Officials seize animals from property known for award-winning horses in Pierce County
After neighbors reported concerns about thin horses on a Key Peninsula property for more than a year, criminal charges have been filed following the death of one of the horses last year.
Prosecutors charged 38-year-old Kassandra Hand with one count of first-degree animal cruelty and two counts of second-degree animal cruelty on March 13 in Pierce County Superior Court.
She had been living on the property in the 1700 block of 158th Avenue Southwest in Lakebay for years with horses and other animals.
Kassandra Hand told the Gateway on March 25 that she was “shocked” to hear about the charges and that the first she learned of them was through the Gateway’s reporting.
“I don’t know how to fight this without a lawyer,” she said.
Hand said she helped raise the animals on the property.
“I grew up my whole life on that farm thinking I was going to inherit it,” she said.
Following estate proceedings, Hand said, she was told the animals were assets of the estate and that she couldn’t move them. Otherwise, she said, she had hoped to move them to friend’s pasture in Tacoma when she was struggling financially.
“I tried and I did the best that I could,” she said.
Hand said she was “shut down” when she tried to get help for the animals, and that she had “doors slammed in my face left and right.”
Asked if she had been concerned about the condition of the animals, she said: “Absolutely.”
“I loved these guys,” she said. “They were my babies.”
Hand’s sister-in-law, Kyleen Hand, told the Gateway earlier this month that the family had a long history of showing their horses in competitions. The horses, which were Tennessee Walkers, had won multiple awards, Kyleen Hand told the Gateway.
She said the family is letting Animal Control decide what’s best for the animals moving forward.
“We just want them to get to a better home and a better place,” she said.
She said the family had tried to convince Kassandra Hand to surrender the horses for years.
Kassandra Hand took over care for the animals after her father passed in 2020, according to court documents about the estate.
A copy of the Animal Control case report that documents years of complaints from neighbors and site visits by Animal Control was shared with the Gateway. The Gateway has an outstanding public records request for that report.
Years of complaints
Concerns began in May 2013, when someone called Animal Control to look at horses on the Key Peninsula property that were allegedly starting to appear thin and looked like they hadn’t seen a vet recently, according to the report.
Animal Control followed up and confirmed that a vet examined and worked on all the horses a few months later and that the horses appeared to have all gained weight, the report said.
Complaints from neighbors ramped back up in 2022, when they told Animal Control that multiple horses on the property appeared very thin, according to the report.
Animal Control officers cannot be on private property without permission or a warrant. When investigating reports they depend on the cooperation of the owner, at least in the beginning, Pierce County Animal Control Supervisor Brian Boman told the Gateway.
One of the horses, a 35-year-old white male named Flash, was described by neighbors as a “sack of bones,” in 2023, Boman told the Gateway March 11.
Animal Control went out to the property on April 7, 2022, and met with Kassandra Hand, who showed them the horses that day, according to the case report.
“They were all visually underweight,” the officer said in the report about the five horses that were on the property that day.
Hand allegedly told the officer she had “fallen on some hard times and is having issues providing feed for the animals.”
She was turning to a rescue group to help provide food, according to the report.
The officer told her the horses were underweight and that they needed to show improvement on the next visit, the case report said.
Pierce County Animal Control uses the Henneke Equine Body Scoring Chart to determine a horse’s status. The scale ranges from one to 10.
“Five is optimal for an animal to be, and specifically horses,” Boman said. “One is extremely emaciated and nine is extremely obese.”
Flash was eventually found to be a 2 by a equine doctor, according to the charging papers prosecutors filed.
Officers went back several times between May 2022 and February 2023 to try to speak with Hand and see the horses, according to the case report, but each time no one was home, and the horses weren’t visible from the street. One of those days was Feb. 5, 2023, when four different people called Animal Control and sent pictures of the horses, according to the case report.
“I have concerns that some of these horses will not survive until spring grass in their current condition,” according to one report.
On July 10, 2023, Hand’s daughter was on the property when Animal Control visited, according to court records. They didn’t see the horses, but did see three pit bulls, one of which appeared to be “extremely underweight,” and had what looked like fighting scars, charging documents alleged. That dog looked like she just had puppies, the charging documents said.
On July 14, 2023, Kassandra Hand was home and showed Animal Control the horses. The officer wrote that four of the horses appeared to have gained some weight, but Flash was still in bad shape, the case report said.
The officer told Hand if she did not get a vet immediately, they would take Flash, according to the officer’s notes in the court report. Hand told the officer she did not have the money to pay for a vet visit, the case report said.
Animal Control went back to the property July 27 and served a search warrant.
Hand was not there July 27, but a copy of the warrant was left with someone who was, charging papers said.
The officers found a litter of puppies.
“There were four puppies in a filthy child’s pack n’ play,” charging documents alleged. “… the puppies had no access to food or water. There were excessive amounts of feces and urine build up in the enclosure, as well as an overturned food bowl.”
The dog that had scars before had “new injuries to her muzzle,” charging papers said.
Officers took that dog, the four puppies, another dog that appeared to have lost weight, and Flash the horse, according to charging papers.
The four other horses and other dogs stayed on the property.
Flash was euthanized weeks after he was seized. Boman said he had multiple health issues.
“We did everything that we could to try and save the horse,” Boman said.
