Hal Parker’s facility showing horses standing in a former chicken barn. Photo via NTWO, published in late August 2018
Hal Parker, 61, of Haile, La., has accepted a plea deal from the Louisiana Attorney General on several animal cruelty charges stemming from his involvement with a horse rescue group in 2018. According to a spokesperson for Attorney General Jeff Landry, Parker pleaded guilty to six felony counts of aggravated cruelty to animals and was sentenced to 10 years “at hard labor,” three years’ supervised probation and a $10,000 fine. All counts will run concurrently. (In Louisiana, “at hard labor” designates a jail sentence given for a felony, as opposed to one given for a misdemeanor offense.)
All but 18 months of that 10 years will be suspended.
Parker will also get credit for time he spent in jail in early 2019 after his initial arrest for felony theft of livestock, aggravated cruelty to animals, and two misdemeanor counts of simple cruelty to animals. Police later added nine more animal cruelty charges related to animal neglect, bringing the total to over a dozen.
A spokesperson could not confirm how much time remained on Parker’s jail sentence after his credit for time served, but did confirm that he was in jail as of June 5.
Parker also pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of simple cruelty to animals, with concurrent counts of six months in Union Parish jail and a $1,000 fine.
The spokesperson declined to say whether Dina Alborano, founder and fundraiser of ICareIHelp, was under investigation.
Parker will be under three years of supervised probation, which came along with a number of conditions. He will be prohibited from being “left alone with or the sole caregiver of a horse” during this period, may not sell, buy, broker, or trade animals for himself, may not own any animals other than his pet dog, and must be supervised by a horse’s owner or caregiver if he shoes horses or gives any riding lessons. He is permitted to lease his land for the use of others to house their horses, but must create a for-profit business and lease the land in good faith to someone outside his family or household.
Those conditions did not go into effect until his recent sentencing.
Parker was a close associate of ICareIHelp, a self-proclaimed “Thoroughbred rescue” operation run by New Jersey-based Dina Alborano, and was tasked with boarding and quarantine for horses Alborano had purchased from Louisiana livestock auctions and kill pens frequented by buyers who transported horses bound for slaughter. The Paulick Report first began reporting on Alborano’s activities in April 2018, at which time her organization did not appear to have achieved tax-exempt status with the Internal Revenue Service, despite claims on its website at the time that it was a “non-profit.” Later follow-up reporting by the National Thoroughbred Welfare Organization raised further questions about the care and nutrition of horses bailed by Alborano and managed by Parker.
ICareIHelp claimed to be saving or “bailing” horses that were otherwise destined for slaughter and focused primarily on former Thoroughbred racehorses. As the year went on, activists became concerned that the group continued to bail horses while updates on earlier rescues were unavailable. Altogether, the group bailed over 150 horses, most of them in the first half of 2018. Some were adopted, but dozens remain unaccounted for today. Police investigating the situation in early 2019 discovered a group of emaciated horses on Parker’s property with no food or shelter. Some of those horses were identified as ICareIHelp rescues. The investigation also revealed a grisly back pasture filled with dead horses.
In January of this year, the New Jersey Attorney General announced an agreement with Alborano to pay $5,000 in civil penalties for violating state laws regarding charitable fundraising. The New Jersey Attorney General estimated she raked in more than $344,000 in donations between November 2017 and December 2018 that were mixed into her personal accounts. The agreement also required her to cease operations through ICareIHelp and stated she may not serve as principal, board member or trustee of any charitable organization, and that she is barred from “unfair or deceptive acts or practices in the conduct of any business in the state.”
Several horses discovered during the course of Parker investigation in Louisiana have since died or been euthanized due to the extent of their neglect.
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