AA Learn more about in-home care options for your loved ones

JAN. 31, 2023 - The scene at 138 Tall Tree Lane in Buncombe County on Jan. 31, 2023. The Buncombe County Sheriff's Office and the ASPCA responded to the residence regarding an animal abuse investigation. Officials say more than 40 dogs were removed from the home. (Photo: WLOS Staff)

BUNCOMBE COUNTY, N.C. (WLOS) — A Buncombe County woman faces felony animal abuse charges after authorities say 41 dogs and other animals were seized from a home in Leicester, North Carolina.

Dozens of animals -- including dogs, tortoise, several birds -- seized in cruelty case

The Buncombe County Sheriff's Office says officers with the Animal Services Unit served a search warrant at 138 Tall Tree Lane on the morning of Jan. 31, 2023.

DOG FOUND WANDERING WITH NOTE REUNITED WITH OWNER, MCKAMEY ANIMAL CENTER SAYS

Initially on Tuesday, the sheriff's office said in a press release that more than 25 dogs were rescued from the home, along with other animals "suffering from neglect."

“We looked out the window and heard some commotion,” neighbor Bill Rogers said.

About a dozen American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals members spent about eight hours removing the animals from the property and transporting them to an undisclosed location.

"The dogs, including nine newborn puppies, as well as a tortoise, a rabbit, a fish, and several birds, were found living in neglectful conditions in an overcrowded mobile home in Leicester," a news release from ASPCA said.

Lindsey Trevor Rue is charged with felony killing an animal by starvation, felony animal cruelty, child neglect, and resist delay or obstruct.

“The ASPCA has deep roots in Western North Carolina, so when we learned these animals were suffering and in need of immediate intervention, we quickly mobilized to ensure they could be brought to safety and receive the care they deserve,” Teresa Ladner, senior director of Investigations for the ASPCA, said in the release.

MAJOR MILESTONE: ASPCA SPAY/NEUTER ALLIANCE PERFORMS 500,000TH PROCEDURE IN WNC

“We can barely handle one, let alone 41,” neighbor Baylee Moss said. “It’s too much. “It’s really devastating.”

The computer aided dispatch (CAD) system for Buncombe County -- which records fire, EMS, and law enforcement calls for service -- shows that since Jan. 5, 2007, there have been 68 calls for service at 138 Tall Tree Drive in Leicester, the sheriff's office said. The first call for service was animal-related, and 35 animal-related calls for service had been recorded for that address as of Jan. 25, 2023. Complainants ranged from barking/nuisance issues to dogs running at large, chasing livestock and killing chickens to concerns about a lack of shelter and food for dogs and horses.

“We’ve seen so many of these dogs run through our yards,” Moss said. “To hear what’s being going on is really sad.”

The sheriff’s office has not released much about the investigation. More charges are expected to be filed against Rue.

"Animals don’t deserve to be treated like that,” Rogers said.

In a news release, Buncombe County Sheriff Quentin Miller thanked the Animal Services Unit for conducting the "long-term investigation," as well as staff and volunteers with the ASPCA.

This story is developing and will be updated.

Visiting Our Past

When Jean Boone Benfield's daddy came back from World War II, he built a new home place in Leicester on a farm that Jean and her husband still owned. For a while, when her father was away, Jean stayed with her family at her mother's parents place on Mount Clare Avenue in Asheville.

"A source of fascination for me," Benfield writes in her book, "Mountain Born," "was to sit outside in the summer evening, listening to Mother and Grandmother talk to ladies passing by. After the lady was out of earshot, her virtues, or lack thereof, were discussed."

One section of Benfield's book, subtitled "A Recollection of Life and Language in Western North Carolina," illustrates mountain sayings with sentences that put them in context.

"You children hush and quit askin' me every other whipstitch," the grandmother snapped if youngsters got too anxious or curious. Perhaps she was finishing a piece of fabric with such a stitch at the time.

Part of the fun of the sayings was making interesting sounds and word-pictures. In the winter, Jean's father pronounced after a bad storm, "First it snew, then it blew, and then it friz." In the summer, grandmother might comment, "It's hotter'n a June bride in a feather tick."

