THE COURT: Okay

THE COURT: Okay. Where are we at? Are we still able to focus attention or have you got a witness here still?

MS. LAMP: I’ve got some witnesses that I could call, Your Honor.

THE COURT: Four is our time period so will that be enough to get, not enough time?

MS. LAMP: I’m not sure that there is enough time.

MR. DUNGAN: Till tomorrow then.

THE COURT: Okay. I want to keep focus so we’ve been going at it here and it was excellent by the way. Tomorrow at on thirty, is that the time?

MR. DUNGAN: Yes, Your Honor.

MS. LAMP: One thirty, okay.

MR. HURST: Yes, Your Honor.

THE COURT: You will be here.

MR. HURST: Yes, Your Honor.

THE COURT: And Friday is still possible?

MR. DUNGAN: Possible. I’d like to keep those set for Friday.

THE COURT: That would be like nine.

MR. DUNGAN: Okay.

THE COURT: I’ve got an eight thirty hearing.

MR. DUNGAN: Your Honor, for purposes of me scheduling my witnesses for the civil portion of the case, Miss Lamp, you’re going to take up the whole afternoon tomorrow? I mean, do you know who we’re going to have tomorrow afternoon?

MS. LAMP: I don’t know if I will take up the whole afternoon. I anticipate that I would take at least half of it up.

MR. DUNGAN: Who all is coming tomorrow?
MS. LAMP: I’m not going to call all the witnesses on my list that I have out. I don’t plan to call any additional veterinarians.

THE COURT: Do you have some for sures for tomorrow then?

MS. LAMP: Yes. I have Officer Dunlap, Kim Luce, Laura Steenrod, MaryBeth Knott and the DEQ witnesses, Your Honor. Maybe it will be the afternoon.

THE COURT: Yeah, that sounds like into Friday, so..

MR. DUNGAN: Your Honor, can I just instruct all my witnesses Friday at nine then?

THE COURT: That’s fine.

MR. DUNGAN: I’m not going to bring in anybody for tomorrow then.

THE COURT: Okay. That’s fine. Then if we don’t finish Friday, maybe Tuesday afternoon at one or Wednesday at eight a.m.

MR. DUNGAN: Can we talk about that tomorrow? I don’t have my calendar in front of me.

THE COURT: Just to give you some ideas as far as your calendars and stuff.

MS. LAMP: Thank you, Your Honor.

THE COURT: All right. Thank you very much.

MR. HURST: Thank you, Your Honor.

MS. LAMP: Your Honor, shall I leave my exhibits here or take them up? I don’t know where, what do you want me to do with them?
THE COURT: What do you think, officer? Can we keep them secure?

MS. LAMP: Oh, Your Honor, we do have a question, a quick issue before we go while everybody’s here. I think I may have some people out in the hall that I’m just going to bring in about the mare that’s up at Michigan State.

THE COURT: Was there a question you had for us?

MS. LAMP: We need, Your Honor, we wanted to ask that the bay mare be released and I’m not sure exactly what it was and that’s why I wanted to bring the additional people in so they could articulate. I think we have a letter here. What are we asking?

DR. MARTEMUIK: To go to a foster home right now. She needs some special care prior to being able to be released to pasture again.

MS. LAMP: Your Honor, if I can provide the court a copy of this or if we want to get copies for everybody, that’s what we’re requesting is that she go to a foster home.

MR. DUNGAN: What are we talking about?

MS. LAMP: The bay mare, the one that had the uterine issue that’s up at Michigan State.

OFFICER WHEATON: I can tell you she was the only mare on the farm that was shod all the way around.

(Parties talking among themselves)

MS. LAMP: Your Honor, at this time that’s what we’re, if you want me to proceed.

THE COURT: Go ahead.

MS. LAMP: I’ve got a copy of the letter that I’d like to present to the court if I may, if there’s no objection. Is there no objection?

MR. DUNGAN: Well, Your Honor, Dr. Marteniuk is--

MS. LAMP: And Dr. Marteniuk is here as well and she can address any questions that the court has and which is rare that we actually have the vet here.

THE COURT: What are we requesting now?

MS. LAMP: We’re requesting that the horse that we sent up to MSU be sent to a foster home.

DR. MARTENIUK: Because she needs stall confinement and with the number of other pregnant horses on the property to tie up a stall for thirty days---

MS. LAMP: At the ranch.

