Elrod Man Gets Jail Time After Dead, Starved Horses Found On Property

TUSCALOOSA, AL — An Elrod man will serve a 6-month split sentence in jail after pleading guilty in connection to a case of animal abuse and neglect involving horses on his Tuscaloosa County property.

Daryl Shane Pate entered guilty pleas this week to one felony count of aggravated animal abuse, three counts of misdemeanor animal cruelty and two additional misdemeanor charges of failure to bury livestock.

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Pate was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the felony, but will instead serve 6 months in the Tuscaloosa County Jail as a split sentence. He will then serve three years of supervised probation and could be ordered to serve his full prison sentence if he violates the terms of his release.

A judge also ordered Pate to pay over $14,000 in restitution to the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office for the cost of caring and rehoming the horses that were rescued from his property following his arrest in 2017.

Lastly, Pate will be prohibited from owning livestock for the duration of his probation.

"We take all animal cases seriously," Tuscaloosa County Sheriff Ron Abernathy told Patch on Thursday. "I truly appreciate each of the men and women at the sheriff's office who worked so hard to resolve the situation and to save the animals that could be helped."

Pate's arrest in late 2017 came after TCSO investigators had been monitoring the 91-acre Pinewood Farm in Elrod for roughly a year. This probe was prompted by complaints from neighbors of dead and neglected livestock on the property, which had been previously owned by Pate's father — the late Tuscaloosa businessman, Billy Pate. Reports first began when some of the noticeably-emaciated animals had escaped the property, raising concerns from locals because of their appearance.

The Tuscaloosa News reported in 2018 that six dead horses were eventually found on the property on Dec. 29, 2017, in addition to two emaciated horses found in a pen on his property by investigators. As the newspaper pointed out when word of the abuse became public, Pinewood Farm was once a well-respected operation that fell into troubling decline following the elder Pate's death in 2011.

The case also gained widespread public attention when photos began circulating on social media of a visibly neglected horse standing in the elements with no shelter or coverings during a rare snow storm.

Pate was first charged Dec. 30, 2017 with failure to bury livestock, and later with animal cruelty charges for the nine surviving horses and a donkey rescued from the property. The animals were taken and cared for by the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff’s Office.

"It was very close to my heart," TCSO Deputy and Investigator Martha Hocutt told Patch following news of the case being brought to a close. A noted lover of horses herself, Hocutt was the tip of the spear in making sure the animals were rescued and properly cared for. "I'm glad that this part is over and that the nine horses and donkey were all able to find new homes and are being cared for."

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