Observations and judgments about kith and kin were great fodder for poetry. "Jimmy told him that mash wuz bad," Jean overheard someone say, "but he wouldn't listen; he's as independent as a hog on ice." The hog refers not to a pig, but to a stone that blocks the way in the Scots game of curling.

On occasion, porch talk was delivered directly to the subject of interest. "You're going to have to give that man up before you're found out, Missy; I've told you and told you, you caint have your cake and eat it, too." And sometimes the talk pointed at the family circle: "When Granny gets up in the morning she looks like the wreck of the Hesperus."

The Hesperus reference was to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's work, of which the Boone family members were great readers. Literature and history filled the household, including at Christmastime when the family enacted Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol," and the pet Siamese cat played Tiny Tim.

Jean added her own reading to the mix, benefitting greatly from trips to Pack Library on the square. "At age 11 I read 'Gone with the Wind,' and ... I never got over it," she writes. "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a lick," she liked to say.

The 'fleshspots'

The downtown stores — "fleshpots" — held many attractions, though people were wary of them.

"Reuben needs that fiddle like a hog needs a sidesaddle," one might say. "I know you want to go uptown, but people in hell want ice water, too."

Sears Roebuck opened on Coxe Avenue in the 1940s (in the building at the time of this writing occupied by Buncombe County Department of Social Services). People went there just to ride the escalator. Jean's family got Christmas hauls from the store. And someone was heard to say, "I'm gonna get a new Frigidaire frigidary by hook or by crook."

Through it all, the Boones, descendants of Daniel's brother Israel, held off the modern culture if it threatened their rural one. Jean's father would not watch TV when it entered his world.

Benfield ends the memoir part of her book with thoughts about her Leicester home: "Nestled in memory and heart it remains today, inviolate and forever 1950."

Rob Neufeld wrote the weekly "Visiting Our Past" column for the Citizen Times until his death in 2019. This column originally appeared March 16, 2010.

LEICESTER, N.C. (WLOS) — For 17 years, Robert Hoppenhauer's Leicester neighborhood has been charged for a service it wasn’t receiving. It amounts to tens of thousands paid to the local power company, Duke Energy Progress (DEP).

Mountain neighborhood gets refund after paying for nonexistent street lights for 17 years

“Once I realized it wasn’t just me, but everybody, then I said, we have to call somebody,” Hoppenhauer said.

News 13 and the North Carolina Public Utilities Commission Public Staff are investigating how it happened, who holds the utility company responsible, and how to check if it’s happened to you.

Nine miles outside Asheville, on a Leicester hillside, sits a quiet neighborhood.

“It’s nothing but good, hard working people. We keep to ourselves, until we don’t have to,” Hoppenhauer described his neighborhood.

When something looked amiss on Hoppenhauer’s power bill late in 2021, he had to call Duke Energy Progress.

“I’m a stickler, I’m very much a big stickler for reading my bills and understanding them,” he said. “When I called them, I played a little coy with them, oh I see this is a new charge, you know and she’s like, 'no, no it’s always been charged.' And I was like, well how long have I been paying it? And she’s like, '14 and a half years.' I said, now we have a problem."

Duke Energy’s Streetlight map highlights the issue.

What did the maps show?

“Their maps shows that there are eight street lights on this street and two of them are in backyards,” Hoppenhauer said.

It’s obvious at nightfall or during the day if you ride through the neighborhood along Slick Rock Road, while the streetlights are indicated on Duke Energy’s map, there are no actual lights in the neighborhood.

“I said to my wife, I don’t understand how not only does it show street lights, but every single one of them is working,” said Hoppenhauer.

News 13 reached out to Duke Energy Public Relations Manager Jeff Brooks.

“The lights show up on the map, but they’re not in the neighborhood, how does something like that happen?” News 13 asked.

“Well, it’s a little bit of a mystery," Brooks explained. "Somewhere when these lights were set up 20 years ago, which was a different time, those lights were put into the system but somehow, were not installed in the neighborhood."

Duke Energy’s billing change, which now shows the streetlight fee separately on your bill, helped Hoppenhauer catch the local utility’s error.

“This fall we changed the bill format to make it a little more transparent, a little easier for customers to understand the charges that they receive every month,” said Brooks.

It’s a change the North Carolina Utilities Commission Public Staff, which regulates utilities, supports.

“The old billing system that was in place was very old and it had great limitations,” said James McLawhorn, energy division director.