DR. MARTENIUK: At the farm.

MS. LAMP: That would allow her to have a proper facility.

DR. MARTENIUK: And after abdominal surgery, it’s standard procedure with horses to confine them for thirty days, and then thirty days additional turn out in a small paddock and then they can go back to resuming normal life.

MR. DUNGAN: So she just needs to be in a stall by herself for thirty days.

DR. MARTENIUK: Stall by herself for thirty days.

MR. DUNGAN: And why can’t we do that in Grass Lake?

DR. MARTENIUK: You can do it wherever it needs to be done except at the farm with the number of animals there, I think the stalls there, you know, used as foaling stalls versus, you know, tying them up for thirty days for..

MS. LAMP: Because I believe there are still a lot of foals that are coming. Is that, Officer Luce?

OFFICER LUCE: Yes.

THE COURT: Miss Lamp, is this an emergency?
MS. LAMP: I don’t think it’s an emergency, Your Honor. We just need to release the horse from Michigan State.

DR. MARTENIUK: She’s ready to go home.

MS. LAMP: She’s ready to go home.

THE COURT: I understand that, but it’s the where now that’s at issue.

MR. DUNGAN: Similar to the other horse we met about.

MS. LAMP: Your Honor, as I understand Dr. Marteniuk, what her suggestion is if there is, I don’t know how many horses are in foal at this time.

OFFICER WHEATON: That we have left to go?

MS. LAMP: That we have left to go.

OFFICER WHEATON: Approximately ten.

MS. LAMP: So approximately ten. And what Dr. Marteniuk is suggesting is the purpose of a foster home would be to go to a farm where we don’t have limited amounts of stalls for these horses that are foaling. And when we have ten more foals coming in, if this horse were to sit in a stall by itself for thirty days, there’s not adequate facilities at the farm without tying up because we have ten on the way. Did I understand you correctly, Dr. Marteniuk?

DR. MARTENIUK: Yes. And you don’t have any way of knowing for sure how many foals are coming.

OFFICER WHEATON: I don’t, no.

THE COURT: We don’t have adequate stalls at the farm? Why do we know that?

MS. LAMP: Officer Wheaton, why don’t we believe there’s inadequate stalls at the farm?

OFFICER WHEATON[M1] : My stalls are full. All my stalls are full.

THE COURT: Mr. Dungan?

MR. DUNGAN: Your Honor, are they being used with horses that have to be stalled separately or—-

OFFICER WHEATON: Yes.

MR. DUNGAN: Why? I mean which horses have to be stalled separately? For what reason?
OFFICER WHEATON: I have mares in foal brought in, I have stallions that are in.

THE COURT: All right. So let’s say we put it in this foster. Who’s paying for that?

MS. LAMP: Well, Your Honor, ultimately we’ll be requesting restitution from Mr. Mercier and Mr. Henderson.

THE COURT: So you’re not asking for them to pay for it now. Maybe later depending on circumstances.

MS. LAMP: Depending on the circumstances, yes.

THE COURT: Mr. Dungan?

MR. DUNGAN: Your Honor, they think there’s room out there, you know, based on the number of horses that are out there. We were out there on May fourth, we know what the facilities look like out there, and again they prefer to keep all the horses together, there should be able to be one separate stall for this horse with what’s out there.

MS. LAMP: Your Honor, with all due respect, I would defer to the opinion of Dr. Marteniuk any day over Mr. Henderson and Mr. Mercier.

THE COURT: Well, I don’t think Dr. Marteniuk has given an opinion as to whether there’s no stalls out there.

MS. LAMP: I think that that’s what her understanding was. I’ll let her speak for herself.

DR. MARTENIUK: My concern is with the number of horses that are still due to foal that we may need those stalls that are there.

THE COURT: But you haven’t seen it lately.

DR. MARTENIUK: Not since the twenty-seventh.

THE COURT: Right. Of April. Was it April?

DR. MARTENIUK: I don’t know if they’ve made any new stalls or anything since the twenty-seventh.

MR. DUNGAN: I mean, if we’re worried about expense too, it seems like it would be much cheaper to add a stall than to pay foster care.

THE COURT: Is that a possibility?

