Agriculture Department Found 8 Violations at Loonie Farms

The Georgia Department of Agriculture issued eight violations after a surprise inspection at Loonie Farms last month, but officials said the violations weren't considered serious enough to necessarily try to pull the license.

The remains of dead animals, some estimating as many as 50, were found this week after one of the owners, Christiane Judd, abruptly announced she was leaving town.

On Monday, several members of animal groups went to the property and found at least two large garbage cans filled with animal bones, along with animal carcasses strewn throughout the woods. 

When News 3 went there, we saw bones and the smell was rancid.  We also saw a dead dog that one woman told us had been shot.  The dog was near a mobile home that we were told the Judds had lived in.

Kim Hankerson from Animal Haven of Hope said since state inspectors had been there recently, she can't understand, "How something like this could happen.  Aren't they supposed to be preventing this from happening?"

Vanessa Simms-Green, the division director for animal protection for the Georgia Department of Agriculture, confirmed that two staff members were part of a team that made a surprise visit to the farm.  She said her two inspectors went to the location on April 7 along with someone from the Secretary of State's Office, the GBI and the Long County Sheriff's Department.  The Long County Sheriff's Department indicated the surprise visit was made March 4. 

Simms-Green said there were "eight violations - one of those was for sanitation, another record keeping, pest control and five counts of waste disposal."

She also said that during the visit, Mrs. Judd was asked to properly dispose of a dead horse. Officials also said there were several other larger animals on the property that had low body weight.

One inspector wrote at end of her report that other, smaller animals on the farm "appeared to be receiving humane care."

Simms Green said her inspectors found "animal carcases at the rear of property. One was a horse.  But there were not the quantity of remains apparently there now." She said one inspector who was there in April actually went back to the property Thursday and said "far more remains appear to be there now."

She said if her inspectors had seen in April "what they saw today, we would have likely taken further steps to take some administrative action."

Officials said in August 2010, when James Judd became the license holder, a pre-license inspection was performed on the property.

Simms-Green said during the April inspection they told Mrs. Judd they would be following up.

Some groups are still wondering how things could have gotten so bad since inspectors were there and why more wasn't done.  "It's hard to understand this," says Hankerson.

Meanwhile, Long County officials are planning to bury the animal remains at the farm on Friday morning.  Animal groups said they will have a clean up Saturday morning and they are planning a memorial service at 5:00 p.m. Saturday. 

"Sometimes, people think we're kind of animal fanatics," Hankerson said. "I'm not naive enough to think that animals aren't put down, that they don't get sick, that shelters don't destroy animals. But from what I can tell, these animals suffered, and that is just wrong."