McLawhorn and the energy division have requested four pages of data from Duke Energy Progress.

“How long has the charge been applied to their bill, how long have they been paying it,” McLawhorn explained what they're looking into.

They also asked the power company if it “did an inventory of any street lights or poles on any street in the subdivision and if not why?”

DEP’s response provided to NC Utilities Commission public staff – “while it's unknown how they started billing the properties in question, since there are no lights installed, an inventory would not have been conducted.”

“If the investigation finds the utility was doing something wrong are there consequences?” asked News 13 reporters.

“The number one thing is correct the billing error, not just remove the charges going forward," McLawhorn said. "If a customer has been overcharged by the utility due to a misapplied rate schedule, which is the way I would interpret this one at least on the surface, then the utility has to refund the amount that the customer was overcharged and I believe it says up to the statute of limitations."

In North Carolina, according to the NC Utilities Commission Public Staff, the statue of limitations is three years. Duke Energy Progress is going further than that.

“We absolutely want to make it right," Brooks said. "This was our mistake."

Duke Energy is working to reimburse the neighborhood the full amount. Hoppenhauer's reimbursement is $78.48 a year; over 14 and a half years it adds up to over $1,100. Duke included 10% interest and paid Hoppenhauer and his wife over $1,300. For the 35 neighborhood customers, its around $16,000 all tolled.

The utility company believes this is an isolated situation for them. National headlines from California to Connecticut reveal it happens with other utility providers as well, from individuals to entire cities billed for non-existent lights.

News 13 asked Duke Energy’s representative -- How would you know if this has happened to others? You didn’t even know this situation happened until these neighbors brought it to Duke Energy.

“We work to inventory assets over time and make sure that what’s on our map is what’s in the field and there’s a comprehensive process going on to do that right now across the system to verify those things,” said Brooks. But again in this instant they hadn’t inventoried lights that existed on their own maps and at least somewhere in their system to charge residents.

McLawhorn said he encourages everyone to check their bill each month. Hoppenhauer agrees and urges residents to look up their street on the map and compare it to their bill.

“Always check your phone bill, your cable bill; the hidden charges on there would probably amaze you,” Hoppenhauer said.

Details are now clearly broken down on Duke Energy bills, including the basic customer fee, hourly usage, streetlights and taxes.

“I’m just glad that everyone can be made right," Hoppenhauer said. "My wife’s all calling me 'Mr. Man,' doing chest bumps with each other, like 'you da man, who’s da man, I’m the man.' But I’m just glad people are getting money that they rightfully deserve, plus 10% interest, which is fair enough."

More information about rate options

The North Carolina Public Utilities Commission points out customers also have rate options. You can reach out to Duke Energy’s customer service to see if you’re getting the best rate.

Duke Energy provides more information on rate options for its customers. You can find more information HERE and HERE. You can also call Duke Energy customer service at 800.452.2777. You can also find more customer assistance HERE.

If you find you've been overcharged for streetlights, News 13 wants to hear from you. Email [email protected] or you can email us if you have another matter you'd like us to investigate.

Pictured: Scottish Highland cattle on Montgomery Sky Farm in Leicester. The farm, which rescues and rehabilitates animals in need and also breeds the Scottish Highland cows, just opened to the public for private tours in fall 2020. (Photo courtesy of Montgomery Sky Farm)

LEICESTER, N.C. (WLOS) — In 2017, Fran and Taylor Montgomery happened upon a 100+ year old house and dairy farm in Leicester that needed a lot of love, sweat and tears to bring the property back to life.

And that's just what they did.

“Taylor was looking for a house after he sold his Weaverville home. He was out driving around looking for places one day and passed the farm,” Fran recalled. “He stopped in and talked to the owner of the farm, who happened to be there, and he put an offer on it immediately and we bought it.”

“It was almost like it was meant to be.”

Unique family farm shares love of "fluffy" cows, rehabilitated farm animals with public

It took three years of rehabilitating the farmland and what was considered by locals to be “the condemned house” – and building a new, bigger barn after the original barn burned down – but they were able to realize their dream of owning a farm.

"I've always been a city girl, but I've always wanted a farm. I love farm life, and it's always been a dream of mine to live in a rural area, so we discovered Leicester, fell and love and never looked back," Fran said.

