One person arrested on cruelty charge following rescue of horses in Stanislaus County
Stanislaus County authorities made an arrest Thursday about a month after emaciated horses were rescued from a property near Riverbank.
Lisa Dunckley, 53, of Escalon was booked into the county jail on a potential animal cruelty charge. Bail was set at $4,000.
Animal Control and the Sheriff’s Department removed 30 horses from the property on Dec. 20. The horses were being kept in deplorable conditions and some of them were emaciated, authorities said.
The 30 horses were taken to the Oakdale Equine Rescue, which later took in seven additional horses. The horses, some of them pregnant, have been recovering at the Oakdale rescue.
Authorities and people with past dealings with the horse breeder said they believed Dunckley had been keeping 60 to 80 horses at multiple locations.
No information was available on whether additional horses were found.
Sgt. Luke Schwartz, spokesman for the Sheriff’s Department, said Dunckley was arrested at 11:30 a.m. Thursday at a Stanislaus Animal Control hearing.
She was booked into jail on a felony animal abuse charge. She later posted bail and was released.
Dunckley said Friday she had no comment on the allegations. Arraignment information was not available Friday, as the COVID-19 omicron surge has delayed hearings in Stanislaus Superior Court.
“We still have an active investigation,” Schwartz said. “(The Sheriff’s Department) is working with our counterparts in Animal Control services. This will be moving its way through the court system.”
Dunckley has operated businesses including Airdance Farm in Livermore.
She began the bankruptcy process four times in the past six and a half years — in March 2021, July 2018 and September of 2017 and 2015.
In the March 22, 2021, petition for bankruptcy, Dunckley reported liabilities of $100,000 to $500,000 and assets of zero to $50,000.
This story was originally published January 28, 2022 at 8:29 AM.
