Rachel Ann Sword (Collin County Sheriff’s Office) and one of the cages allegedly containing a dead dog (CBS News screenshot)
A 22-year-old woman in Texas was arrested last week after landscapers at her home allegedly discovered dozens of dead animals on her ranch, including the bodies of 12 horses and 24 dogs. Rachel Ann Sword was taken into custody on Friday and charged with one count of cruelty to a non-livestock animal, a third-degree felony, and one count of cruelty to livestock animals — physical abuse, a state jail felony, records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
In a statement emailed to Law&Crime, a spokesperson for the Collin County Sheriff’s Office said that the investigation into Sword began with a “citizen complaint,” filed by landscapers who had been working on the property, regarding the discovery of several dead horses. Based on the complaint and a follow-up inquiry by Collin County Sheriff’s personnel, CCSO deputies and Collin County Animal Services on Aug. 1 executed a seizure warrant authorizing “the retrieval of all living animals” present on her property located in the 700 block of Graybill Road in Westminster. Westminster is about 50 miles northeast of Dallas.
“During the execution of the warrant, investigators seized two dogs, two horses, one cow, one lizard, and one snake, which were turned over to Animal Services personnel for their care and control,” the statement from CCSO said. “While at this scene, in and around a number of buildings located on the property, Sheriff’s investigators discovered the remains of 12 horses and 24 deceased dogs in advanced states of decomposition.”
According to a report from Dallas Fox affiliate KDFW, detectives in the course of their investigation discovered that the property where the animals were found was owned by Sword’s elderly grandparents. A copy of the probable cause affidavit obtained by the station reportedly stated that the grandparents told authorities that they both had difficulty getting around and had been under the impression that Sword was taking care of her own animals at the ranch.
However, investigators at the scene reportedly said they smelled something malodorous in the area which led to the discovery of a dead dog inside a cage near the grandparents’ home. Investigators noted that there was no food or water anywhere near the dead dog’s cage.
While Sword’s grandparents lived inside a house on the property, Sword lived in an RV parked behind their home.
Continuing their search of the property, deputies reportedly said they found 23 more dead canines in various stages of decomposition, several of which were also locked in cages without food and water while others had been stuffed into pens that had constant exposure to the sun.
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Deputies also found a dozen dead horses on the property.
“The decay on the horses ranged from completely skeletonized to partially skeletonized with skin and fur, generally indicating the deaths were not recent,” the affidavit reportedly said.
In an interview with investigators, Sword reportedly explained that her husband owned the animals, but said he died approximately three weeks earlier. She allegedly conceded that after his death, she knew she was responsible for the animals’ wellbeing, but claimed that she was so depressed she could not bring herself to care for them, KDFW reported. However, records reportedly indicated that since 2019, there had been at least 16 calls concerning reports of animal cruelty on the property.
Alston Mays, one of the landscapers who contacted authorities, spoke to KTXA about the ordeal.
“The whole property just smelled like death. Cages everywhere. Dead animals everywhere,” he said, adding there were also “skeletons everywhere.”
Sword was taken into custody and booked into the Collin County Jail where she is currently being held on $85,000 bond.
“Collin County is committed to ensuring the safety and welfare of all animals throughout the county, and incidents such as this are taken very seriously,” CCSO told Law&Crime. “The Collin County Sheriff’s Office has a zero-tolerance policy regarding the abandonment or cruelty to animals.”
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