CHERRY VALLEY — Head hanging low, Spirit the horse looked at the open door of a horse trailer with hope and sadness.

“She wanted to get on the trailer, but she was so weak and emaciated she couldn’t lift her back legs to get on,” Ashtabula County Humane Society agent Nancy Frasier said.

Surrendered two weeks ago from a farm on Loveland Road, the same neighborhood where the agents rescued 12 horses last year, 5-year-old Spirit spent her last days in relative comfort.

“She was fragile, but she was fighting,” Frasier said.

Spirit’s story doesn’t have a happy ending: She died while in foster care, her body too far neglected and dehydrated, Frasier said.

“She just collapsed. I called the vet, and they gave her less than a 50 percent chance for survival, and I knew she was in a lot of pain,” Frasier said. “We had to put her down.”

Spirit is the second horse to die from neglect in Ashtabula County this year, part of the third equine neglect case so far in 2008, Frasier said.

The ownership of Spirit and seven miniature horses was negotiated with the horses’ owner. The humane agents agree to keep the horse owners out of the court and will not release their names to the newspapers — if the animals are surrendered. While these deals are a way for those accused of neglecting animal to avoid criminal charges, they are often the only way humane agents can quickly and peacefully take ownership of animals in need of critical care, Frasier said.

“I know it is frustrating, and people get very upset when they hear we ‘cut a deal’ with these people,” Frasier said. “But we are not the ones pressing charges. We are not the ones who take abusers to court. Charges are so completely out of our hands, so we use press attention and public scrutiny to gain access to the animals that need us.”

Winter is the humane society’s busiest time for livestock cases, as the agents respond to reports of thin and dehydrated horses and cows that often have little food, water or shelter, Frasier said.

“In the most brutal cold and wind, we find horses standing outside with frozen water buckets. We find clear cases of neglect all through the winter, and people get away with it,” Frasier said. “These deals still let people get away with it, but not at the expense of the animals. At least we do all we can for the animals.”

Though the Humane Society adopted out 12 horses recently, they are still guardians of 12 others, including four Loveland Road horses seized last year and one miniature horse saved in January, Frasier said. For more information on adopting a horse from the Humane Society, call (440) 969-6100.