter, Sandra Denise Hart Steele (Dan) of Summerville, SC; two grandchildren, Dalton Brunson Hart and Adeline Helen Steele; brothers, Robert Williams Hart, MD (Becky), Trapler Keith Hart (Betty), David Lomax Hart (Pat), Carroll Jones Hart (Sandy) and many other loving family members and friends.
Mr. Hart was predeceased by his wife, the late Linda Bowman Hart. Surviving are 3 stepchildren and seven step-grandchildren.
The family will receive family and friends on Saturday, April 28, from 5-7 p.m. Memorials may be made to the American Heart Association.
The Hamilton Mortuary of Ridge Spring, SC, is in charge.

Betty Jean Jones

Services for Betty Jean Jones, of 104 Moss Creek Lane, are 2 p.m. Sunday, April 29, 2007, at Macedonia Baptist Church, conducted by Dr. Willie S. Harrison. The body will be placed in the church at 1 p.m. Burial will be in the Old Mt. Zion Baptist Church Cemetery (Epworth). The family will receive friends at the home from 6-8 on Saturday evening. Robinson & Son Mortuary, Inc. is in charge of arrangements. Online condolences may be sent to robson@nctv.com.

Odessa Collins Lee

Odessa Collins Lee, widow of Curtis Lee, of 216 Tompkins St., died Friday, April 27, 2007. The family is at the home.
Services will be announced by Parks Funeral Home.

Gladys Stewart

WARE SHOALS — Gladys Stewart, 72, of 113 Maddox Road, died Friday, April 27, 2007, at HospiceCare of the Piedmont, Greenwood.
The family is at the home.
Services will be announced by Robinson-Walker Funeral Service.

Donald Ray Thomas

CALHOUN FALLS — Donald R. Thomas, 43, of 121 Seneca Circle, died Friday, April 27, 2007, at his home.
The family is at the home of his parents, Harry and Drucilla Thomas, 221 Elberton St. Services will be announced by Brown and Walker Funeral Home, Abbeville.

Opinion

Penalties must be harsh for those ‘trashing’ S. C.

April 28, 2007

Despite local and statewide efforts to keep South Carolina’s highways and streets free of litter we continue to trash wherever we live ..... and where others live.
Wrappers, cups, bottles, cans, cigarettes - and worse - are strewn along the paths wherever we happen to travel by automobile. That includes urban as well as suburban areas, to be sure, but Interstate highways sometimes look like the dumping grounds for pigs of the two-legged variety.
There have been several forms of punishment applied for those caught littering, of course. So far, though, nothing has seemed to make much of an impression on the scofflaws of trash.
Officials in Greenville just might have the best “cure” of all. Put the trash merchants to work cleaning up roadsides.
Greenville County officials have proposed sentencing more people to community service instead of fining them.

GOOD IDEA! THE THOUGHT IS to create work crews that would clean up litter along county roadsides. Magistrates were receptive to the proposal and one said, “We could probably come up with more people than they could use.” The way trash accumulates along roads, though, it just might become a full time job.
It’s an idea that could be used by every county in the state, to be sure, but it would be justice if everyone caught throwing out trash got a ticket and community service. The laws are there. They just need enforcing.
There are motorists passing through the state who cannot be overlooked. It’s quite probable they, too, trash South Carolina. If they’re caught, let the law apply to them, too. Give them community service before they leave the state.
Some things may sound harsh. Leniency, though, just won’t get the job done.