After the original barn burned down, Fran said although that was heartbreaking, she and Taylor took it as an opportunity. They decided to build a bigger barn and, ultimately, decided to have their wedding there in October 2019.

“We were not going to open to the public; it was just going to be our special place,” she said.

Then came the unforeseen decision to open Montgomery Sky Farm to the public in the fall of 2020.

Opening during a pandemic

Opening during a year of a pandemic? It wasn’t in the plan originally, but the pandemic was exactly why the Montgomerys decided to do it.

“We had not intended to open to the public, but my neighbor’s kids started coming over during the pandemic when they needed to get outside, and they fell in love with it," Fran said. "The kids came to life, and then to watch the animals get socialized with children, to see the animals enjoy the children... it was a no-brainer. The first Sunday I opened up tours to the public, it sold out within 10 minutes.”

During a year when so many were shuttered in their homes, especially in the seasons of spring, summer and fall when WNC natives and tourists are accustomed to coming and going, Montgomery Sky Farm offered a safe outdoor activity that was not only refreshing for families but educational.

"We opened during COVID to allow families the opportunity to get them and their kids outdoors. They were private sessions, outdoors and social distanced, with us in masks," Fran said. "It makes for a great socially distanced and outdoor activity."

Not your typical farm

To date, 63 animals take up residence on the farm, and the couple also has a growing operation of produce. Much of the produce is grown for Urban Wren restaurant and winery in Greenville, S.C., where Taylor is the executive chef.

But the farm isn't just any typical farm.

"We're not the typical farmers," Taylor told News 13. "We're animal lovers."

The Montgomerys rescue and rehabilitate farm animals that need it, particularly species that are abandoned. Some even get dumped by people right in their driveway.

“We have chickens from slaughter homes, goats meant for slaughter -- one with a broken elbow that took three surgeries to correct -- horses we rescued from kill pens,” Fran said. “We get our greatest satisfaction from seeing those animals get to truly be ‘animals’ and come to life.”

This rehabilitation effort is at the heartbeat of their passion for animals. And the Montgomerys handle all day-to-day operations on their own, with no outside help.

"I was a vet tech for 15 years and have taken my passion to rehabilitating and taking in abandoned farm animals," Montgomery said. "We love giving them the best life possible and allowing the public to interact and love on them."

They also raise and breed Scottish Highland cattle – otherwise known as "fluffy" cows – through a nationwide effort to preserve the breed's integrity.

The Scottish Highland breed, which dates back to the sixth century in Scotland, is known for its friendly disposition and long, fluffy hair.

"We just felt, we love our place and get so much joy from the animals, we wanted to share it. Who doesn't want to hug a fluffy cow?" Montgomery said.

Montgomery Sky Farm’s 63 animals of all shapes and sizes include 10 registered Scottish Highland cattle, a haflinger horse, two miniature horses, four miniature Nigerian fainting goats, one Nubian goat who “thinks she is a dog,” 40 chickens and five dogs.

That includes several babies as well – a 6-month-old miniature horse, 3-month-old and 8-month-old cows and a 2-month-old Nubian goat, “Sprout,” who was abandoned at just 4 days old and much prefers the company of the farm dogs to the goats.

As of April 23, three of the cows were still pregnant but due to give birth any day.

“The first time a chicken, that was previously confined at a slaughter house, sees the outdoors and gets to scratch the earth; or getting to see a baby mini horse that was in a dog crate at a kill pen, get to run in a field,” Fran said. “You can see them exude their joy and gratitude so much so, that we get goosebumps every time. This is why we do what we do."

See the farm in person

The dairy farm, now 111 years old, was initially one of the founding dairies in Leicester.

It’s still a work in progress, as projects are ongoing to continue to renovate and beautify its natural beauty and functionality.

"We have had a huge response from the community, with our focal point being getting families to get outdoors safely during COVID and learn about farming," Montgomery said.

In addition to private farm visits, Montgomery Sky Farm also offers space for small, selective weddings, private events and birthday parties. Contact them at [email protected] for pricing information.

All of those offerings are just one more way they can keep the farm's mission going, with the focus on the rescue and rehabilitation of animals in need as well as breeding the Scottish Highlands.

