On January 18th, officers of the Ritchie County Sheriff County Department visited the Home of Nikki Herner, a 33 year old woman to make inquiries about an animal she owned based on a criminal complaint made against her. The officers confirmed that when they arrived the scene, they found a dead dog and other malnourished animals up to a dozen of them, two of the malnourished dogs were tied to the sidewalk and they did not have access to food or water close to them, furthermore the dead dog was in a dog box close to the first two malnourished dogs.
Another malnourished dog was found at the back porch of the lady’s home with no indication of having been moved since there were no footprints in the snow, and the snow arrived on the 16th of January. Concerning the swine they came for, they counted some swine numbering up to 20 outside the residence, as for the swine inside the residence, they couldn’t be counted initially. There were also chickens, geese, ducks, guineas, and a turkey and all of them didn’t have or show any sign of being fed and also based on the criminal complaint.
The Officers had to obtain a warrant and returned on the 19th of January, to meet a deteriorated situation. More animals had died including two pigs, two chickens, and one dog, these were the ones whose carcases were found outside the home, inside the home the animals that were dead include four pigs, one chicken, one goose and one dog bringing the total number of dead animals in the home to 12.
As a sign of thirst, the animals began to eat the snow when they were taken outside showing the extent of their thirst; inside the home was covered with faeces making the living condition unbearable, the feeding bowls were dirty, trashed and turned over, the officers also confirmed that while they were conducting the search, there was a scratching sound which they could not locate at first, however it was located behind a doorway which was hidden with a lot of thrash; behind the doorway they found two dogs, one was alive and the other was dead.
Nikki Herner surrendered the animals to the officers before they served the warrant and the officers recovered a total of 76 animals, including 30 pigs, 21 Chickens, 13 ducks, 7 geese, 4 dogs and 1 turkey, during an interview with the suspect, she claimed that she first noticed that the animals were dead a month ago and she didn’t realize that there were many of them, she said she was waiting for the animals to be dead to burn them up at once, she further said she had no access to running water, she also claimed that some of the animals that died inside, died due to reasons beyond her control. In the report she stated that some died as a result of poisoning, which she claimed was done by a neighbor. The officers however found out that she made no complaint concerning the poisoning. Herner is being charged with a 12 count felony charge and is being held on a $12,000 bond.