DAVIE, FLA. (WSVN) - The owner of a popular petting farm in Davie has bonded out of jail and is denying all of the animal cruelty charges he is facing.
7News cameras captured Robert Hoover as he walked out of the Broward County Jail, Friday night. The 51-year-old said Davie Police has the story all wrong.
“We’re not monsters. We love [our animals]. We treat them the same as our pets,” said Hoover.
The suspect said he’s a farmer and animal rescuer, not an abuser. He said his business, Family Farms, specializes in free-roaming animals and is known for its animals, hayrides, line dancing and other fun activities.
“We’re a family farm. We’ve been a family farm for all of – this is what I do, it’s who I am,” he said.
But on Thursday, his animals were confiscated, and his farm was forced to shut down after, investigators said, Hoover engaged in 16 counts of animal cruelty, with eight of those charges being felonies.
Davie Police said that after multiple complaints about malnourished and mistreated animals, they began an investigation in April and discovered numerous instances of underweight animals, dirty or inadequate water supplies, lack of food and insufficient shade or shelter.
The warrant was supported by multiple complaints from Crime Stoppers, local residents and animal welfare organizations, including PETA.
According to the arrest warrant, “The bovines [cows] on the property have their spinal columns, ribs and hip bones protruding and did not have any visible food in their pens. The water troughs appeared to be yellow and do not have fresh water.”
The report also added that in one cow pen, “there was no grass to graze on.”
Investigators noted “a pig had overgrown hooves. Another swine was so severely sunburned that parts of its skin, especially behind its right ear, were raw and bloody.”
Drone surveillance and on-site inspections documented numerous instances of underweight animals, dirty or inadequate water supplies, lack of food and insufficient shade or shelter, according to the affidavit.
Hoover appeared before Broward Circuit Court Judge Corey B. Friedman on Friday.
Hoover’s attorney, David Braun, said all these allegations are false, as his client has run the place for many years.
“But I can tell you this. As an attorney and friend of Mr. Hoover, I’ve been at the farm dozens of times, and I know what lengths he takes to take care of his animals,” he said.
Braun said this isn’t the first time Hoover has faced allegations of animal abuse.
“Folks that have not been happy with some aspects of their dealings with Mr. Hoover. Their automatic impulse is to go for that allegation of animal abuse, and it’s too bad,” he said, “and he’s had to go to civil court, and we’ve gotten those issues resolved, and they’ve dropped their cases where they claimed that Mr. Hoover did something wrong, and we filed a defamation suit, and they apologized.”
Speaking to 7News after bonding out, Hoover said some of his animals are older and therefore thinner, but they do have food and medical care. He believes Davie Police crossed the line.
“I’m a farmer, and that’s what I want to do, is I want to develop our community in a peaceful way, and I don’t understand why they would have gone to this measure to create this narrative that they’re doing, instead of seeking the truth,” he said.
Hoover said he still needs to figure out whether his farm will remain open as he fights the charges.
Braun said in court that the farm owner will fight the charges until the end.
“He’s not going anywhere. He owns the farm. I have been his lawyer forever. We’re going to contest this all the way through. We will prove that Mr. Hoover is not guilty,” he said.
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