WESTERLO — Tanja Morse, a 64-year-old woman charged by the Albany Sheriff’s Office with neglecting over 100 animals, appeared in Westerlo Town Court Wednesday. Morse will plead not guilty.

Morse appeared before Judge Kenneth Mackey a little before 7 p.m. A lawyer representing her, Nicholas J. Evanovich III of the firm LaMarche Safranko Law PLLC, said that Morse is be pleading not guilty and would dispute all allegations.

Evanovich noted that, while the firm has not yet needed to gather evidence to dispute the charges, many of Morse’s animals have stayed in her possession, and that the firm would prove that these animals are in good conditions in her care.

Morse is scheduled to appear again in Westerlo Justice Court on Sept. 13.

She was charged on July 13 with three counts of failure to provide sustenance, a misdemeanor, in violation of New York State Agriculture and Markets Law, after an anonymous tip was sent to the Sheriff’s office on July 12. The sheriff’s office executed a search warrant of her home and property and found 56 dogs, 27 chickens, 16 horses, one llama, and 27 goats, which the sheriff’s office described as living in “deplorable conditions.”

Morse voluntarily turned over 16 of her dogs to the Mohawk Hudson Humane Society and seven horses, her goats, and her llama to the sheriff’s office. The rest of her animals remained at her home, but were seized in place by the sheriff’s office.

A police report of the incident states that on July 12 sheriff’s Deputy Nathaniel Bray and a state trooper estimated several of Morse’s horses to be between a 1 and a 3 on the Henneke Horse Body Conditioning Scoring System. The scoring system uses both appearance and feel of a horse’s body fat to determine its condition, 1 being the lowest body weight, 9 being the highest, and 5 being a moderate or an ideal weight.

Morse believes that a neighbor, upset that her aging mare had wandered onto his property, had called the sheriff’s office. She told The Enterprise in July that only the 33-year-old mare, which she said had had trouble putting on weight, and a goat with an injured foot were the only animals that were ill. She said she has bred goats for 15 years, and has bred dogs for 40, and that her dogs normally move about the house of their own accord but were put in their crates when authorities arrived.

Morse and those accompanying her to court declined to speak to The Enterprise on Wednesday.

The law firm LaMarche Safranko Law PLLC is also representing Linda Mellin, a 45-year-old Berne woman whose rescue farm was shut down in May after over 50 animals were seized, and she was arrested and charged with eight counts of failure to provide sustenance, all misdemeanors, by the sheriff’s office.

At Mellin’s appearance in Berne Town Court in June, both Evanovich and Andrew R. Safranko of the law firm told The Enterprise that they would argue that Mellin also never abused her animals, referencing accounts from veterinarians who visited the animals after she was charged that prove this, they said. The two attorneys also mentioned that her muddy animals may have been mistaken for neglected ones when an anonymous tip was sent to News Channel 13, which had alerted the sheriff’s office.

Ruth Davis, of East Durham, arrived shortly after Morse’s appearance on Wednesday. A close friend’s of Morse, Davis said she was there for support. She also said she believed Morse was “absolutely not guilty.”

“We’ve known her since we moved up here,” said Davis, adding that Morse would work “dawn to dusk” to care for her dogs.

“They’re crucifying her,” said Davis, of Morse’s charges. “She’s always very good to her animals.”