That “broke my heart,” Kassandra Hand told the Gateway. She said she had wanted Flash to live his remaining days on the farm.
The dogs have been adopted, Boman said.
Pierce County Animal Control partners with several large local veterinary hospitals to determine next steps for animals that have been taken. In some instances animals stay at the hospital for care and treatment. Others go to a local boarding facility or rescue facility.
Animal Control took Flash to the vet, then he went to a local boarding facility where they continued medical treatment, Boman said.
When they took him, Flash weighted 972 pounds, the charging documents said. According to the veterinarian, Flash should ”be in the weight range of 1200-1300 lbs,” the charging documents said.
“His extremities (nose and hooves) palpated cool to the touch despite it being a warm sunny day and his core body temperature is lower than normal for horses,” a veterinarian wrote in his exam provided in the case report.
She also listed various dental issues, including that almost all of his “cheek teeth lack enamel ridges for grinding hay.”
Because his health declined, he needed to be put down, and he never got the chance to go to a rescue facility, Boman said.
Boman told the Gateway on March 11 that the case had been referred for possible criminal charges.
On March 12 the Gateway asked a spokesperson at the Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office about the case. Spokesperson Adam Faber said he expected to have an update the next day. On March 13 he said Kassandra Hand had been charged.
Kassandra Hand was charged with first-degree animal cruelty for the horse, Flash.
She’s accused of committing “criminal negligence starve, dehydrate or suffocate an animal, or expose an animal to excessive heat or cold and, as a result, cause substantial and unjustifiable physical pain that extends for a period sufficient to cause considerable suffering or death...,” charging documents said.
Additionally, Kassandra Hand was charged with two counts of second-degree animal cruelty for two of the adult dogs.
For both the dogs, she’s accused of “under circumstances not amounting to first degree animal cruelty, knowingly, recklessly, or with criminal negligence fail to provide the animal with necessary shelter, rest, sanitation, space, or medical attention and the animal suffers unnecessary or unjustifiable pain as result of the failure...,” according to charging documents.
A conviction of first-degree animal cruelty is punishable for up to five years in prison, according to state law. A conviction of second-degree animal cruelty is punishable up to a year in county jail, according to state law.
What happened to the other four horses on the property?
Neighbors who had been reporting concerns about the horses started a discussion on Facebook after the horses allegedly escaped the property and were on the road Dec. 2, 2023.
Neighbors on the Facebook thread said they were concerned for the horses, especially during colder weather.
The post received over 40 comments. Residents alleged in the comments that the horses looked “sickly.” A handful of people said they had called Animal Control several times for a rescue.
One Facebook user said when they passed the property the horses were “reaching for any grass they can get.”
Some Key Peninsula residents on the thread alleged they’ve offered for several years to take the horses, but that “the woman on the property will not relinquish them.”
When asked why the other horses weren’t taken sooner, Boman said they were thin, but not to the point of “emaciation,” like Flash.
The Gateway asked Boman on March 13 about the status of the four other horses.
One of Boman’s officers visited the property on March 6 to guarantee the caretaker was having feed delivered regularly and that the horses were being fed on a regular schedule, he said.
The four horses showed some weight gain, according to Boman.
There was a familial dispute over Hand’s father’s estate following his death, according to Pierce County Superior Court records, and the court gave the Sheriff’s Department authority to evict Kassandra Hand from the property in January of this year.
The Gateway asked Pierce County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Darren Moss on March 14 why Kassandra Hand hadn’t been evicted, if the order was issued in January. He said deputies had evicted her earlier that morning.
He also said Animal Control officials were going out that same day to seize the four other horses and one remaining dog.
Animal Control took the horses once Kassandra Hand was evicted. Her brother, the new administrator of the estate, released the horses to Animal Control, Moss said.
A Gateway reporter watched Animal Control leave the Key Peninsula property with the animals just after 1 p.m. on March 14. Animal Control Officer Patrick Cassin told the Gateway the horses were going to a boarding facility.
The Gateway asked Moss why Kassandra Hand was not arrested while Animal Control was on the property, given that the court issued a warrant March 13 after she was charged. He said his deputies were only there to evict and assist with the animal rescue, and that they must not have checked if she had a warrant out for her arrest.
On March 15, Moss confirmed she had not yet been arrested, and said deputies would be going out soon.
Pierce County animal cruelty cases post COVID-19
Over the last five to 10 years, Boman said animal cruelty case numbers in Pierce County have stayed about the same.
But they have seen an influx in cases of owners struggling to care for animals post COVID-19.
People got new animals while spending more time at home during the pandemic, and Boman said it’s become “more difficult” for owners to care for or keep animals for various reasons.
Some don’t have the same time they had before to care for animals, he said.
Boman said it’s also a difficult time to find homes for horses in Pierce County.
“A couple of years ago, it was actually more expensive to buy a goat at a livestock market than it was a horse because of how many people were trying to rehome horses,” he said.
Pierce County also is not as rural as it was fifteen years ago, he said.
“You’re starting to see Pierce County turn more and more urban,” Boman said. “You’re starting to see population growth and more housing developments are going in. You’re not seeing as much agricultural land as you had maybe 10 to 15 years ago.”
Editor’s note: This article has been updated with comments from Kassandra Hand.
This story was originally published March 19, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