MS. LAMP: Well, Your Honor, we can say that the resources of Animal Control are clearly capped when we have one director and three officers for the entire county and they’re devoting all of their resources here to this farm, and so I think that to expect them to build an additional stall, although if the court, if that’s what the court orders, they’ll do it.

THE COURT: Maybe Mr. Henderson and Mr. Mercier will build it.

MS. LAMP: Officer Wheaton says there’s no room to build an additional stall is what she’s informing me. She knows obviously much better than I do what the conditions are there and certainly better than--

THE COURT: It seems like there could always be room to build a stall. Couldn’t you?

MS. LAMP: I don’t know, Your Honor. I don’t build stalls.

THE COURT: Well, I don’t either, but…

MR. DUNGAN: They’d gladly take the opportunity to build it, Your Honor.

THE COURT: I mean, officer, there should always b room to build another stall.

MS. LAMP: Let’s talk to Officer Wheaton about that.

OFFICER WHEATON: The areas that I think that they’re referring to I’m using for hay storage to feed and bedding storage.

THE COURT: Well, they’re not talking about that anymore, they’re talking about building a different one. If I understand correctly.

MR. DUNGAN: Sure.

OFFICER WHEATON: Another building or build another stall inside this building?

THE COURT: I don’t know, they may want to build another building by tomorrow at one thirty. I’m not sure.

OFFICER WHEATON: Well, I’m telling you I don’t have another spot right now to build another stall.

THE COURT: No, I know right now you don’t, and I accept that. They’re saying that they can build one, a spot.

OFFICER WHEATON: I have one area in between the two adult breeding stallions. I cannot place a mare in that spot.

MR. HURST: They’re willing to do it tonight, Your Honor.

MS. LAMP: Your Honor, who are they suggesting is going to come and build the stall? I don’t think that we want Mr. Mercier and Mr. Henderson on the farm.

THE COURT: Well, that’s okay that you don’t think that, but I may think that. It makes more sense here. You’re asking them to pay for something and who’s going to pay for it in the short term, the foster care? Animal care?

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Leelanau Horse Rescue would gladly pay for it.

THE COURT: Okay. Without restitution.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Pardon?

THE COURT: Without-—will you build it on the farm?

MS. LAMP: Well, I think she was talking about the foster care.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Foster care.

THE COURT: Without restitution?

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: If that’s what we have to do and it’s in the mare’s best interest and I believe that Dr. Marteniuk believes it is, so that’s what we’ll do.

THE COURT: That’s in the best interest of the mare to have a separate place from the other horses where it’s come from, Doctor?

DR. MARTENIUK: It’s[M2] not so much where it’s come from or where it’s going, but it needs to have a place where it’s not, you know, it has space, it has some grass, you know, preferable to have it graze, you know, during this period of time.

THE COURT: All right. We’ll talk about it more at one thirty tomorrow. You come up with something, plan that we can look at—-

MR. DUNGAN: Okay.

THE COURT: I’m willing to look at it. But I’m not at this point going to do that until you come up with something.

DR. MATENIUK: Whatever she does need though, she needs to get, it has to be a covered, I mean it has to, you know, it can’t be outside, it has to be protected from the elements.

MS. LAMP: So Dr. Marteniuk, I guess we’ll just leave the horse housed at MSU. Is that a problem?

DR. MARTNIUK: No, that’s fine.

MS. LAMP: Okay.

DR. MARTENIUK: Whatever, you know, whatever time she’s ready to go.

THE COURT: Thank you.

MS. LAMP: Thank you, Your Honor. Thanks for entertaining that issue.

THE COURT: Thank you, Doctor, thank you, officers.

(At 3:48 p.m. proceedings concluded)

THE COURT: Okay. Let me ask before we go further. On the issue we ended yesterday with. I’m not sure this horse had a name. The mare that we were talking about looking for a foster home. Has that issue been resolved?
MS. LAMP: It has, Your Honor.

THE COURT: Do you want this letter back then from the doctor?

MS. LAMP: I would, Your Honor, thank you.

MR. DUNGAN: How was it resolved?

MR. HURST: We’d be interested in knowing.

THE COURT: How was it resolved?

MS. LAMP: They[M3] removed the storage stall that they were using and they built a new one.

MR HURST: On the farm?

THE COURT: Yeah, I think so. Okay. Mr. Dungan?