Two animal-abuse cases due in court Tuesday

Onalaska couple charged with 29 counts of mostly animal abuse.

Two recent cases of animal abuse are scheduled in La Crosse County court at the same time Tuesday.

A mother and daughter from Onalaska have a hearing on charges of child neglect and mistreating animals.

Linda and Carol West of Onalaska are suspected of keeping many horses, dogs and rats in filthy conditions, along with raising two children in an unsanitary house.

Joseph Clements also has a hearing in an animal abuse case.

Clements is a Coon Valley man arrested last month for allegedly killing the family dog with a hammer in front of his kids, because the pet had gone to the bathroom inside the house.  

ORIGINAL STORY ABOUT THE WESTS

After finding emaciated animals and children living in filth, authorities have charged Linda West, 74 and Carol West, 37, with 29 charges, mostly having to do with the animals.

After 20 years of complaints related to the mother and daughter’s place at on Hauser Road in the town of Onalaska, police investigated in October.

A sheriff’s deputy finally visited the West home after a neighbor complained about a horse belonging to Linda West tearing up his lawn.

The home seemed run down, according to the deputy and smelled heavily of animal feces and urine when West opened the door.

After an initial visit, investigators and social workers used a search warrant to check out the house and found a house of horrors.

There was rats in cages along with their feces scatterd about the floor.  Emaciated dogs, abused and scared, stacked in crates. A bunch of horses, all in really bad shape.

The living conditions inside the house were deplorable, according to investigators, with garbage and filth everywhere and only narrow passageways between piles of garbage.  

Apparently the bathroom and kitchen were also not in working condition and the counters were stacked with dirty dishes and garbage cluttering the counters.  

Living amid all of that, two children, ages 8 and 11.    

According to a criminal complaint, when confronted about the living conditions, Linda West told a deputy that the house, “isn’t that bad.”

In total, deputies found 8 dogs, 16 horses, 44 live rats and 32 dead ones.  There was also 7 sheep that they never found.

The Wests face 27 animal mistreatment counts and two for child neglect.

The charges could lead to decades of prison time, if the women are convicted.