“Our primary focus has always been to maintain a symbiotic relationship with our animals and the land, and we look forward to expanding our growing in 2021,” Fran said.

"At the end of the day, our mission stands, 'The sky is limitless.'"

Although the calendar fills up quickly when select dates for tours are opened up, the best way to schedule a private tour of the farm is by emailing [email protected] or messaging the farm’s Facebook page.

Want to give a donation to support the farm’s mission? Visit its Amazon Wishlist page HERE.

The farm also sells merchandise, which can be found HERE.

_________________________________________________________________

Their bandwagon has beer. Charlotte gets the swag and the bromance, but Leicester City’s true Carolina hearts actually rest two hours north and west of Bank of America Stadium, nestled in a mountain range.

If ever an official mid-south Foxes supporters group were to see the light of day, the odds are good it would probably spring from Asheville, North Carolina, dubbed “Beer City USA” four years in a row, a soccer-friendly burg of 83,000-plus that’s home to more than a dozen craft breweries. A burg where Chris Watts has been preaching the gospel of blue for more than 15 years now.

“It’s like a dream,” says Watts, a Leicestershire native who has called Asheville home since moving to the States almost two decades ago. “My brother’s a season-ticket holder and he gets to the games. I was over there in October, against Crystal Palace and Watford, and it was just unbelievable to see where we were. And you keep thinking, ‘Is this going to keep going?’ It’s a bit like a dream. At the same time, it’s brilliant.”

Pinch him, he giggles. And why the hell not? Watts has been a Carolina Panthers fan for more than 10 years and a Foxes fan for pretty much the last five decades, through thick, thin, and thinner. Some eight years earlier, he had shepherded a group of US friends back to Leicestershire for his 50th birthday and a series of matches in the Midlands, including a pair at the King Power, then the Walkers Stadium.

“Five minutes into the [match],” one of those friends, Tim Branson, recalls of his initial Foxes experience, “I saw four guys carrying out two.”

But he was hooked.

The second game, they got the skybox treatment. Watts landed a program signed by the team — which, as it turned out, would become the first Foxes side ever to be relegated from the Championship to the third tier of the English football pyramid.

“I’ve still got it,” Watts chuckles. “I’ve got a signed program, in a frame, of Leicester at their lowest.”

And look who’s laughing now.

The Panthers prepping for the biggest single event in North American sport, Super Bowl 50’s NFC gatecrashers. The Foxes are atop the most popular soccer league on the planet. First, they were cute. Then a curiosity. Then a fluke. Then a stubborn anamoly. They weren’t supposed to here, either of them.

The parallels are valid and real enough: they’d finished their previous seasons on an unexpected, almost desperate hot streak. They’d been dismissed by the experts, were under-appreciated outside their own province, middling brand names turning in gold-caliber performances, week after week, month upon month. Leicester City looked at the Carolina Panthers, 3,924 miles and an ocean away, and saw — well, themselves.

“The beginning of the year, [Leicester City] didn’t have great expectations … and kind of the same goes for us,” says Panthers kicker Graham Gano, one of four Carolina players to receive customized Leicester City shirts from the surprise Premier League leaders last month. “They’ve done really well this year, and so have we. So they kind of thought their season was similar to ours and they pulled for us and that’s how we got the jerseys.”

Before their NFC Divisional Round test against Seattle on 17 January, Panthers players turned up at work to find that the Foxes had sent over customized blue shirts for quarterback Cam Newton, cornerback Josh Norman, linebacker Luke Kuechly and Gano.

“Carolina have had an incredible season,” the Leicester left-back Christian Fuchs told the team’s official website. “Like us, they ended last season really well and again, like us, some people didn’t expect them to do what they’ve done this season, even after the great start they had.”

Before long, they shared a narrative and a hashtag: #KeepPounding. The Panthers returned the favor, and Leicester shared pictures and videos on social media of striker Jamie Vardy, centre-back Wes Morgan, Fuchs and goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel decked out in Carolina black, tossing and kicking an NFL football around.

“They were natural at it,” Gano says. “It would be interesting to see them kicking field goals and what it would look like. Obviously, their form looks good, but I never saw the ball going through the uprights. It’s a little different swing than [it takes] to keep the ball under the posts. But I’d love to have an opportunity sometime to have a kick around with some of the pros over [there], and compare how I match up with those guys.”