Ann Sullivan, 52, of Bloomfield, says she has gotten phone calls, questions to her family and a drop in her hay business ever since it was reported that another woman from rural San Juan County had been charged with animal abuse, the Farmington Daily Times reported.

Anne E. Sullivan, 53, of La Plata, was arrested about two weeks ago on charges of animal cruelty, accused of leaving her livestock with no water and little food for more than a month, killing three llamas, the Daily Times said.

"The way I was raised, the animals eat first," Ann Sullivan told the Daily Times. "You feed the animals first, and then you fix breakfast for the kids."

Ann Sullivan, who is raising about 55 registered quarter horses on about 500 acres of land south of Bloomfield, said she was appalled when she learned someone would let an animal starve to death, the Daily Times said.

"If they couldn't feed the animals, there are groups you can call," she said.

The Sullivans, who are not related, both lived in the Bloomfield area in the 1990s, went to the same doctor and sometimes got their medical records switched and their mail mixed up, Ann Sullivan told the Daily Times.

"At first I thought it was sort of funny. I thought it would blow over," said Ann Sullivan of the time she first saw the headlines about Anne Sullivan.

Then she got about 20 calls from people asking if she were the woman who had been arrested, the paper said.

People asked her husband, who is president of the San Juan County Agricultural Water Users Association, about it, and her children, including those who live in Colorado and Idaho, were queried as the news got out, according to the Daily Times.

"It has been a nightmare, an unforeseen nightmare," Ann Sullivan told the paper. "It has just been unbelievable."

Meanwhile, Anne Sullivan has been charged with felony animal cruelty after allegedly leaving four horses, six llamas and six dogs without enough food and water, according to earlier reports. 

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