FAIRVIEW TWP — The owner of several horses taken in by an animal rescue group on Thursday claims that the animals had been receiving proper care and that the group's founder deceived him.

Brian Arendosh owns the property at 390 Cherry Road in Chicora where, according to Pam Vivirito, founder of Equine Angels of Cabot, nine horses were kept in a small pasture littered with high-tensile fencing, without shelter, hay or water.

Vivirito claimed she had received numerous phone calls about the animals.

However, Arendosh said his horses are well cared for. He claims he was “railroaded” by Vivirito into giving up six of the animals so she could attract media attention and donations for her organization.

Vivirito denied those claims and countered with her own, calling Arendosh a liar.

Arendosh on Saturday allowed several members of the media to tour his property, including the stables where the remaining three horses are boarded, and a spring-fed pond provides 24/7 access to water for the horses.

He also produced a stack of receipts from farmers who had sold him hundreds of pounds of hay in the past few months, as well as receipts from Zanella Milling, one as recent as March 8, for the horses' grain mix.

“I have a paper trail from the past year. I have all the proper vet care, as far as the rain rot medicine, the hoof medicine, everything,” Arendosh said.

“I should not have relinquished those horses to her. She scared me into it. She saw an opportunity and took advantage of it.”

According to Arendosh, he agreed Thursday to allow Vivirito to take six of his nine horses on Friday, two paint horses, two quarter horses and two thoroughbreds. Instead, Arendosh claims, Vivirito showed up two hours later with horse trailers and media in tow to claim the animals.

“She brought state police here and told me if I didn't surrender the horses, she would have media crawling all over this place and it wouldn't be pretty,” he said, adding that Vivirito told him she'd take care of the media and leave his name out of it.

So, Arendosh hastily signed a surrender agreement, handwritten by Vivirito on the back of an envelope, allowing her to take the six horses. He believes she especially wanted the painted horses because they are easier to sell and bring more money.

The trooper on the scene did not issue citations.

“(Vivirito) said, 'This is how I get donations for the 40 horses I take care of,' and she did it at my expense. She knew how to work the police and the media,” Arendosh said.

Vivirito this morning disputed Arendosh's account.

“He's lying,” she said. “He was not railroaded or duped. He surrendered those horses willingly. When he signed the surrender papers, he told me, 'You'll be helping me out.'

“We did nothing wrong,” she said of her group.

Vivirito said that she did not threaten to alert news media to Arendosh's farm should he fail to relinquish his horses. She acknowledged, however, that she warned the owner that he could find himself in the middle of a public relations mess.

“I told him, 'This would be ugly,'” she said.

Asked what she meant by “ugly,” Vivirito said, “The public was going to get upset and turn against him.”

She also asserted that the public would rally around her group.

“We have so much support of the public,” Vivirito said.

Meanwhile, she dismissed Arendosh's claims that she manipulates the media to bolster fundraising for her nonprofit group.

“I don't sell those horses,” she said. “These horses get adopted out. I lose money on them.”

She said that once her group rehabilitates horses, the animals are turned over for adoption. The adoptees, she said, pay the group a “donation” of $300 to $500.

In the comments section of Friday's article about the animal seizure in the online Butler Eagle, the first comment, left by Equine Angels secretary/treasurer Glenda Coughenour, reads: “Horses in this condition take lots of care and treatment for veterinary expenses, medications, feed and hay. If you would like to help donations can be made at www.equineangelsrescue.com.”

Arendosh said he now intends not only to attempt to recover his horses, but to file suit against Vivirito for defamation of character. He does not deny that some of the animals were not in good condition, but he is incensed at the accusations of mistreatment.

“I have a half-acre pond behind my house that these horses have access to at all times, and the horses had access to come into the barn whenever they wanted. If you know what a horse is like, it would rather be outside, in the rain and snow, than sitting in a barn,” he said.

Arendosh became emotional several times while talking about the horses, including the three still on his property belonging to him: Cinnamon, which he has owned for 22 years, Maggie, 5, and Phantom, 4.

“Yes, they were a little skinny. You could see a little bit of back bone and hip bone. But they did not get that way from a lack of feeding. There's not a farmer who will tell you animals do not regularly lose weight during the winter,” he said.

Arendosh said several of the animals belonged to a neighbor whose property he bought, and they probably had not acclimated well to the mix of feed he used.

“Either that, or I needed to add more fat to their food during the winter,” he said.

“That's baloney,” Vivirito said of Arendosh's explanation. “Horses don't adjust to a feed. There's no acclimation to hay.” He doesn't know what he's talking about.”

As for the alleged small grazing area, Arendosh said it is common practice to rotate fields during the freeze/thaw cycle, otherwise all of the property would be mud pits and the animals would have no good grass to eat in the spring, adding that he has about 23 acres he uses for the horses throughout the year.

“They were up in these fields through the first snowfall,” he said.

Eagle staff writer Jim Smith contributed to this report.