New Hampton couple charged with 44 counts each of animal cruelty

NEW HAMPTON — A local couple that claimed to be operating an animal rescue operation is facing 44 counts each of animal cruelty and one count each of unlicensed sale of pets after authorities found dead and starving dogs, cats, horses, rabbits, birds and reptiles at their home.

Local police arrested Edith Daughen, 28, and Nicholas Torrey, 30, of 25 Clement Road, on Aug. 8. Their arraignment is scheduled for Oct. 18 in Fourth Circuit Court-District Division-Laconia.

Accompanied by a veterinarian from the New Hampshire Department of Agriculture, police initially visited the home in response to a complaint about a horse that had fallen in the mud and was unable to get up.

Detective Joshua Tyrrell, who is handling the case for New Hampton, was not available on Monday to provide further information, but Teresa Paradis of Live and Let Live Farm in Chichester said it was a Facebook follower who called authorities after Daughen had been posting “for hours or days” her requests for help in getting the animal up. Several people had asked whether she had contacted Live and Let Live, which is a nonprofit rescue center, and Daughen kept saying no.

Paradis said she got a call from a state veterinarian at 3:30 p.m. on July 26, saying she was “going to a situation in New Hampton” where two horses would have to be removed immediately, and asking whether the farm could take them.

When volunteers from Live and Let Live arrived, the horse was standing, and “could not get on the trailer fast enough,” because it was stocked with fresh hay.
“She was 1 [the lowest on the scale] in body weight,” Paradis said, “and didn’t want to stop eating.”

The second horse was much younger and, while also starving, was better able to cope, Paradis said.

She noted that they rename rescue animals to give them a fresh start, and they gave the older horse the name Bristol, having traveled Old Bristol Road to get to the location. Paradis said that, as they traveled down Interstate 93, they felt the trailer jerk around, and stopped to find that Bristol had collapsed. They had to remove the second horse (newly named LuLoo) from the trailer to attempt to get Bristol back up.

Their veterinarian was waiting for them at Live and Let Live Farm, Paradis said, and when they pulled Bristol from the trailer, the vet gave her a painkiller and anti-inflammatory drugs and braced her up with bales of hay.

“She was bright-eyed, with a strong will to live,” Paradis said, “but she was never able to get up on her feet.”

Her heartbeat was irregular and she was hypothermic, so they brought blankets and stayed with her through the night. Around 7:30 a.m., she went from cold to hot and her heartbeat was racing at 130 beats per minute, a likely heart attack. The vet came back and euthanized her, Paradis said.

Other animals

Police told Paradis that Daughen maintained that those were their only animals, but, troubled by the experience with Bristol, Live and Let Live did their own investigation. Bristol had a tattoo proving that she was a former racehorse named Forestina, and they traced her arrival at Daughen and Torrey’s home to Feb. 10, 2017.

“Edith was always posting on social media,” Paradis said, “and had a photo of Forestina when she arrived there. She was overweight at that time, but Edith told the police that she was thin when she got her.”

Paradis said the staff of Live and Let Live found that Daughen had created a GoFundMe page the same day the horses were seized, asking for money to take in more animals. She advertised as an animal rescue/sanctuary.

“The volunteers and I found her selling snakes, having newborn kittens, and acquiring a baby bird. None of those animals were shown to police,” Paradis said.

She contacted the New Hampton Police Department and they returned on Aug. 8, to find several other animals, from hamsters to snakes to rabbits, including a dead snake and a dead bird. Live and Let Live took in 28 more animals, and Paradis said when police returned the day after the arrests, there were several other animals that were taken to safe places.

“Not an animal there had water,” she said. “If you run out of money, we have a feed bank. For rabbits, get handfuls of grass and leaves. Turn the faucet on. That doesn’t take money.”

She said Daughen was purchasing formula to feed the baby bird. “She only had the bird for 10 days to two weeks, but it costs a lot for that formula, and she didn’t feed the others.”

All of Paradis’ references were to Daughen, but her husband, Nicholas Torrey, also faces the same charges.

Paradis said another snake died, but the rest of the seized animals are doing well, given the state they were in when they were found.