CANTON — Two Tennessee walking horses — Charm and Master Charm — were rescued this week from a shuttered Canton gaming parlor after passersby saw the barnyard creatures banging their heads against the front windows as if trying to escape, The Canton Repository reported.
Police told the newspaper they found the owner of the defunct Skills Games passed out, wearing a cowboy hat, in a back room of the Tuscarawas Street West business near a busy WalMart and Rite Aid .
Why the horses were in the former gaming parlor is not clear.
But someone who helped the owner lead the animals into the building about a week ago alerted police, saying the horses — one white and one chestnut — had no food or water for about a week.
The Stark County Humane Society took the horses Wednesday evening to an undisclosed farm where a veterinarian was called to examine them. Their condition was not known, the newspaper reported.
During the horse rescue, Canton police called medics to rescue the owner “due to his level of intoxication.”
The man, who the newspaper did not identify, refused treatment and was cited with two misdemeanor animal cruelty charges.